When Tipton Fire Department set out to replace its aging and uncomfortable rough-riding 2003 Ford F-650 Braun ambulance, Chief Joe Bitner gave medic Jake Adams the lead on the project, telling him, “Jake, we need a new ambulance. Here’s your budget.”

Jake got right to work, arranging over the next several weeks for Tipton Fire Department’s firefighters and medics to check out a range of ambulance brands and dealers, including Medix, Braun, Crossroads, Alexis, and others. During this process, our Sales Director Matt Heflin stopped by with a Kodiak Remount demo, a Marque box remounted on a new Ford E-450 chassis. To everyone’s surprise, especially those with bad experiences with remounts, the Kodiak Remount was the the clear favorite rig out of everything they’d looked at.

Kodiak’s Solution

When Tipton Fire Department set out to replace its aging and uncomfortable rough-riding 2003 Ford F-650 Braun ambulance, Chief Joe Bitner gave medic Jake Adams the lead on the project, telling him, “Jake, we need a new ambulance. Here’s your budget.”

 “We weren’t looking for a remount. In fact, one of our guys had some bad experiences with some remounts. But when he saw the truck that Matt brought, even he said, “It’s like a brand new truck,” recalled Chief Bitner.

“I told our Board of Works, ‘We’ve received lots of proposals, and our favorite ambulance–the one we’d like to purchase–is actually the lowest priced one.’”

“With the money we saved on the ambulance, we were able to buy a Stryker Power-LOAD for the new truck.” (Stryker Power-LOADs improve operator and patient safety by supporting the cot throughout the loading and unloading process.)

Technical Details

Once Tipton placed their order Matt Heflin worked closely with Jake on the to spec out exactly what Tipton wanted done to this 2010 module/box as it was remounted onto a new Ford E-450 chassis.

Paint
With our in-house paint shop, we not only painted the exterior (PPG Paint) but also the interior of the module and exterior compartments. All of the exterior diamond plate was powder coated black (not sprayed with truck bed coating that will not adhere and will fade in a short time in the outdoor elements).

The Kodiak remount standard paint package includes:

• New compartment handles, door rods, rotary latches, and Nader pins
• New compartment spray foam insulation
• Buffed door skins
• New door seals

Electrical

Tipton opted for a new electrical system which is backed by our seven year electrical warranty.

Interior Modifications

The stack cabinet added to the front of squad bench was custom built in our in-house fab shop and fabricated out of 0.125″ aluminum along with (2) drawers and tip out. The new solid surface countertops were added to the new squad bench cabinet, main Action Area, and second action area.

New black vinyl, attendant seat, new flooring and the installation of the Stryker Powerload are just a few of the updates Tipton FD requested.

Lighting

All new interior LED lighting as well as blue cabinet and floor accent lighting in the interior. New Valeo HVAC system.

Cab

In the cab a few highlights of the Kodiak standards in our the voyager backup camera, security ignition system, .125″ aluminum powder coated console and white/red crew lights mounted in the cab headliner. The Whelen Howler is also a nice upgrade Tipton requested.

After a couple of mid-point inspection tweaks–adding and outlet and passthrough door–the final step was to get graphics squared away. The clean, bold look of this ambulance’s graphics package is designed to introduce Tipton Fire Department’s new look, matching that of the Spencer fire truck to be delivered to Tipton in 2022.

Check out pictures of this great new rig here.

About Tipton Fire Department

Tipton’s new Kodiak Remount is part of a bigger emergency medical response plan. While it will immediately be put into service as primary BLS backup for all of Tipton County, it also opens up future ALS options as Tipton Fire Department looks to expand its services. Tipton’s current 2018 Medix serves all of Tipton County’s ALS needs in conjunction with Seals Ambulance Service–Tipton provides the vehicle and EMT; Seals provides the paramedic. With this second Type III added to the fleet, Tipton is positioned to increase its in-house ALS resources.

Tipton, Indiana is about 20 miles south of Kokomo and 40 miles north of Indianapolis. Along with providing fire protection, prevention, public safety, emergency medical services, training and education to approximately 5,200 Tipton residents, Tipton Fire Department also provides the primary ALS ambulance service in conjunction with Seals Ambulance Service, and the primary BLS back-up ambulance service for all of Tipton County.

Chief Joe Bitner oversees a staff of 12 full-time and five to seven auxiliary firefighters, and Tipton’s fleet includes a 1999 Pierce Saber Custom Pumper, 2010 Smeal 75-foot ladder truck; soon-to-be retired 2003 Braun/Ford F-650 Super Duty Rescue/Ambulance; 2017 Ford E-450 Medix Type III BLS Ambulance; and an all-purpose utility truck used for transporting manpower and special equipment.