THIS is the Best Ambulance Conversion I've Ever Seen (Extensive DIY Camper Van Build)

so I'm here with Jake and Tara and their two dogs Molly and Crown they have a beautiful ambulance conversion DIY ambulance they just hit the road a couple of weeks ago let's check it out [Music] I'm Jake and I'm Tara and this is Sarah our ambulance it's a 2010 E350 ambulance uh converted to live in six liter diesel with a four wheel drive conversion I'm a career mechanic so I used to own an automotive business for the last 10 years so it doubled as a very nice skill to have when when building this thing the four-wheel drive we did all in-house ourselves all the fan conversion was done all in-house by ourselves the automotive industry was definitely a fun part of our lives but we got to the point where we were ready to move on and try something new um I feel like everyone hits that 10-year break where they're just like tired of doing what I'm doing I want to try something else and for us we got married and decided we just wanted to see the world so we decided to close the shop sell our house all of our stuff better jobs better jobs and hit the road all right so here's the water compartment guys we got hot tap on-demand water 42 gallons of fresh water propane's up in the sealed compartment upstairs a couple trash cans this also doubles as our trash from the inside or outside the compartment closes off so no smelly Foods inside and you can take the trash out from that outside shakes baby all right so this is the solar compartment we got 400 amp hours of lithium lipo4 batteries a 3000 VA inverter from victron DC to DC charger 950 watts of solar on the roof and all tied together with this nice little Lynx distributor a lot of tucked away wires in there and you guys had to integrate the ambulance system with the power system in here right all right we did we kind of overlaid some things and then borrowed and stole the the consumers that we wanted for our own DC and then we kind of just left the rest there so everything is still in the ambulance we just utilize what we need but it's not just solar we got an onboard generator as well in case solar rainy day isn't working for us so we can fire this guy up it'll run our little 5K air conditioner in the back and all of our appliances everything inside horizontal 10 pound propane tank keeps us supplied for several hours and then the 10 liter diesel tank is for the diesel heater which is mounted in this upper corner up here all right so we got the 270 degree awning from Overland as well it wraps to this front corner and then all the way around the back and then the front here we also use their storage compartment on a Yakima skinny Warrior rack I believe and then we built the custom crossbars with the Smittybilt drip rail mounts and how do we get up there you ask we found this Nifty Guy online if I can get out of the back here and this is hooks in the door jamb here sets up and then now you can climb up I also got this little table over here that Jake mounted basically we can food prep out here and when we have our awning out we can just hang out in the shade this is our everything cabinet so it's accessible from the inside and the outside uh we got Terrace coffee maker espresso machine in there and then all of our games and our Frisbees and chairs and stuff that we're going to use you know quite often the motorcycle rack was partially my idea partially my dad's idea um basically it doubles the front and the back for motorcycle storage so when we're in town and set up camp and we just want to Bebop around or run and grab a supply we just unload the bike and Jet into town and cruise back and then if we're camped out and we want to have the doors open while we're camping we just throw the bike on the front so the bike mount from the back actually comes up plugs into these two receivers here with two 5 8 pins so that's how the bike doubles on the front for storage it's basically just an identical setup on both ends yep and it's actually stacked under each frame rail so you gain a lot of support and rigidity a lot of bike racks just use this Center style and you just have so much leverage on a bike That's Heavy you know traveling across the country going across bumps and rocks and off-road terrain that the you know having two fixed points a lot stronger foreign so this is the back of the ambulance ideally when it's nice and warm we'll have the doors open we have a little bug screen that sets in there with our bed set up we can look at it whatever beautiful place we happen to be staying the night this falls down and doubles as a table a table so I have this set up that basically you can adjust so if we're parked on an incline somewhere I can still make this table level all the time I got most of my tools and stuff in here that are just on slides hopefully we don't need this stuff have it it'll be nice if you have it you usually don't have to use it that's that's what I've learned [Applause] in the event that you need to get on the roof which hopefully we don't very often um we went up with a really simple setup it sucks to have a ladder on the back of these because you can't open the doors fully or you got to keep the ladder so close to the body but you really can't put your foot on it well so this was a fair compromise I wouldn't say it's any better but it's definitely lighter easier and it works for us so foreign this bar actually used to run the full length inside and that's what the paramedics would use to hold to you know stabilize themselves while they're working on a patient we basically took it down cut