DIY 4x4 Ambulance Build For $13k - Better Than Most Campervan Tiny Houses

my favorite part about being on the road and traveling is obviously it's a tiny home but you have the biggest yard of anybody there is my name is ben harris and this is my 1995 f-350 four-wheel drive ambulance that i've converted into my little tiny home she doesn't really have a name we just call her the big girl so come on stepping into the big girl so i'm in the entryway this doubles actually as a is a shower it's the only place i can stand up inside of this rig unfortunately what it is it's an old sink that i cut out to fit this space and so underneath the mat here there's a teak shower mat and then there's a drain that goes straight through and then up here just a sprayer so you can shower yourself off and there's a shower curtain that will magnet around the top but honestly i don't i've never used this one i always shower outside so it's just here i guess if i really need it i'll i'll start using it so this is my closet space these cabinets are already here in the ambulance again just kind of refaced them and took out some shelving so i could actually hang stuff in here and then what i did is i line it with aromatic cedar so it keeps them smelling fresh and keeps all the bugs out and any mildew out of there and then there's more up top which is just odds and ends kind of a catch-all for hats and gloves and stuff like that down below is my shoe storage um and again other odds and ends my body heater for you know on colder nights it's the only heat source i do have in here at the moment but it works really well because this thing is insulated better than anything i've ever had so that works pretty well when i first started looking around for rigs ambulances in particular i really wanted to to have a pass-through a lot of them only have a small little window that you can maybe pass something through but this one has a full door that slides open and closed and so you can get from the cab to the back you know so if you do it's late at night and you park into a spot where you don't want to be outside a lot and you just want to crawl in the back and jump in bed you can and that's like i said it's pretty rare in an ambulance especially the f series the truck form but this one has a higher roof over the cab so it access i mean it allowed the access to be able to get back and forth which has been clutch um this was kind of a newer addition i had this space that i didn't really have any use for and so i just put up these hooks just to you know catch all for jackets and stuff you know a quick grab instead of throwing it in the closet every time and you can just hang whatever on these for that usually holds them pretty well um and so that's been pretty nice so this is obviously my food prep area my sink cooktop and all my storage for all my food and everything like that as well as the switches for lights these cabinets actually came with the ambulance and just kind of repurposed them and made them a little bit more homey and less medical and but they work really well everything slides clean stays closed they work really really well a garbage chute you know i have access to this outside compartment here so i can toss garbage out there and never have anything stinking up the inside which is always nice and then there's a door on the outside that opens so i can get the garbage in and out without any problems as well as access my propane tank that's down in there so this is a really kind of important little cubby that's back here which has been really nice this wood wood top with a countertop it's actually an acacia hardwood it uh it works pretty well i'm not thrilled with it but it does the job and then the sink nice little you know cut out that comes out uses a cutting board and then it accesses my sink and that slides right back in there and fits pretty well usually so the stove top it's just a real basic flame king i don't remember exactly what i paid for it anything but it's just run off of propane again i can access the propane from the outside here so i don't ever have to worry about these getting hit and left on and running propane in here at all times so i can turn the main tank off there and i don't do a lot of cooking in here because i do most of my cooking outside but on colder days or in areas where i can't cook outside it does you know serve a pretty nice purpose and it's nice to be able to do it inside as well all right and then down here um again just some sliding doors that just kind of houses the main cooking things i use pots and pans and plates and cups and stuff like that so it's more for food storage again these cabinets came and these doors on these hydraulic little drives were already here so they work incredibly well and stay open both sides and then they come down and they close i've never had any issues of those opening up anything coming out again with the ambulance already built so well there's there's was no reason for me to change anything or to try to build it myself because there's no way i could build this as well as it was already done this space down here is obviously just more counter space but not only that there's a lot on here so i can't really do it at the moment but it does hinge up and it comes all the way and it locks under here and then this turns into another seat with a seat belt so you know if you had a couple people in here it's really easy to you know convert some spaces and have a lot of seating and to entertain really in this small area it's been really nice so this little divider here um it's kind of a unique little piece just gives some division between my bed space my sleeping space and the kitchen space it was actually a piece of walnut that i found in the trash at a bar that i was bartending at and they were just throwing it out and so what i did is i got it and i ripped it down and turned it into this little ladder divider thing and it really like i said