Hey everyone, this is my first time posting in the Super Duty section. I own a 06 F150, but I drive an F350 Superduty Ambulance.

I was wondering if anyone has any information then could give me on putting airbags on a F350, that can be raised and lowered when needed. The problem is we just took delivery of our two new F350 ambulances and the lift to get the stretcher in the back is about 8 inches higher then that of an E350.

My partner and myself have suggested to our employer to but an airbag suppension in the rear that would allow us to lower the back end to load the patient and then raise it up again to drive.

Does anyone know if this is possible or have any information?

 

Greetings fellow medic,

Yes it is certainly possible, but with anything there are goods and bads to this. At my old job we had air ride (air bag) suspension that would raise and lower the height of the unit to account for stretcher loading and unloading. The air bags do help the rise, however they are very prone to failure for a number of reasons. A few examples are; ruptured bags, air leaks, air pump failure, etc..

I would not know where to start aftermarket wise, but your best bet would be to contact the manufacturer that made the units. The units I was familair with were built by Horton in Columbus, Ohio. I hope this gives you a place to start. I would research thoroughly customer accounts of the product, warranty information and the availability of local shops to service this as you dont want a medic unit out of service for too long.

I hope this helps!

Stay safe out there!

 

Thanks for the help, our rigs are made by Crestline Coach in Canada but they do not offer an air ride suspension. I notice there are a few manufactors in the USA that offer it as an option, maybe I will toss out a few emails to them and see if they can be of any help.

They are a beautifull ambulance to work with, just the lift into the back in way to high.

 

Glad I could help. Before you call another ambulance manufacturer, like Horton that I had mentioned I would try and find a suspension shop that would be able to install an aftermarket set-up. I think that route would be just as reliable and cheaper than going to another ambulance manufacturer. Also, I would see if you could seek some reimbursement from Crestline regarding this issue. If they built the truck and the stretcher doesnt go inot it, WTF? Unless of course they strictly adhered to your specs and the issue was out of their hands. Anyways, best of luck with your units!

 

I love those...

I'll go outside and I'll stick my hand in a snowblower, just so I can go to the ER in one of those beauties... Promise you'll be here in like 10 minutes? Just kidding... obviously...


I notice that the rear is kind of high... Airbags would surely fix your problem. I know that http://www.airliftcompany.com/super_duty.html makes good ones. I am comtemplating putting them on my F150 because of the loads I tend to haul around.

 

Really cool! It's people like yourself that keep the world patched up!! - God Bless!

 

Thanks for the help and the compliments guys!

pgh_medic, thats what we cant understand, Crestline Coach build these to their specs, but yet the stretchers still dont lift up high enough to be loaded in correctly. We use the Ferno 35-A in these vehicles and if they are parked on the slightest incline we have to lift the back end of the stretcher into the ambulance, putting the stretcher on a slant. Not a big deal, but the the stretcher is sitting on the front two wheels and if the Patient moves the stretcher will move as well.

Our services deals exclusively with Crestline Coach, but the rest of our vehicles are the E350s. They are beautifull vehicles to work in, couldnt be happier. So I cant figure out why the would use the F350, knowing the chasis is that much higher and not modify either the vehicle or just the patient compartment to make loading easier.

After the Holidays I'll hit the shops and see if anyone can help us out.
You can see in the picture the difference between the two types of vehicles, the first two are the F350s and the one in the distances is the E350. Sorry about the pic, I only had my cell with me at work.

 

Hey Coby,

Kinda funny, we had a very similar issue with the ambulance service I worked for prior to moving south. We had E-350's with an air-ride suspension. They didnt lower the truck, only assisted in supporting the factory suspension, boy did they ride smooth as silk! Dont know if you have ever been to Pittsburgh, but the roads there are horrible! Anyways, we were going through brakes and ball joints like crazy because the units were just overloaded. This was the fault of our employer as they saw fit to load every single piece of equipment possible on the darn things, nice to be prepared, but we were killing these trucks. So, we upgraded...unfortunately to the "dark side" of Chevy. We purchased their medium duty chassis, wow was that a mistake. Sure we didnt go through brakes or ball joints, but we did go through fentanyl like crazy to medicate these poor folks with hip fractures after we bounced the hell out of them in the back of the truck! (kidding of course) Now, these trucks were significantly higher than the E-350's and did have an airbag lowering system, however if it failed we were able to lift the stretcher into the back and "hook" it onto the stretcher catch hook. Which brings me to another point, if you dont have the catch's installed for the Ferno's and the stretcher are hard to get in, I certainly would install them!

Anyways, I hope you can get your issue solved! I like your units, they are very sharp! I dig the candy cane striping on the back we do the same to our units, here are a few pics of what I was talking about past and present: