Vehicles

We have three new vehicles all on station from August 2008, two ‘state of the art’ Land Rover Defender 110’s and a Renault Load Master 150. We started the process of working on our new designs in mid 2007. They were commissioned with the express intention of coping with our range of call outs. Penrith MRT has a membership of 40 and has a patch that covers 2,500 sq km. which is one of the larger parishes in England and Wales, so they need to be a bit special. The area includes a great range of terrains from the classic high Eastern Cumbrian hills and fells to huge Pennine Fells with long drives up to 2,000’ on rough tracks, as well a large rural area in between our higher ground from the Scottish Border and the Solway Coast. Through the middle of the patch is the M6  which allows pretty rapid travel to the extremes of the area. We can have a real mix of call outs, but our bread and butter are the 4hr emergency call outs that need a quick response and evacuation. Our searches can be massive and in recent times we have had Carlisle Floods and the Greyrigg Train Crash.

We had successfully operated with 2 Land Rover Defender 110’s and a Sherpa Crew Bus that doubled as an advance command centre and saw no reason to alter the basic strategy with each of the Land Rovers acting as 5 crew carrier+kit carrier+ambulance, and the Sherpa as 10 personel carrier+kit carrier+command centre.

The ‘new’ Land Rover Defender remains a unique vehicle. It can carry 5 crew, with up-rated suspension, has a pay-load of 2.5 tonnes and is long enough to carry a casualty on a stretcher. Though we considered other products nothing comes close. We ordered 2 from Solihull, stripped of the non-essentials (central locking, radio, etc) with the up-rated suspension in white. This gave us extra ground clearance (essential on the Pennines) and the load capacity. We had weighed ourselves, kit and fuel plus roll cage, Clarke Mast etc and found to our astonishment that we came in at 2.4 tonnes!

The design was helped by advice from Lakeland Land Rover at Coniston who adapt many Land Rover products for all sorts of people and many MRT’s in the UK. We also had a fund of experience from our previous LR’s both of which had done great service over 25 years with us and we had several team members who knew their ‘Landies’.

Starting at the ground, we specified G90’s which are virtually bullet-proof, very aggressive off-road biased tyres fitted to Defender 130 steel rims. Though they limit road speed we knew from having tried some 40:60 road biased Pirelli ‘Scorpion’s which were great on road when we got to the really grotty stuff they could not give us the grip.

We added rock sliders, diff guards and a steering guard to complete the off road spec. We also added a LR towing bracket to protect the Clarke Mast’s base departure angle at the rear.

A Safety Devices full integral and external roll cage was a vital improvement on our previous LR’s. A big roll while working on the Cross Fell tracks is always a distant worry. At least in a diesel tucked up inside a massive roll cage we might just walk away. The previous unprotected V8 petrol LR’s would have eaten us up in a roll.

Another huge improvement has been the fitting of Clarke Masts to all the vehicles. Not only are they a great increase in our communications range, all vehicles have been fitted with ‘Rebro’ allowing them to be left as relay stations to get signals over ridges and around corners. The eastern slopes of Cross Fell and Mardale Head have been black holes for us for years, now our worries are over. We also added GPS tracking to every vehicle.

Besides the usual ‘blues and twos’ we had a really great job done by one of our sponsors AST signs with our vehicles graphics taking great care to comply with the current, complex DVLA regulations for ambulance status.

Working lights, alternating flashing headlamps and working search lamps completed the external specification. We noted that LR give only 75kg as the maximum roof weight. A quick add up of all the bits on the roof gave us 72kg…!

Mechanically, we left the standard Solihull product alone. The new Transit sourced engine is mighty with 380nm of torque at just 2,000rpm which means that all the grunt comes with next to no revs. The six speed twin ratio transmission covers every eventuality and the diff lock is as ever was. We could not image a use for a winch and it is a training nightmare, so we left that extra well alone.

Electrically we added a second heavy-duty battery with a split charging system. All the extras have been wired into the new battery, leaving the original loom untouched and the vehicle able to restart regardless of the demands upon the ancillaries. We repeated this in the Renault. Switch-gear has been blended onto the new dashboard design and the single VHF radio fitted into the radio slot and drives through the vehicles standard speakers. Navigator’s light (with red lens), more 12v sockets for recharging mobile phones, lap tops, lights etc, map net storage, rubber mats, up-rated interior lighting and protection to the back of the front seats completed the interior comforts. A big red warning light tells the driver that the Clarke Mast is up……….a certain MR Team has tried to drive away with the mast up, we did not want to copy them!

The rear load area is slightly less than previous 110’s so we had to really think hard about the packing arrangements, particularly as there is now a small compressor in there inflate the Clarke Mast. However, we have made room and it all works well.

The big problem that took a lot of time to solve was the stretcher capacity. The new Defender has much more plush seats and in the rear the 2:1 split is to the off-side which was not helpful. We also needed a cargo restraint grill to stop beheading the crew AND we had to fulfill the DVLA regulations as without Ambulance status we would be liable to pay VAT on the new vehicles and its fit out costs. It was therefore important to get this right.

Eventually we devised a fold down grill that makes a stretcher bed on to which a Bell Stretcher may be rolled and secured. This allows a single rear seat ‘Attendant’ to administer treatment and a very small front seat passenger to travel with the driver plus all the vehicle’s team kit. It meant re-engineering and re-upholstering the rear seats which was not cheap or quick.

Overall, the new LR’s look great, drive very well and have already been pushed into our toughest terrain which they dealt with easily.