it adds to the space and again that separation makes it feel a little bit more like you know a home rather than just one big open van space the space underneath the bed there's tons of it and which is nice with the fixed bed it allowed me to really securely have everything in place um the refrigerator actually is this side it slides all the way out you know when it opens up it's dometic i think 35 whatever their names are but it things it's great it's one of the best things or the best investment i would had you know compared to a cooler with ice this thing is worth its weight for sure um and then it doubles as a seat so when it comes out you can easily sit here and then you have the seat there and then the table slides out and this countertop as well matches this one it was like i said it was all one big piece so it all flows through the whole through the whole rig i could sit on there and there'd be no issues i think i left like 12 inches on the back of this thing so that you could you know really put some force on it and this the bed frame is all metal so it's not going anywhere so on this side opposite the fridge is just storage underneath the bed um and it goes all the way back to the back doors so there's ton tons of storage back here i got my paddle board a skateboard backpacks and then it goes up underneath that way as well so it's it's it's incredible how much storage is actually in here i could easily tuck a bike under there unfortunately i don't have my bike with me right now but it does fit so these handles they're actually leather i got them from a boot maker in montana and there was just scrap leather you let me have them and it really kind of tied all this together i think it really turned out pretty well because i wanted a fixed bed i guess one of the requirements that i wanted was to be able to sit up and i can just barely sit up which is nice because obviously like i said i can't stand up in here to be able to sit up and sit up straight in bed has been really nice one of my older brothers he's a metal fabricator and so he helped me build a frame that fit in this space and so we got a couple metal pieces that come through so the thing is super sturdy there's no rattling there's no nothing that shakes or anything when i'm driving down the road that thing is built solid and then there's some plywood that kind of runs through that slotted so i don't you know allow some airflow through there so i don't get any mold or mildew issues and this this little corner back here used to come all the way out but i had to cut into that that's one of the outside storage containers it's the only one i actually had cut and manipulated anyway it was just so i could fit the bed this is a full-size mattress and you can see i still have a full foot of space at the foot of the bed you know for other clothes and stuff but i think it's seven foot three from wall-to-wall in this thing which is pretty great for a van where the lights are is where the the ambulance lights used to be and so the wiring was already there and so instead of having those big huge um power draining lights that got really hot i just used that same wiring and popped in the leds and they've been working way better than those other ones they don't draw any power between them and the refrigerator it's the only power i really use in here never had an issue with drawing it too much so the ceiling it's tongue and groove cedar and it really kind of tied everything together between the wood and the white and everything accents well i got more cabinets over here again from the ambulance there's no reason for me to take them out they're built way better than i could have done and it just houses all sorts of random stuff my art supplies you know when i'm camped out in the middle of nowhere instead of watching movies or something i do like to paint or draw and then just some books um and then this is just kind of a junk drawer if you will of just random things that i toss in there that i can access quickly so this little bench seat here used to contin i used to go from the front all the way to the back um but i cut it down obviously when i put the bed in but i did leave this little part and it's more storage it's pretty much just turned into my dirty laundry bin um but it's it's been nice and then also it's obviously the seat with a seat belt again so you can have a passenger legally sit there so it's been it's been really nice i've always traveled a lot like like i said and i've spent a lot of time on boats where you you know you're very limited on things that you that you can have or that you should have or that you need to have really makes things you know that are important or that should be important important to you you know the things that you have in here are the things that you want and you absolutely need i really like that kind of simple lifestyle the more things you have the more problems you have as far as i'm concerned so so everything that i own is pretty much in this rig right now so a big selling point for for the ambulance why i wanted one was the outside storage um instead of trying to pile everything on the inside these things are already built with all these locking storage compartments this one actually does access my closet space and so you can access it from the inside or the outside but down here is a little bit of extra space that you can only access from this door this is where i just pretty much keep all my camping gear i have this one here which for the most part is just my tools um and other you know ropes and jumper cables and stuff like that i have a hatchet that i mounted on the door here you know for firewood and camping and whatever else so this this bike is kind of a newer addition to the whole ambulance build um this is a tw200 you know it's a small little bike but the thing is it's great it goes anywhere and it's street legal so i can take it anywhere i want to pretty much and the