Ambulance Remount Process
- Thread starter VolEms
- Start date
FireEMSPolice
Member
JohnMarcson
Administrator
FireEMSPolice said:
There is a narrow window where remounting a truck is a great idea. It depends heavily on the way the box was made and what chassis you have. If you have a high end modular box and it was on a ford 6.0 and the engine blew up, the EGR keeps leaking, or the turbo blows every year.... but the box is immaculate... you can save tens thousands over the cost of a new truck. If the truck was a stock off the line throw away to begin with, you won't save much money and the process may not even be possible. The other thing you see is dealers that take ambulances in on trade and refurbish or remount them then resell them. Sometimes it can make sense for a dealer to get a cheap ambulance in trade or at auction and remount it for the sole purpose of reselling it. I recommend contrasting the option with new vehicle purchase. If you have a ford 7.3 or a good pre emissions medium duty, the chassis may be worth more than the box right now. in that case you are better off selling the whole truck as a unit used and buying a new truck. Right now is an interesting time to build an ambulance. There simply aren't many good options out there for a full sized modular ambulance. Some people are snatching up pre emissions trucks with low miles used and refurbishing them as a whole instead of remounting them.
Remounting is one option that should be compared, contrasted and considered..... it's a great idea sometimes.
Years ago I was a member of a busy VAC in northern Westchester County, NY, and we had two Swab type I ambulances. Both had been remounted at least once (I'm pretty sure they were remounted a number of times). Yet another VAC I was a member of in the Rochester, NY area had two type III units, and they never remounted...they always traded them in (for not much $) and got new.