I'm the fleet manager with a national ambulance company. For budgetary reasons, we keep our ambulances for up to eight years and many have over 300,000 miles when we get rid of them, running I might add. The 7.3L diesel is the best motor on the road for van and truck applications. Many people say " 300,000 isn't impressive", but when you consider the conditions by which these vans are driven, it is.

These vans are driven by different EMT's daily. Some have good driving habits, some have very bad. Regardless of driving habits, the fact still remains that these ambulances sit idleing for anywhere form 80 to 120 hours per week. When they run calls, it is usually full throttle, hard brake. Now, that is impressive when you compare it to normal everyday driving. We figure that an ambulance with 300,000 miles is equivelent to one driven under normal conditions at 500,000.

In my 7 years as the fleet manager, I have only replced " 1" motor. It only had 255k, but was run without oil.