Army truck to tiny home overlander (the inside is gorgeous)!

hey there welcome to my channel where  i take you on tours of tiny homes and   showcase stories of people living alternatively  in today's video we're going to take a tour of   perhaps the best overlander i've ever seen  the owner mike modified a military truck   into his own off-road home on wheels and has  been traveling around the globe ever since   the inside is not what you'd  expect it's surprisingly spacious   modern and carefully decorated i think you're  really gonna like this one and if you'd like to   know every time i publish a new video make sure  that you subscribe and hit that notification bell hi my name is mike i'm with drive the  globe and this is my tiny home on wheels this is actually my third big over landing  rig went on a 13-month trip throughout africa   and i discovered an old land rover and that's how  i got into sort of the expedition kind of thing i bought this truck two years ago and then i built  it last spring so i've been out for about a year   my background isn't really in building trucks  honestly not really in any of the things i do i   watch a lot of youtube videos and i've been  out and about enough over the years to see   other people's builds so i take cues from a lot of  different places i built it in friends backyards   and in campgrounds so these trucks come out of  the military at auction they're fairly inexpensive   this truck i picked up for 18 000 bucks i built  the entire thing myself i moved into it in about   two months and it took four months total to finish  the build i wanted the inside to feel like home   since i'm going to be on the road living in it  full-time i would say the total cost of this build   is just about 90 000 to 100 dollars so i wanted  to keep it under that hundred thousand dollar mark one of the things that i do while being nomadic  on the road is that i've been an instructor for   overland expo for nine years i enjoy teaching  other people about places that i've gone   off-road recovery techniques border crossings  visa issues and things like that what i love   about this whole sort of being on the road  thing it's a merging of over landing with van   life and rvers and it's just people with the same  goals in mind to just get out there and explore   some of the advantages of going with a military  vehicle is that they were well maintained they're   built extremely rugged and when i picked it  up two years ago it had only 5 000 miles on it   it's a 1994 storm stevenson former army truck i  did very little changes to the actual military   vehicle anything that you modify tends to create  further problems in the future so what i did do   is we have a cage added for the cab to mount  mostly my cycling gear on the roof i changed   out all of the military lighting to led so every  light was replaced on the exterior of the truck   coming back this way a little bit i did put under  body boxes underneath the vehicle for storage for   camping you can see the tires are big these  are 48 inch tires and you can see one of the   features that the military trucks come with is a  central tire inflation system so it's push button   control from the cab and basically when you go  off-road you hit the button for sand for mud   and then it automatically inflates and deflates  as you drive so that's a nice feature that happens   to come with these trucks you can see up here this  is where the spare tire is located people ask it's   400 pounds per tire and i'm certainly not going  to lift it up and down you can see right in here   this is all hydraulically controlled so it has  a boom that lowers the tire and raises the tire these pods right here are max air  vent fans for the bathroom and for   the shower and for my hot water  instant hot water heater inside   and then you can see i built it kind  of like an rv so i have water fill here and then right here i've got  30 amp shore power hookup   these are the fills for the transmission  for engine oil and all that and then the   dipsticks are even allocated and this is kind  of interesting because look at this dipstick   because it's got air brakes and these are the  air tanks i added a external thing so i can run   air tools and an air jack if i need to change my  tires and then underneath is a grey water tank the   gray tank hooks up here i've got 85 gallons of  fresh water i have a 25 gallon gray water tank   and i have a cassette toilet inside that's about  seven and a half gallons one of the features about   this particular m1079 from the military is that  this box is already on the truck i didn't have to   put it on i didn't have to build it it actually  comes with windows i have screens that pop out   and then i added the five feet uh bump out here  on the rear of the truck for my bedroom section   and then i have my bike racks here these are one  up bike mounts and i usually carry anywhere from   two to four bicycles being a big cyclist i decided  i wanted a nice bike mount here so i could work   on