LRCC

HI All,

I purchased "Mummy Pig" in 2010 and went to work sorting out the chassis and bulkhead just to get through the MOT which she did with suprising ease considering she had sat for at least 10 years prior to sale apparently! I purchased her from Pa Blanchards. I drove her like this with the original engine which ran beautifully but only managed about 13mpg with a top speed of 50mph (ish). Being overtaken by lorries on the moterway and hoping we would get to the top of a steep hills made my mind up and I went for the 200TDI conversion.
I also had a little problem of forgetting to take the handbrake off fully nearly resulting in burning the whole thing to the ground! oops, fortunately it was snowing at the time, so pleanty of coolant on hand....

Now I would have loved to do the convesion myself but due to my limited experience for such a big job and lack of time I had a superb chap do the conversion for me and what a top job he did! she now does about 24mpg and cruses at 65 which is pretty good considering her weight! I also had in mind when deciding to have this job done for me the safty of me having a go over the professional job as I would be dragging my young children with me on camping trips.
Job done! more to follow

Fantastic

It's great to see another ambulance camper on here - we're a bit overrun with Carawagons (not my fault guv! ) and Dormobiles so it's good to see some home brew stuff as well

Looking forward to seeing some inside pics as well.

Cheers,
Robin.

When you upgraded to the 200TDI, did you change anything in the transmision or did you stay with the original gearbox/transfer case/rear axle?

Ian

HI Ian,

I have uprated the diffs to 3.54 from a range rover but everything else is standard. I would probably add a 5 speed box one day rather than an overdrive but to be honest I don't really think it needs one, I just have to careful not to go crazy and rev the nuts out of her..

Regards,
Mark

I don't suppose you still have the old engine that came out of it.......?

Alec.

HI Alec,

Sorry but that particular engine is currently whizzing around the country lanes in an 88".

regards Mark

It is a strange thing, I have a friend with an Ambi and they can get up to 24mpg with the original engine???

DanC wrote:It is a strange thing, I have a friend with an Ambi and they can get up to 24mpg with the original engine???

Yup, 23mpg taking it easy, 19mpg giving it welly. 7:1 CR, amazing! I have been quite anal about keeping the engine in good fettle though......

Alec.

24mpg from the original engine is amazing considering how heavy these ambulances are.

My reason for the change was to allow me to use the motorway system without flogging the engine to bits just to get to 50mph. As said these are pretty heavy then add the kids and camping gear, the old engine just was not up to the job for me.
Having said that it was wonderfully quiet (compared to the tractor engine I have now) and smooth, if I was not humping so much stuff about when we go away I would have stuck with it.

Mark

Hi Mark

I've got a 2a, marshall ambulance has well, I'm running it with a 300tdi, range rover diffs and overdrive, it fly's..
We came back from the spring land rover shoe in harrogate and it cruised down the motorway at 65 according to tomtom.
We got a few funny looks, thats with 2 kids and 2 dogs..

kind regards
mark