1996 Ford E350

Every once in a while you find some pretty strange stuff sitting in the junkyard and today's example certainly fits the bill.

Our vehicle here started out as a pretty standard Ford E350 Econoline cutaway van that typically is sold to third party manufacturers to be turned into cube vans or RVs.

In the case of this particular van, it seemed to have ended its life as a "Hot Shot" truck.

Hot Shots are typically medium-duty or one-ton trucks that pull trailers and get time-sensitive loads to their destination on time. These trucks haul loads that most freight trucks don’t want to haul since they are too small to economically haul with a large truck . It doesn’t make sense for a large trailer to carry small loads that are better off hauled by a Hot Shot.

This van is certainly configured to do this type of work since it has what looked to be a very nicely appointed sleeper attached to the back of the van's cab, and there was a 5th wheel hitch installed on the van's chassis.

Additionally, with the 7.3L V8 Diesel engine, dual wheels, and a one-ton rating, the van certainly would have been capable of doing the type of haul that would have been needed to do this type of work.

The sleeper looked to be very well crafted and certainly had all the appearance that it had spent its life hauling freight around the country, however when I looked at the manufacturer plate for this van, I found something that said that Hot Shot work was likely the second career this van had,

According to the plate, the van was manufactured by Demers.  Demer's is the main manufacturer of ambulances here in Canada,

Building a van body like what I saw in front of me is something Demers does not do since they exclusively build ambulances,  so obviously, this van had started out working as an ambulance.

This does make sense because diesel Ford E-350 is predominantly used as the basis of ambulances in North America. They are usually well maintained and are retired from ambulance duties at a fairly young age, so when this van got retired as an ambulance, it would have been a fairly cheap vehicle to buy with lots of life left in it.  In other words, it would the perfect vehicle for someone who wanted to do Hot Shot trucking on a budget.

While it was bought used, someone really did a nice job of converting it to freight hauling. I was very impressed by how the sleeper was installed to the van and with its upholstered paneling, the sleeper looked quite cozy.

This van was on the road up until the winter of 2018, with a very uneventful history.

Keep on trucking...