Nice camper, but .......

[ThreePointFive]

23 minutes ago, Happyoldgit said:

No, I had one that I spent a lot of time converting, to my eyes the rear body bears more resemblance to a Series 109 military ambulance.

Doh... That was exactly the one I meant. I forgot there was one in between.

[FridgeFreezer]

1 hour ago, ThreePointFive said:

Doh... That was exactly the one I meant. I forgot there was one in between.

Two, technically...

Marshalls Cambridge (MCE) is ours in green, Locomotors is in sand (albeit with a few Wolf bits bolted on later), both built on the same contract I believe - RAF crash rescue.

Having done a fair bit of campering in ours now I'd say it's about the minimum amount of space you really need to live in unless you want to drag round a big awning or whatnot - some folks want to do everything outdoors and just sleep in the box, we like having the option of sitting inside warm & dry when conditions dictate. We've got bed, toilet, fridge, sink, stove, eberspacher, and enough storage for clothes & bedding & beer as well as the fresh & waste water. You can't stand up straight but you don't have to crawl around to get dressed or bang your noggin on the ceiling if you sit up in bed.

On the flip side, it's also about as big & heavy as is comfortable to manoeuvre in European towns & cities / on little country lanes - bigger vehicles start to feel very cumbersome, we can just about get into a standard supermarket car parking space without sticking out too much, we can go almost anywhere a stock 110 would fit without any hassle.

[Happyoldgit]

7 minutes ago, FridgeFreezer said:

Two, technically...

Marshalls Cambridge (MCE) is ours in green, Locomotors is in sand (albeit with a few Wolf bits bolted on later), both built on the same contract I believe - RAF crash rescue.

Having done a fair bit of campering in ours now I'd say it's about the minimum amount of space you really need to live in unless you want to drag round a big awning or whatnot - some folks want to do everything outdoors and just sleep in the box, we like having the option of sitting inside warm & dry when conditions dictate. We've got bed, toilet, fridge, sink, stove, eberspacher, and enough storage for clothes & bedding & beer as well as the fresh & waste water. You can't stand up straight but you don't have to crawl around to get dressed or bang your noggin on the ceiling if you sit up in bed.

On the flip side, it's also about as big & heavy as is comfortable to manoeuvre in European towns & cities / on little country lanes - bigger vehicles start to feel very cumbersome, we can just about get into a standard supermarket car parking space without sticking out too much, we can go almost anywhere a stock 110 would fit without any hassle.

I really enjoyed working on and using the Locomotors version I had.

[landroversforever]

I do love the shape of the Marshalls ones. Would be interesting to see one side by side with the later pulse ones. I assume the Marshalls on the series were still 109"?

[Snagger]

1 hour ago, landroversforever said:

I do love the shape of the Marshalls ones. Would be interesting to see one side by side with the later pulse ones. I assume the Marshalls on the series were still 109"?

Yes.

If you look at that 110 with the Marshall body, you can see the original wheel arch is slightly too far forwards - there is the 1” difference of the wheel base, but Series vehicles’ front axles are about 2” further forwards than the Defenders’ , so that rear wheel arch is around 3” forward of where it would ideally sit relative to the rear wheels.

[ThreePointFive]

2 hours ago, FridgeFreezer said:

Two, technically...

I'm not always wrong, but when I am...

 

I drove past this one a few weeks ago down in Devon/Cornwall, looked really well sorted. Immediately thought of this thread.

Surprising number of these things are named "Amber", it turns out.

 

[FridgeFreezer]

2 hours ago, landroversforever said:

Would be interesting to see one side by side with the later pulse ones.

Ask and you shall receive - albeit they added the extended bit on the roof to this one:

They're wider, taller, heavier, I think they are longer in the body too (rear overhang)... he was 3800kg all up and a stock 300TDi, we're ~2900kg all up and V8... he's on ~25hp/ton, we're on ~75hp/ton, we can both cruise at 80 but he's doing it in kph and we're in mph and he's probably not getting many more MPG's in the process either.

Told us they found the NC500 quite heavy going - lots of tight little lanes, and they'd been in low-box for some of the hills it didn't sound very relaxing and not sure I'd want to row it all the way to Africa and back.

[landroversforever]

1 hour ago, FridgeFreezer said:

Ask and you shall receive - albeit they added the extended bit on the roof to this one:

They're wider, taller, heavier, I think they are longer in the body too (rear overhang)... he was 3800kg all up and a stock 300TDi, we're ~2900kg all up and V8... he's on ~25hp/ton, we're on ~75hp/ton, we can both cruise at 80 but he's doing it in kph and we're in mph and he's probably not getting many more MPG's in the process either.

Told us they found the NC500 quite heavy going - lots of tight little lanes, and they'd been in low-box for some of the hills it didn't sound very relaxing and not sure I'd want to row it all the way to Africa and back.

I was meaning the Series era Marshalls  

[FridgeFreezer]

44 minutes ago, landroversforever said:

I was meaning the Series era Marshalls  

I don't have a piccy of one of those... yet

[elbekko]

12 hours ago, FridgeFreezer said:

he was 3800kg

So not even legal on a B licence?

[landroversforever]

1 hour ago, elbekko said:

So not even legal on a B licence?

Nope! Not unless you've done higher categories or have a pre 97 licence. 

[FridgeFreezer]

2 hours ago, elbekko said:

So not even legal on a B licence?

I didn't ask him how he was on the road with it, I assume it's registered as 3499kg GVW and he's just added so much stuff it's now way above that if he ever gets pulled onto a weighbridge.

Wouldn't surprise me if there was a 100L+ tank of water bolted under the chassis for good measure.

[David Sparkes]

17 hours ago, landroversforever said:

I do love the shape of the Marshalls ones. Would be interesting to see one side by side with the later pulse ones. I assume the Marshalls on the series were still 109"?

 

13 hours ago, landroversforever said:

I was meaning the Series era Marshalls  

 

12 hours ago, FridgeFreezer said:

I don't have a piccy of one of those... yet

I thought there might be pictures of Series 2 Marshall Ambulances on the forum of the Series 2 Club, unlikely to find a Pulse Ambulance there as well, but you can't have everything.
This camper converted was for sale in August 2022. To my untutored eye the external bodywork seems standard, so might act as a reference. https://adobe.ly/3BMgSUC

There is a Marshall Ambulance specific Facebook group who have people looking to restore theirs to original who may be interested. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1391889754423495

Regards.

 

[landroversforever]

13 minutes ago, FridgeFreezer said:

I didn't ask him how he was on the road with it, I assume it's registered as 3499kg GVW and he's just added so much stuff it's now way above that if he ever gets pulled onto a weighbridge.

Wouldn't surprise me if there was a 100L+ tank of water bolted under the chassis for good measure.

I thought the Pulse ones were always 3800Kg MGW (at least to start with)

[elbekko]

This one rather tickles my fancy, too.

[rusty_wingnut]

On 10/10/2022 at 8:20 PM, FridgeFreezer said:

Ask and you shall receive - albeit they added the extended bit on the roof to this one:

They're wider, taller, heavier, I think they are longer in the body too (rear overhang)... he was 3800kg all up and a stock 300TDi, we're ~2900kg all up and V8... he's on ~25hp/ton, we're on ~75hp/ton, we can both cruise at 80 but he's doing it in kph and we're in mph and he's probably not getting many more MPG's in the process either.

Told us they found the NC500 quite heavy going - lots of tight little lanes, and they'd been in low-box for some of the hills it didn't sound very relaxing and not sure I'd want to row it all the way to Africa and back.

 

With a nice TDV8 or even an M57 it would be quite a different prospect. Remember the 300tdi has half the capacity of your V8.......

[Bowie69]

25 minutes ago, rusty_wingnut said:

 

With a nice TDV8 or even an M57 it would be quite a different prospect. Remember the 300tdi has half the capacity of your V8.......

..... and a turbo boosting to double(ish) the air going in....

[muddy]

On 10/10/2022 at 5:20 PM, FridgeFreezer said:

Having done a fair bit of campering in ours now I'd say it's about the minimum amount of space you really need to live in unless you want to drag round a big awning or whatnot - some folks want to do everything outdoors and just sleep in the box, we like having the option of sitting inside warm & dry when conditions dictate. We've got bed, toilet, fridge, sink, stove, eberspacher, and enough storage for clothes & bedding & beer as well as the fresh & waste water. You can't stand up straight but you don't have to crawl around to get dressed or bang your noggin on the ceiling if you sit up in bed.

 

Can't believe there's not a fridgefreezer in there!

 

As good as the TDi is when it comes to larger vehicles there aint no replacement for displacement.

[FridgeFreezer]

9 minutes ago, muddy said:

Can't believe there's not a fridgefreezer in there!

Oh it is - Waeco CRX50 is super efficient, we can keep ice-cream quite happily and we always have to turn it down otherwise it freezes stuff that's at the back of the fridge section.

[FridgeFreezer]

This seems like a neat take on the whole camper / caravan thing:

https://www.theautopian.com/this-retro-style-fiberglass-camper-has-a-floor-plan-you-can-move-around-like-legos/

 

[smallfry]

Saw this down on the south coast today. Interesting and I really liked it. Big enough to live in full time, but look at the rear overhang ! Will be great down our country lanes. 

[FridgeFreezer]

Chop 75% of the back end off that'd be a great camperer.

[Bowie69]

So like this one:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255777636484?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=EiEslIpfQ0G&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=AFY_9vavSse&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

 

[steve200TDi]

On 10/12/2022 at 8:21 AM, muddy said:

Can't believe there's not a fridgefreezer in there!

 

Fridgefreezer will be up front either in the drivers or passengers seat! 

Edited October 28, 2022 by steve200TDi

[deep]

20 hours ago, smallfry said:

Saw this down on the south coast today. Interesting and I really liked it. Big enough to live in full time, but look at the rear overhang ! Will be great down our country lanes. 

I actually lived in a bus for four years, in my exploratory years.  There's a lot to be said for coming home from work to familiar surroundings, no matter where that work takes you.  Though it was a bit more compact than that!  I doubt that overhang would be legal here.  Then again, I am pretty sure a few working buses here aren't technically legal like that but they seem to get the right bits of paper on the windscreen anyway.