How do you like that Transit?

T town

Active member
This is interesting as I have a Transit with ambulance pkg on order but I’m going to make a camper van out of it.
You might go to Ford Transit USA Forum and ask your question there.
I’m sorry I cannot give you the information you requested but I’m waiting on my van to be delivered.
Ford is deep into the chip shortage over there.
Will this be a 2022? It might be a minor miracle to get a 2021 if you ordered it recently. I ordered mine in January but I hear they treat fleet customers better.
Oh I see rereading that they are 2021s.
 

HKs00

Well-known member
And the gas engine Sprinters are not available as ambulance spec?
No not at this time. We have been looking into this for the last couple of years. That would have been ideal for us as we would have just switched to the Gas option.

I think the Transits have come a long way but for the size of the van it just feels small in the front cab compared to the sprinter. We like the overall build of the sprinter compare to the transit as well. All of the basic maintenance on the the sprinter is straightforward with minimal interference from other components.

At this point about 70% of ambulance vehicles in the US are built on Ford platforms, and we were trying to hold on for as long as we could. We switched from the E class in 2007 to the dodge sprinters and never looked back until now. The amount of regulations being added to the EMS world and all of the hoop jumping with Mercedes lately is making it extremely difficult to keep the sprinter as a ambulance platform in the US. It's unfortunate but small diesel engine days seem to be limited in the domestic market and it's unfortunate but that's where everything is going.

As much as we didn't want to make this change or deal with it, at this point this seems as the best option for the business. Who knows in a couple of years we may find out that we made a mistake due to some other issues that comes up, but at this point we are somewhat forced into this.
 

HKs00

Well-known member
This is interesting as I have a Transit with ambulance pkg on order but I’m going to make a camper van out of it.
You might go to Ford Transit USA Forum and ask your question there.
I’m sorry I cannot give you the information you requested but I’m waiting on my van to be delivered.
Ford is deep into the chip shortage over there.
Will this be a 2022? It might be a minor miracle to get a 2021 if you ordered it recently. I ordered mine in January but I hear they treat fleet customers better.
Oh I see rereading that they are 2021s.
The supply shortage has been killing us on both sides. We were not able to order 2020 and 2021 Sprinters due to covid and the Emissions ordeal so we decided to try a couple of transits... So the whole chip shortage happened now we are about two and a half years backed up on new truck deliveries. They keep telling us that we have preference, but it’s not much help when every other ambulance company is trying to buy the limited supplies as well. We don't order directly from the dealer, we go through our builder, and the transit initial delivery date has been pushed from March of this year to the end of August. I am not holding my breath as the delivery date just keeps getting pushed back more and more. I wouldn't be surprised if our 2021s get rebadged as 2022s.
 

danski0224

Active member
An ambulance built on a 350 or 3500 GVW platform must be close to maxing it out. Why not go to a bigger truck? CDL requirements?
 

T town

Active member
The supply shortage has been killing us on both sides. We were not able to order 2020 and 2021 Sprinters due to covid and the Emissions ordeal so we decided to try a couple of transits... So the whole chip shortage happened now we are about two and a half years backed up on new truck deliveries. They keep telling us that we have preference, but it’s not much help when every other ambulance company is trying to buy the limited supplies as well. We don't order directly from the dealer, we go through our builder, and the transit initial delivery date has been pushed from March of this year to the end of August. I am not holding my breath as the delivery date just keeps getting pushed back more and more. I wouldn't be surprised if our 2021s get rebadged as 2022s.
My delivery slipped from early April to late April then to June 2 and then to July 7 and now it’s N/A whatever that is.
Many folks are waiting similar times. I too have a tall van but mine is also extended with many other electronic enhancements.
I wish you the very best and hope you get your vehicles soon.
 

glasseye

Well-known member
My delivery slipped from early April to late April then to June 2 and then to July 7 and now it’s N/A whatever that is.
Many folks are waiting similar times. I too have a tall van but mine is also extended with many other electronic enhancements.
I wish you the very best and hope you get your vehicles soon.
Gawd. A story even worse than edit system GPUs and crypto-miners.
 

HKs00

Well-known member
An ambulance built on a 350 or 3500 GVW platform must be close to maxing it out. Why not go to a bigger truck? CDL requirements?
The build on the sprinter is right around 8200 pounds I believe, so it barely leaves room for two crew members and two patients with all of the additional equipment they have to carry. For the most part I believe the sprinters are maxed out all the time. The transit I guess is supposed to be a bit better with the maximum gvw of 9200. I could have my numbers mixed up but I think those were the numbers last time I checked. The issue with bigger trucks is how quickly the price goes up between a sprinter/ tranis to a modular box truck Ambulance. A starting price for a bigger truck is roughly 300k and the fact that you own that equipment dosen't mean u get to charge more for call you still have a set rate that you get per call. If you attach the word medical after any product you can bet that you would be paying 3 to 100 times more than what that product is really worth.

Gawd. A story even worse than edit system GPUs and crypto-miners.
Tell me about it. The only thing is we are not as profitable as some of the mining rigs. People have this notion that Ambulance companies make endless amounts of money by the bills that the patients receive but you would be surprised how little trickles down to the company and how many free calls we end up doing due to no insurance, missing information, and people not being able to afford hospital stays to begin with. I am fortunate to work for a privately owned company well 50% of it is anyways and they really do go out of their way to help people and the community. I am not just saying that because I work there but in general from seeing what goes on at other places.
 

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