it off you know re-welded the same ends and then this is our hand hold you know get up on the roof it's pretty easy though and then just step up yep these two are two travel companions right here this is Molly and this crown we've had them for 12 and let's start over here stepping over dogs stepping over dogs so starting from right when you walk in I got this compartment right here this is the same one that you could see from outside my favorite part about this compartment is this is where I do my makeup I just have a little light up a light up mirror right here and uh the stairs double as a set for us to sit on this is our fridge freezer combo um pretty good size we can fit a lot of food in here we did keep the fridge all 12 volt as well so pretty much all of our consumers on the inside here are 12 volt DC I might mention too we do have a second source of heat which is right here we opted to leave the factory AC and heat unit it takes up a lot of space it's bulky but it works awesome it is so good while we're driving we can set the temperature we want back here so when we're we're where we want to be the temperature is what we want it to be so that's nice and the dogs love it the dogs like it yeah you can keep it warm or cool back here for them that's our diesel heater up in the corner there um if you check out our Channel I did some cool build videos on it we're able to build a stainless shroud for it so all the exhaust is all encased in that to keep it safe you know we don't want anything starting on fire all right this right here this is the outside of our pantry I made a little sign here underneath so this is all our food right here all of our Flats that can be in this little DeWalt thing and it holds quite a bit that we can be off grid for several weeks at a time with the food that we have behind the food there is a crazy relay panel that's all the factory ambulance stuff we opted to build a false wall and just in case it that's where we grabbed all of our DC consumers from welcome to the kitchen uh so our whole theme with with this ambulance build was to keep it as much ambulance as possible honestly um there used to be a counter here so we redid the counter added a sink um this is that compartment I was telling you guys about from the outside so our trash goes in there kind of seals up nice you don't got to smell your you know rotten food after a few days fit one drawer into this guy and then gray water under the sink just a simple two gallon down there we kept a lot of the original Cabinetry and cut some of it out but we were able to utilize it exactly as it was and then just cover it up and make it look look a little bit more aesthetic yeah and then the cabinets that we or the pantry and cabinets that we took out of this area we were able to actually cut down and reuse all the material to build these upper cabinets here so we tried to reuse as much as we could throughout this whole build this is our battery monitor this is how we monitor how much voltage is going into our batteries and how much we have this panel is Factory so this used to control all the the interior ambulance functions a lot of them were able to reuse so you know we did our own LED lighting and stuff now but we're able to reuse the switches suction that's out there now controls fans for the um the lithium batteries to keep them cool we still have exhaust fan use the patient heat cool button right here is what controls this AC and heat unit so we can control the temperature of this whole back compartment with that and moving on on to cooking we have a little propane stove and oven unit I see these on a lot of people's builds I think everybody loves them it's worked well for us so far originally when this was an ambulance this whole section right here is where the paramedics would sit and then strap themselves in so that we already have this cut out down here was where the seat belt used to buckle and Jake turned this into um storage for all my baking Goods over here he made a little bit a little medicine cabinet and spice drawer so that is really nice to be able to utilize that space pretty much everything in here has dual purpose so if you find a couple inches you have to use it that is one of my favorite things about this build and what you guys did is just taking all that space that was already there and just maximizing everything around what was there before yeah the one thing if I could change we would have done the full you know extendo ceiling but um that was just not in the cards for us to do at this point but I'm six foot I gotta slouch a little bit in here to you know be comfortable or you know get the the wide stance but honestly we're adapting you know pretty easily if that's my biggest complaint you know I think we're gonna be all right so now we're moving into the bedroom area um right here we have our little bench it used to be a little bit shorter and Jake extended it out and his mom made these cushions they used to be blue and for the paramedics and now they're matching the rest of our Decor under here as you can see we have a hole compartment for all of our shoes hats socks underwear and dirty clothes that's one thing that we didn't think of until when we started to make these compartments was where do your dirty clothes go so that was a key a key component right there for us all these pillows also double as their use they are really comfortable on your back and then also they have all of our clothes in there so all of our our thick clothes for winter jackets and you know all the puffy stuff also is a pretty nice pillow up here these