Im looking at selling off a few of my things to get enough money to purchase a Medium Duty Ambulance for taking extended trips from home with my mom who is not walking very well anymore, the thing that has attracted me to these types of trucks are some of them can "kneel" or get close to the ground in the back and easier to get into, obviously the inside would have to be modified and I'm thinking about doing it up like a little camper so you can rest in it when need be etc... I know the type of truck is the Freightliner FL-60 as most of them have a pass through type cab, the one thing I am not certain of is the engines they come with. Some come with the Cummins Turbo 24V engine, I've heard mixed reviews on them, my current Cummins is a 12V.. The other engine is a Catapillar engine... I dont know much about the catapillar engine too much... Which would you choose?

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hum.....
1987 300TD 311,000M Stolen. Presumed destroyed

The Cummins engine is great, I don't know that I'd go with the Cat though. Their smaller engines were made by other companies for the most part, and now they don't even make OTR engines at all.

Which Cat engine? If it's an older or rehabbed 3208, it will outlive your kids, although that might be larger than you will find in an ambulance.

I have to see how large the FL-60 chassis is to say for sure.

Can't speak to the newer ones.

Who is making the smaller Cat engines, BTW?

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Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

the cat will have the heui injectors,ford 7.3 powerstrokes use the same type of inj,they use oil pressure to function.when they go they are very expensive.i have a 97 fl-60 i use to pull my 5th wheel.it has a 5.9 cummins 12 valve with an allison automatic and hyd 4 wheel disc brakes.the 24v went to the electronic pump and love to eat lift pumps which in turn eat inj pumps.seems that most fl-60's came with cummins,either the 5.9 or 8.3.the fl-70's seem to use mostly cats,but they also use air brakes.i love cats but in these trucks you can't go wrong with the cummins.

CAT made a lot of truck engines. Many are equal or better than the Cummins. Ford and Chevy both used the CAT 3208 which was built in a wide variety of different HP's. There are a number of threads on converted ambulances over on www.expeditionportal.com.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

the ones listed are a 3126b Catapillar...

__________________
hum.....
1987 300TD 311,000M Stolen. Presumed destroyed

What about a larger Mercedes diesel? Every once in a while I see one on sale?

__________________
Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

unfortunately I am not knowledgeable enough to do that type of swap... I'd prefer to keep it stock really.. and you'd never find one in a Ambulance like the one I'm looking for`

__________________
hum.....
1987 300TD 311,000M Stolen. Presumed destroyed

i have yet to see an fl-60 with anything but a 6 cyl cat or cummins.until about 2000 then they went to mercedes.

have you by chance consided a shuttle bus?like airports ,church's etc use.they set lower have lots of windows to see the scenery,and if you need it you can find them with wheelchair lifts.they will also ride better and probably get a little better milage.

the guy up the street has a ford van with H C door and slide out and it has the diesel as well

the van before this one was 4X4 gas motor he said he really liked that one

I have owned a 94 E350 and a 04 E450. Shuttles are nice in concept but they are very difficult to modify because of how they are built, there's not a lot to anchor to esp if you have a ton of Windows, thats why I settled on the medium duty ambulance.

__________________
hum.....
1987 300TD 311,000M Stolen. Presumed destroyed