Type III vs. med. duty Ambulance chassis?

[vonirkinshtine]

So...I have a project that I need an old ambulance for. Right now I'm trying to decide what would be a more hassle-free chassis; Type III (Ford E-series), or medium-duty? For what I'm trying to do it won't be driven much, but needs to be able to easily be kept road worthy.

I imagine parts for an E-series are the easiest to come by, but does that make it a better project?

Help me pro/con this.

 

[JohnMarcson]

Ford e series, but only in 7.3L diesel. The 6.0 is problematic. Medium duty a freighter (pre DEF) is the pretty reliable, but you'll need to keep the air system primed.

 

[801]

Run from the 6. oh no. The only time I've had an ambulance leave me stranded on the side of the road with a patient in the back, not once but twice. 7.3 motor, still running in our Type 6 brush engine, 150K on the clock and still runs great.

 

[Chris W]

F450...

 

[vonirkinshtine]

Hm, well between your praises for the 7.3, and the overland RV community's I think I have a direction for my scavenger hunt! Just need to keep an eye out for a Ford 7.3 cutaway with a 14' box.

Also, can anybody give me any idea how big the inverters usually are? I don't know why, but 1200W keeps coming to mind.

 

[Dave-O]

Smallest I've seen in an ambulance is 1000W (Yikes, the power supply in my computer is 1000W). Largest I've seen is 2800W. Be careful when buying though, many places remove the inverter with other working parts when they decommission the vehicle.