are the cabinets that we were talking about that Jake had utilized from the other side he cut them down and was able to extend them all the way across and use these the same slides so that way they match the rest of the decor up here when we're laying in bed we just flip this down right here we have a projector that sits right on top of there and then this pulls down and we can watch a movie that night and then this bed folds away it does fold away yeah it's a trifold bed and we'll show you how we do that it's over you know Optimus Prime transformed is a table so I actually sit there all right Sarah's little the skinnier one so she actually pulls out the cooler this is dinner perfect dinner games whatever we want and these are actually really important right here because we spilled a couple beers so yeah so the yeti is actually just a double storage for us to have some extra food and drinks so you good old Miller Lite just here for storage exactly and a seat so that's what I sit on it's the perfect height for the seat exactly bedding normally all goes in here and then that just slides underneath this little cubby and then this is some of our big storage so like our hiking gear big jackets torque wrench there's a lot of storage in here there's a lot thank God there's not more because we would have filled it oh yeah we would have found something to put in there in there I'm super proud of this this is just a little latch you'd find in a bathroom stall but it basically locks both both doors one or neither um but this pulls out this is the dog stuff we got some dog toys toilet paper canned goods more dog stuff I really like the uh the latch I like that and then up here we have Pinnacle of the build the we brought with us with us my closet and this is Jake's closet and if you knew what we were coming with coming from oh my gosh this is a huge from like a a converted bedroom closet walk-in to like four square feet so yeah if that honestly it's kind of nice to be able to get rid of some all the extra bulk again you don't really need everything that you think you need so yes we're finding that out I think a month from now I think we'll drop like two or three hundred pounds off this thing stuff one other cool thing I did want to mention my mom and Tara built these I'm super proud of the work they did but they have uh blackout curtains or shades helps insulate a little bit but it is dark in here we made one for the roof vent as well but when everything's closed up it is Pitch Black in here so Tara's a traveling nurse basically and she works a lot of night shifts so that gives her the capability to actually sleep during the day in the room we tried to keep with the the whole stainless appearance if you've ever seen a stock ambulance they just have all this really cool stainless trim and we really wanted to just keep that throughout so everything we could we tried to match to the factory stuff we did a stainless backsplash you know we broke all that and cut it up at my dad's shop even down to just like the little door watch out Molly um we got a stainless face on it but we built like a nice aluminum frame for it honestly I just worked with what I know so I'm not a wood guy I'm a steel guy so we broke this up at the shop and it's just a piece of stainless that we're able to basically Bend up for two sets of shoes let's open it on the bottom so all your mud and rocks and fall out okay so the floor actually we tried to keep it industrial but the floor is all rubber we left that that was the factory of the ambulance um the stainless perimeter kind of give us the option to just hose this thing out um the dogs are messy they stink I'm not gonna lie but it's nice to be able to just sweep this out or you know Swiffer it out or whatever it is right yeah we chose to keep this flooring just because it was already so durable yeah Tara has a rug that she wants to put down and cover up all this beautiful black rubber flooring but honestly the rug is uh decorative it's not going to be very functional it hasn't come out yet well this is how it all started so Tara's dad I don't even know what would you call them a hippie almost uh yeah he calls himself a dirt bag like that's how he likes to he bought a van and he likes to travel around in his van and during coven he the height of kovid he was like I want to go up to Canada and buy this ambulance and I was like you're not going to Canada to buy an ambulance in the middle of a pandemic and he didn't but then we started thinking about the whole ambulance thing and it's like oh an ambulance actually is a really good apparatus for Van life because for several reasons I mean it's already a square it already has electrical in it it's so modular being it's like perfectly square like fitting things in it is so much easier to do on a notepad than like a sprinter where the walls are round and you know cabinets have to be built you know so specific and then the aluminum frame I think I told you a little bit earlier but two by two eighth wall you know aluminum gives you so much mounting points for for everything yeah plus it's structural um they already come with ours came with like a bunch of r19 insulation and stuff already in it so that portion of it's kind of already done for you it already has the Cabinetry honestly if you just bought an ambulance you could live in it very simply and you wouldn't have to do it as as much as we did but we wanted it to be fully livable and feel like we were at home they're cool because you can an ambulance allows you to live at any level of Van life like very beginner get in the van