it and that pops in here so i can mount a  bike on the back here and do some maintenance and then i've got my 2021 ktm   390 adventure bike i custom built the frame  that it is sitting on and it has a ramp   and then to load it up by myself because i  wanted to make sure i could do all this by myself   getting it down i can you know come down the ramp  getting it back up i have a little portable winch   i mount on the front here with a remote and i  just kind of walk the bike right up onto the ramp   or if i don't want to have to move this big  rig around it's convenient to have a motorcycle back here i've got another box i can mostly  keep my motorcycle and kayaking gear in there   the main reason for the underbody boxes is so  i don't have to put anything inside the habitat   so when i roll into camp  my inside house if you will   is completely ready to go there's nothing  laying on the floor i don't have to move   like kayak pedals or anything like that  everything is stored externally on the truck i replaced the entrance with just a  regular old rv door that i got on ebay   somewhere and i built these steps these are  torque lift steps that you can buy online and what's nice about is it just  slides in when i'm on the road so   it also doesn't need storage  it's underneath the truck so we're on the roof here i've got  12 renegee 100 watt solar panels i made a kayak mount so it's not touching the  panels and probably when i have it mounted   it cuts down maybe 15 of the solar power but  not a big deal i got a wii boost for cellular   boosting my fm uh antenna sirius xm select  radio on board in the cab and in the habitat all right now that we've checked  out outside let's go inside my home   so inside my home here my four main goals for  this build was to have a kitchen a place to   work a bed that i didn't need to fold out and  a full-size shower like you have in your home   we're gonna start here in the kitchen this  is what i did not have in my last build   i have a burner top here uh kind of an oven  that believe it or not you can actually bacon   it works pretty good especially frozen pizza the  cabinets as you're looking at this is all ikea   and a couple people gave me some you know negative  feedback they're not going to hold up and i can   tell you over the past year i've been bouncing  around the cabinets are holding up just fine   i magnetize these so that the magnets  are super strong um but on top of that   i put you know bungee cords here just as extra  security so stuff's not smacking into it when   i'm bouncing around off-road and then you can  see like this is all my plates and silverware   this is a double sink ceramic sink i love it  because doing dishes so much easier when you   have actually some space to put water and things  in this is the akuva uv light water filtration   system you can see when you turn it on turns  blue under there this i have a dometic uh two   zone fridge freezer that slides out from under i  had to kind of custom fabricate this whole thing   so it could fit underneath the plumbing but you  can see like that's the freezer and uh fridge so   a lot of space for food no drinks in here because  i have a whole other refrigerator inside the cab these are velcroed i actually velcroed  this and velcroed that this is the   espresso machine is screwed down toaster  doesn't move so there's very few things the   couple things like the pods and whatever  i just stick inside the sink when i move   but really i can set the whole inside up here  in three minutes after rolling into camp oh yeah   normally you would install a what they call split  unit air conditioning in these they run for about   4 000 bucks if you find a dc unit this is a  regular window air conditioner for a house   that you can get at lowe's so it's 175 dollars i  can break this thing an awful lot and replace it   and still spend less money than a split unit it  works great it's only 135 square feet inside here   and i can run it for about eight hours on  my battery life and it's running through an   inverter so you figure your loss is probably 25  30 percent below that is my charge controller   brings in all the energy from the solar panels  around the corner here i've got uh onboard   sound system so these are some of the upgrades  that i made that i didn't have in my last build   and the ceiling which is faux tin vinyl i used in  prior builds so i kind of knew what i wanted to do   in fact everything in here is really plastic based  or non-wood it's because i changed environments   a lot i didn't want a bunch of shrinking  and contracting and warping and whatnot so i tried to use every square inch and a lot  of people put dinettes in their setups and i   kind of spend 98 of my time outside so i didn't  really want to do that which gave me ability to   have like uh i call it my kitchen table folds up i  rarely rarely use this unless there's a couple of   us sitting here and it's uh inclement weather or  something outside you can see i don't have a whole   lot of places