Command Vehicle Driving and Overview


Command Vehicle with labels

A Multipurpose Vehicle

The command vehicle is perhaps better called a Command/Counseling/Communications/Cooking/Food delivery vehicle.  For counseling use, it has privacy curtains.  For Communications, it contains business band and ham radios.  For cooking, it has a small microwave and a small coffeepot.  For food delivery, it has warming drawers for holding food, as well as straps for holding down Cambro food containers.   For simplicity, this manual will refer to it as a Command Vehicle.

The command vehicle is built on a 24 foot E450 Ford chassis, similar to many class C motor homes.  It has a V10 gasoline engine. The floor plan can be viewed here.

It has a propane heater, like an RV.  It has a generator, like an RV.  Confirm that the generator runs on Propane.

It has air conditioning and a built in TV set with DVD player.

Driving the vehicle.

Important safety note:  the propane valve must be shut and the heater turned off before fueling the vehicle with propane or gasoline.  Even if the propane valve is shut, the heater can generate ignition sparks that could ignite fumes from the fueling process.

Due to the long rear overhang, it has a tendency to scrape the rear end when the front end goes up suddenly, as it might when turning off a road into a higher parking lot.  It has casters on the rear to reduce the risk of damage when that happens.  Try to avoid abrupt changes in angle while driving.  For the same reason, the vehicle is not suited to very rough roads.  The long rear overhang also means that when maneuvering in tight quarters, the rear end goes left when the steering wheel is turned to the right.

Trailers

The vehicle has a trailer hitch for light trailers, under 3000 pounds, such as the radio tower trailer or small utility trailers.  Do not attempt to pull larger trailers behind this unit, such as the generator trailer or a kitchen trailer.


RAF  12/8/07