you have an inverter get some hot water and you can camp you know what I mean you got everything you need most of them have a little bench a single person could you know just sleep on it like a cot yeah it gets you in the door to get out there and start enjoying it there's just so many good points to the ambulance I do have a question are you guys like weirded out at all by being in an ambulance and knowing that it was an ambulance in the past and people do ask us that question I'm not weirded out about it at all but I'm also not weird I work in the medical field so it's very familiar to me right I feel like we've changed the look of it so much that you don't think of it as being a place where lives were saved you think I think of it as a home now yeah you know imagine at one point there's like blood splatter also I'm sure I'm sure I'm sure but you know it's got a new life now I guess and I'd like to think of it as like think of how many lives this has saved and now it's you know started a new life for us this gives us the best I think ground to really make a transformation in our whole lives yeah and I feel like since we did completely convert it and made it feel like a home we sold our actual home in Colorado and the transition to moving into here was pretty easy what uh what sparked you guys to make that transition because you you had a house you sold the house you've kind of business whole business honestly we needed a big change you know so we had just um we've been married a year now a little over a year almost a year and a half but we decided yeah we've been together 10 years but we made a decision that when we got married we were going to try something new and you know change our lifestyles and um we have a lot of work to do in that but you know we want to use this as a platform to find ourselves again find our passions again not be caught up so much in work spend more time you know talking with God and reading our Bible and also Fitness like we want to get back in shape and do you know all these things that are going to make us better people and there's just so much more freedom and time available when you're living this way yeah to you know do what matters I feel like you can just really focus on the positive changes that you want to make in your life when you're not working a nine to five um we have a lot of free time right now and we want to utilize the free time in a positive way yeah that's that's the whole reason I got into van life the same thing just trying to get more free time so that I could focus on doing the things that I was passionate about and it's awesome huge thank you to Tara and Jake for taking the time to show us around their ambulance conversion and share their story with us it was kind of just random that we met them we were parked next to them at a harvest host back when we were in Louisiana I've had this video for a little while but figured this was a good time to share it with you guys I know it's a little bit of a break from the off-grid content that we've been doing just a quick van life break for a week or so here but it was really awesome to get the chance to meet them I would definitely recommend checking out their Instagram it is at onlyvan's LLC I'll put a link in the description below so you guys can check that out they've been documenting their experience while they've been traveling around in the ambulance for the past few months and I think their plan is to continue to travel in that ambulance for the indefinite future like they're they're going to be on the road full time and there's also some information on that Instagram some of the older posts about the build itself and some of the things that they were doing to uh to convert the ambulance I think my favorite part of their build is just that they did such a great job seamlessly integrating the old ambulance components with the new they made it into a nice home and it looks quite a bit different than it did originally but at the same time they were still able to do all that metal work and all that steel work to really just kind of make it look really nice overall and just a very utilitarian build as well they have everything that they could ever possibly need on the road and then some and then also the mechanical stuff that they did I mean I can't even like comprehend how difficult it must be to do something like your own four-wheel drive conversion on a vehicle like that kind of just blows my mind obviously Jake was a lifelong mechanic though so it makes a little bit more sense for him but uh really really awesome that they were able to put that much work into that thing over the span of nine months and now they're out there on the road living their dream it was really really awesome like I said to get the chance to meet them and hopefully we'll see him again at some point down the road I can't thank you all enough for watching and for following Along on this journey I'll talk to you guys in the next one [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Element Life

Views: 55,655

Keywords: ambulance camper, ambulance conversion, ambulance, van life, van living, off grid living, off grid life, live in an ambulance, living in an ambulance, full time travel, full time van life, why choose van life, life on the road, camper, camper van, ambulance build, camper build, diy, diy camper build, diy 4 wheel drive, diy 4x4, sold everything, amazing ambulance camper, diy camper, ambulance tiny house, off grid ambulance, couple sells everything, element life

Id: PObD1fLnS7M

Length: 23min 12sec (1392 seconds)

Published: Fri May 05 2023