I still have a sense of discretion, although someone did point out, my last visit to Doni had me hurtling across the grass at Craners, so maybe some chequeridge into Derby A&E gets me to the front of the queue
A friend of mine who is sadly no longer with us used to manage a huge fleet of Ambulances in respect of Maintenance, MOTs etc, then in semi-retirement became a Patient Transport Ambulance driver, and also delivered relief Ambulances all over the country for a private contractor. I had a conversation with him probably 10 years ago about him helping me source a decommissioned Ambulance with the external style gurney lift still on the back. My plan was obviously to turn it into a Motorhome, and use the lift to load a bike in the back. He made lots of points that made me think. The big Hydraulic lifts you see hanging externally off the back of some Ambulances like a ships Gangplank are hugely heavy as they are built to carry serious weights. They are a lot of weight high up, and are very noticeable with regard to roll and bouncing when you drive an Ambulance fitted with one. The lifts themselves are on the other hand reliable, and incredibly well suited to lifting motorcycles in and out the back. He said the Ambulance to find is one that has spent it’s life on a military or Civil ‘base’ of some kind, like an airport. In private hands they are far better maintained and lead an easier life. A lot of them are also 4x4, which is a no compromise requirement for Lady Nasher and myself. Unfortunately the private Ambulance companies that supply relief and additional support to the NHS on contract have deals with all the major sources before anyone else gets the chance to buy them. But they do then sell them on after a few years. He said never to buy an Ex-NHS Ambulance. They are run into the ground, the trusts are very reluctant to release them for maintenance so they go well over service milage recommendations without even an Oil change, and they are simply not looked after. Plus any maintenance records supplied with them are sketchy and not necessarily accurate. They spend hardly any time on motorways etc, so the milage they’ve done is hard work on them. Many are run 24/7 without ever cooling down, which is a good thing, but the crews don’t care about them, they just try to get to the end of their shift without breaking down and leave reporting a fault to the next crew. No disrespect meant there, it’s human nature from busy people who just want to do their job. Again Private company Ambulances are a better bet as there are far stricter requirements on the company to supply reliable road legal vehicles. .
Workshop manual at the ready……. They’re called a Daily for a reason….. Keep the Battenberg on, the seas will part in front of you.
The keeping them running contradicts what I was told after I asked a Mercedes fitter why so many ambulances in for engine swoops. He stated they’re thrashed from cold when they’re sat.
I expect that can happen. But the problem is the many different ways they are used, not many are very well looked after, and a lack of reliable history. I bet every one is used slightly differently, particularly depending on where they are in service. I can’t see how many can sit around unused cooling down for very long though. It’s not as if every crew has their own vehicle that is not used whilst they are not on shift, they are hot-seated by crew after crew, day after day. Also I’m sure there are not crews sat around waiting for an emergency call to come through that jump in a cold vehicle and rush off. Nobody would be waiting for an Ambulance if that was the case. It’s more likely an Ambulance needs a new engine because the old one went twice the distance it should have done between every Oil change. I think we can agree it would be a real lottery buying one.
Right. I’ve got it hitched up and all worked fine on a 10 mile test drive (unladen), but I can’t work out what that square section handle which is attached to the bottle jack by a chain is for.
Mine is 2010 with 15k miles and 800 engine hours. The tyres were replaced every three years. The underneath is waxoiled. All the rubbers are fresh and the only maintenance item so far is two new leisure batteries.
Picked her up today and straight into work. The lift picked up the bike and two humans with ease and great stability. Bike was diagonal, but a little shuffling and in she went. Those “Unwin” rails are bloody magic for tying down, no choc bolted to the floor needed.
Hmmm…. The only place I can see the said square section going is into the upright section of the front wheel chock… but why chained to the jack?
Nets4you Nets for use within the cab of the van, or to act as load control, partition, or storage nets at the back
Nets to act as load control, partition and storage nets on the line of rings to the right of the bike, high up.
The only other place it could fit is marked on the photo, but again, it doesn’t explain why it’s chained to the jack. The square handle isn’t even the lever for pumping the jack. It doesn’t seem to serve any purpose whatsoever.
Z The rubber handle looks like it will fit in the tube on top of the Jack. Could it be that the part has been used to hold the jack down/in place somehow whilst it's being transported? It's certainly the sort of mad contraption or solution I'd come up with.
