Ameritrans 285, model years 2015 to 2016. Filed by Ameritrans Bus, Inc. and reported to NHTSA on 2 June 2016. 5 vehicles potentially affected.
What the notice says Ameritrans Bus, Inc. (Ameritrans) is recalling certain model year 2015-2016 285 shuttle buses manufactured March 2, 2015, through December 23, 2015, built on Ford E-450 chassis and equipped with certain model S2000, S5000, and S5500, wheelchair lifts manufactured by the Ricon Corporation. The platform side plate of …
Is your vehicle included? Check with your VIN at NHTSA, or ask a dealer. This page is an independent copy of the notice, kept so you can see what changed after it was published. It is not the authority, and the authority’s own text is the one to act on.
What owners ask about this recall
- Which vehicles does recall 16V398 cover?
- Ameritrans 285, model years 2015-2016.
- What is wrong with them?
- Ameritrans Bus, Inc. (Ameritrans) is recalling certain model year 2015-2016 285 shuttle buses manufactured March 2, 2015, through December 23, 2015, built on Ford E-450 chassis and equipped with certain model S2000, S5000, and S5500, wheelchair lifts manufactured by the Ricon Corporation.
- What can happen if it is not put right?
- If the platform side plates crack or the platform mounting fails from out-of-position bearings, the lift platform can separate from the lift and come to rest against the vehicle's lift door.
- Is there a fix yet?
- Yes, and it is free. Ameritrans will notify the purchasers of the lifts, and Ricon dealers will inspect the side plates for damage and for displaced bearings. The platform will be inspected for cracks. Any damaged parts will be replaced, free of charge. The recall began on June 30, 2016.
- What should I do now?
- Check your own vehicle by its VIN with NHTSA, which is the record to act on.
Answered from the register this site holds. NHTSA is the record to act on.
What the authority says can happen if this is not fixed: “If the platform side plates crack or the platform mounting fails from out-of-position bearings, the lift platform can separate from the lift and come to rest against the vehicle's lift door. When the vehicle's doors are opened, the platform…”
affected
in the notice
caught
| Campaign | 16V398 |
|---|---|
| Filed by | Ameritrans Bus, Inc. |
| System at fault | Equipment Adaptive/Mobility |
| Reported to NHTSA | 2 June 2016 |
| Model years | 2015-2016 |
| Vehicles named | AMERITRANS 285 |
What the notice says today
The consequence
If the platform side plates crack or the platform mounting fails from out-of-position bearings, the lift platform can separate from the lift and come to rest against the vehicle's lift door. When the vehicle's doors are opened, the platform may fall onto the lift operator, increasing their risk of injury.
The remedy
Ameritrans will notify the purchasers of the lifts, and Ricon dealers will inspect the side plates for damage and for displaced bearings. The platform will be inspected for cracks. Any damaged parts will be replaced, free of charge. The recall began on June 30, 2016. Owners may contact Ameritrans customer service at 1-574-262-8935, or Ricon customer service at 1-800-322-2884.
What it said before
This campaign is in the register but not yet in the dated wording archive, so we cannot yet say whether its text has moved. It enters the archive on the next pass.
This is one of 289 notices in the record whose component field names equipment adaptive/mobility. Across that group the median wait before owners were written to was 36 days.
Last checked . No change has been recorded in the wording.
The models named here, across their whole recall history
How to cite this record
Quoting the wording on this page means quoting a version, so the date belongs in the citation:
CarsMultiverse, recall 16V398, wording as read on 16 September 2026. https://carsmultiverse.com/recall/16v398/
The cross-border matches used on this site are deposited as a citable dataset: doi:10.5281/zenodo.22087136. The recall wording itself is published by the national authority named above and is theirs, not ours.
The recall record and its wording are published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and are US Government public domain. The dated archive, the comparison and any before-and-after above are CarsMultiverse. How fresh every engine behind this page is, is public on the status page. To check a specific vehicle, use NHTSA’s own VIN lookup.
The fingerprint of this notice
We take a SHA-256 of each of the three blocks of text the authority publishes and keep the first eight characters. As we last read campaign 16V398 on 23 August 2026, they were:
- Defect summary
5d711af9 - Consequence
b9917861 - Remedy
0b3cb9fb
We first read this notice on 21 August 2026. It has not moved since. If it ever does, these characters will not match, and the change will be dated here.
The wording we hold for 16V398 · how the whole register is watched
Put this notice on your site
A small badge that links here and names the register's reference. It costs one line of HTML and needs no key.
The badge is free to use. It links to this page and nowhere else, and it never shows advertising.
Owners of these cars
No register publishes what happens after the letter. Owners do: tell us, in two taps.
Anonymous: no account, no cookie, nothing you type is stored beyond these choices. Figures appear once 3 owners have answered, and are published with the record under CC BY 4.0.