I recently purchased a 1980 U1300L with the bulky, heavy ambulance box. For livability and better power to weight ratio I plan to replace the ambulance box with a svelte, lower profile fiberglass camper box.
The ambulance box is mounted to the frame via a tubular steel "spine"(also very heavy), with tentacle-like "arms" of u-shaped steel support extending from the "spine" under the ambulance box floor, welded, where they terminate, at the underside edges of box. This "spine" appears to be bolted to the rear section of the frame at four points.
For those who have experience removing and/or replacing this type of ambulance/radio box mounting system, my question is: considering I need a platform for the fiberglass camper I plan to install, which will be demounted from its trailer frame, should I remove the ambulance box, leaving the "spine" and "arms" as a platform for the camper, or should I remove the whole ambulance box mounting system down to the frame, and mount the camper, utilizing the four mounting points where the "spine" was mounted?
The ambulance box mounting system works well with the heavy ambulance box, especially with all the twisting and flexing in off-road situations, but seems unnecessary over engineering (and weight) for a lightweight fiberglass camper shell. This question has also probably been addressed by those who have done this conversion to a flatbed or rock crawler. Perhaps a lighter weight aluminum subframe would suffice to provide a strong, yet flexible, base for the fiberglass pod. Thoughts?
The ambulance box is mounted to the frame via a tubular steel "spine"(also very heavy), with tentacle-like "arms" of u-shaped steel support extending from the "spine" under the ambulance box floor, welded, where they terminate, at the underside edges of box. This "spine" appears to be bolted to the rear section of the frame at four points.
For those who have experience removing and/or replacing this type of ambulance/radio box mounting system, my question is: considering I need a platform for the fiberglass camper I plan to install, which will be demounted from its trailer frame, should I remove the ambulance box, leaving the "spine" and "arms" as a platform for the camper, or should I remove the whole ambulance box mounting system down to the frame, and mount the camper, utilizing the four mounting points where the "spine" was mounted?
The ambulance box mounting system works well with the heavy ambulance box, especially with all the twisting and flexing in off-road situations, but seems unnecessary over engineering (and weight) for a lightweight fiberglass camper shell. This question has also probably been addressed by those who have done this conversion to a flatbed or rock crawler. Perhaps a lighter weight aluminum subframe would suffice to provide a strong, yet flexible, base for the fiberglass pod. Thoughts?