reason i have it is so if i want to get to a trail head that's down a smaller little dirt track or something at the ambulance you know it doesn't make sense to try to squeeze it down a road i can drop the bike and that gets me pretty much anywhere i need to go this side has even more storage than the other side as you can see these this big compartment this is the reason that the bed sits about as high as it does but it has so much stuff there's my spare tire this actually turns into my outdoor kitchen as tables you know a little coleman cooker and then as we move forward this is pretty much my water storage for the most part um this is a 16 gallon water tank just all fresh water and then it just drains into a six gallon gray water and then i do have a couple back up eight gallon or seven or eight gallon tanks that if i ever run out of here i can fill it up with those so i have 30 gallons of fresh water total so this front compartment is really kind of it houses a lot of the brains of the whole build i have the hot water heater instant hot water heater for my showers as well as this is where the garbage comes through into the garbage chute and so i can access and you know take the garbage and throw it into dumpsters i never have to deal with garbage on the inside at all it's all through this door um as well as my propane tank that's in there that i can access from the front and then extra water storage and then just some random random other things that just happen to fit in there so when this was used as an ambulance so i had to keep the truck running to operate all these different things that they were able to plug into the ambulance so in order to use all those things without draining the battery they could turn up the rpms on here so it would rev at a higher level so the alternator would keep those batteries charged they could use all those things and now it's just in the way and i hit my head on it when i go back and forth so that's pretty much all i use it did have a lot more controls and switches and stuff up here is huge big monster ugly you know 90s control platform but i cut all that out just kept the necessities like my pa system and the lights and you know random other things that are on here so one of the biggest um i guess additions i made to to the whole build was putting solar on the roof so on the roof there's 300 watts of of solar panels that actually sit between two racks again that my brother built for me that go along the side so there's no holes in the ceiling so there's no potential future leaks that come through which is was great you know so those those solar panels like i said they sit up there come through where the old light bar used to be through this compartment and then down into my battery bank which is here which is two six volt golf cart batteries wired in series to make one big 12 volt battery and it's i think i believe it's 230 amp hour and they work very very well i i haven't run low on on power at all you know between the refrigerator and the lights yeah more than enough for me i've been very fortunate in terms of you know my lifestyle and because i do live so simply i don't necessarily have to be working at the moment when i was younger i made some very good investments that i've been able to live off of as well as you know when i do need to work or i feel like i should work i am a licensed boat captain so i do work and you know run boats i and when i was in alaska i was running a fishing charter up there and then i'm a bartender so i can i'm easily able to pick up work anywhere doing that and then carpentry you know i was able to build this whole thing out so i'll lend a hand and my brother he's a general contractor so anytime i'm back home and he needs a hand i'll jump in and help him you know do a roof or something with him or remodel a kitchen or anything along those lines so in terms of work i'm pretty fortunate in in that regard so that i can live this lifestyle without having to think about where i'm gonna you know make my next buck so all in for the price of this build and the truck itself um the truck itself being four-wheel drive and being with low miles did cost me a little bit more than other ambulance you might find out there so it cost me nine grand for the truck and then i only put about i think around three maybe four grand into it so all in i'm like 13 grand on this whole build you know for a four-wheel drive pretty stout little truck um compared to like a mercedes sprinter or anything like that i think 13 grand is is pretty pretty nice so and the reason i was able to save so much money on this build is because everything that's in here i did pretty much myself i did have a little bit of help from some friends and a girl i was dating at the time um with some paint and she helped me take all the decals off on the side which is actually a lot of help my brother did give me a hand in terms of metal work a little bit of help with electrical work a friend of mine who's an electrician just to you know try to you know get it so i don't burn the place down so but beyond that it was pretty much all done by me the design the layout um all the you know the woodworking and everything like that was was all done by myself which definitely helped with cost for sure thanks for watching um if you enjoyed this tour of my tiny home feel free to follow me along i'm on instagram at adventure ambo and yeah i'll try to post stuff so you can see my adventures from there thanks

Channel: Tiny Home Tours

Views: 2,286,608

Keywords: tiny house, tiny house on wheels, living big in a tiny house, tiny house england, tiny house uk, tiny house movement, tiny home, small house, small spaces, small house design, alternative living, architecture, affordable home, off the grid, small space living, tiny house life, tiny home uk, diy tiny house, diy home

Id: ouWScgeA8u4

Length: 16min 47sec (1007 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 12 2020