to sit but everything has storage  um inside so i got these little stools underneath   and then all my little drawers uh in here you know  pull out and you got all sorts of stuff that i can   store in there so kind of using every little space  i work a lot making videos and doing things so   i wanted a real computer so this folds down  here and i have an imac that's mounted in here i call this current one three because it's the  third big orange rig so this is my mercedes   unimog this is the trailer that i built and lived  in for a year and then this is my old land rover   you kind of if you spin around on the  other side here i got pictures up on the   on the wall of different travels but this is me  in the sahara desert with the old 1965 land rover   so this is my little bathroom uh unlike some  other builds i have a separate bathroom and   separate shower they're not in the same room so in  here i have my cassette toilet and i have my you   know vanity and sink and you got the main mirror  and of course i shaved my head so i got these   mirrors on either side here so i can see either  side of my head in the mirrors up there coming   down this section is heading towards my bedroom  where i have wardrobe on one side and a full-size   house shower with a glass door and sort of a  rain head shower i just that was one of my big   priorities was to have a nice shower on board i  use about a gallon a gallon and a half per minute   water flow out of this and with an 85 gallon fresh  water tank i've got plenty of water on board this   comes across here and hooks into here and then i  have hanging here for clothes drying or whatever   so this wardrobe on this side it actually is  almost the full height of the truck i had to   measure this three times and so i built it in  place and then inside here is uh you know hanging   drawers and then shoe storage underneath   and then back here this is the five foot bump  out section that i built and inside here is   my bed which i was able to get in a like real  you know home mattress so it was comfortable   i installed the two arctic turn windows on  the sides and a max air vent fan overhead   all right now we are in the cab of the truck which  is for me one of the most panoramic views you get   with a cab forward design sitting here i'm about  five feet off the ground it is super spacious   when i got this truck it was just a barren loud  metal space not one soft surface in it so upgrades   that i've made i did put cab air conditioning unit  in off of a later model uh vehicle this pod here i   added from a different truck as well and this has  all my overhead lighting controls i use the garmin   overlander for my gps right here garmin in reach  is over here for tracking and for sos recovery   and then i got an ipad in between the seats that i  mostly use when i pull the side of the road and i   want to look up something there used to be a third  seat for the military where the guy would sit back   here and pop up through the gun turret to shoot uh  i have a second dometic refrigerator here this is   where i keep all my uh gatorade and water and beer  and whatnot in that fridge and then i have storage   behind the seats for you know camera gear my one  wheel and stuff like that the biggest uh expense   honestly on this whole truck and upgrade that i  made was these shielman seats from germany they   are just incredibly comfortable and you know  dual armrests they're heated they're amazing i   did all the the the paneling this uh fabric on the  doors and i insulated super insulated underneath   the seats both for heat and for sound so i can  drive around along the road you know comfortably   uh listening to the radio in a truck that  before it was like oh you know you must   need to wear a headset uh so you wouldn't  go deaf you know it's got push button start to me being out on the road the best thing about  it is that every morning i get up in my own bed   with my own stuff i'm always at home it  just happens to be i look out the window   and i get a different view every morning if i  could say one thing to anybody just do it get   out and do it you can prepare forever and  get ready to get ready just get out there thanks for watching this week's video if  you'd like to see more over landing rigs   and modified military trucks turned  tiny homes i have a playlist for you   in the description and i will see you soon  with another tiny or creative home tour you

Channel: Tiny House Giant Journey

Views: 4,965,670

Keywords: tiny house giant journey, tiny house, Tiny houses, tiny homes, tiny house tour, overland expo, overlander rv, drive the globe, rvlife, overlanding, overlander tiny house, 4x4 overlander, 4x4 tiny house, 4x4 tiny home, tiny house movement, military truck, military vehicle, army truck, renovated army truck, army truck tiny home, army truck tiny house, offgrid, overlander, off grid tiny house, off road tiny house

Id: 6xdKdKlErZU

Length: 16min 37sec (997 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 14 2022