Bullnose F350 former ambulance

[Kdoodah]

Greetings from Western North Carolina! New owner of a bullnose ‘86 F350 gutted ambulance that the wife and I hope to renovate into a cool off grid camper! Should be challenging, therefore I am sure you will be seeing me post with questions in the future. Thanks y’all!20231014_112211.jpg

[ArdWrknTrk]

Greetings and salutations!  
Thanks for joining.



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Looks like a cool rig.  
As an Ambulance you're going to have a few unusual options in your truck.

[Gary Lewis]

Welcome!  Glad you joined.  

That's going to make a cool camper!

And Jim is right, you should have all sorts of unusual things.  Like a bigger alternator - or two.  Aux battery.  All kinds of relays and controls.  Etc.

Would you like to be on our map?  You can see it at Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu, and all we need is a city or zip.

[Kdoodah]

Yeah, add me to the map please. Canton, NC

[grumpin]

Welcome!

[Gary Lewis]

You are now on the map.  

[Kdoodah]

Thanks for the welcome! Truck is a heavy beast dually with a 460 motor, space for two batteries though one installed, and 4 wheel drive. It was in Alaska so it has rust underneath though body is surprisingly pretty OK. Gas tank only holds around 16 gallons, I thought that was odd. It’s quiet riding, very well insulated box. No outside storage, narrow pass thru to the box from cab. Barn type doors in back, and not enough height for my 5’ 10” frame to stand straight up. Seems to me it’s geared pretty low but when under it I didn’t find any tags on rear diff to indicate anything.

[ArdWrknTrk]

I was commenting to Gary that we seem to be getting a lot of members from North Carolina.
Dave Grant (FuzzFace2) enjoys bringing his custom Flareside around to shows and meets around where he lives.

That cutaway truck sure has seen a lot of this country!
Dually 350 and 4x4 is a rare combination. Perhaps a special build for the ambulance upfitter, or a Quigley type deal.
Do you know the wheelbase?

Have the two of you got any solid direction you're going with it?
Id think one of the first things to address is lack of range if you're going off-grid camping.

[Kdoodah]

Wheelbase is 140 inches roughly.

As far as what direction we want to go we got a couple definite needs. Sleep in it, make coffee and warm up food like something a hot plate can handle, cooler type fridge on a slide-out. Maybe a small tv and music.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Then I'm going to say it started life as a cab & chassis (34" frame width)
F350 dually pickups didn't come 4wd.

Sounds like a fun project the two of you can share the results of.  

[Shorty]

Welcome!
Awesome beast you’ve got there. Can’t wait to see it fully kitted out.
You came to the right forum.

[FuzzFace2]

Welcome to the forum
I am 30 min east of Raleigh.

It sounds like a pretty cool project and will be following.
Dave ----

[Kdoodah]

The rear seal is leaking slowly. Wife wants to get mechanical stuff outta the way, so the seal and a squeaky belt at first startup are all I have found so far.

Any thoughts on rear seal repair costs? Gotta drop the tranny, which can’t be a low labor job.