Ultimate 4x4 DIY Ambulance Conversion - Off Grid Overland Vehicle Tour

[Music] rototill tellers rolling souls I've been into the campers for 20-25 years I bought a Volkswagen Vanagon way back when and after that one burned down I bought a second one and really enjoyed them and that just kind of started a lifestyle I've always liked to get out and have everything that I need with me get out here in a place like this and be able to live and be comfortable after those I had a long space where I didn't have any campers and then I see what I do I had a sports 'mobile I had a Chinook I kind of went through all these different campers and fixed him up played with him figure out what I liked and didn't like always thought I was going to keep him but ended up selling every one of them and then this one's hopefully the end of that string to prove that I don't have a camper problem and with this one I tried to incorporate all the things that I had always wanted and the other ones the things I was trying to get I'd had many campers in the past where I always push the weight limits or went over the weight limits so when I decided to build my own I wanted to make sure that I didn't come up against that issue so I got the medium duty which allowed me to put everything I want in there and have the space for toys and whatnot when I chose the ambulance the reason I ended up with this is because it fit a lot of it checked a lot of boxes it it was big enough it was four-wheel drive the box was already done I didn't have to build it it was sturdy it's the value for the cost is amazing so when you add up all those checked boxes it just made a lot of sense an ambulance is just such an easy package to get and I mean you can live in it the day you bought it right it doesn't take much conversion to make it into a tiny home or a good camper hello fellow youtubers my name is Tom and from this angle it may not look it but this is my tiny home it's a Chevy Duramax or GMC or they call it a Kodiak or a top kick that's the model of truck it's a 4,500 four-wheel drive with the Duramax diesel in it it's a 6.6 liter diesel engine and this truck was a medium duty ambulance owned by Yellowstone National Park I bought it almost three years ago now it had less than 14,000 miles on it so is it smelled new when I got it I was really lucky I didn't get it for you know some people say I got an ambulance for $4,000 no I paid a lot more than that but basically got a brand new truck they tend to retire ambulances at either 10 years or a hundred thousand miles so this one was about ten years old and there are many sites online where you can search for him to find him I came up with lost box I was trying to find a good acronym I liked lost because that's where I tend to be out in the boonies and it's supposed to stand for living outside the box these are not the stock tires and wheels they came with duley's in the back and smaller tires up front there were 32 inches they looked weird and I wanted to go off-road I want to go in the sand so I decided to go with the super singles they're called the reason the tires are so big is this is the smallest you can get for the weight rating of this vehicle the truck weighs 17,500 pounds and that's the smallest tire you can get in a single for that weight rating so this used to be the oxygen box oxygen tank box I guess and I turned it into the electrical box that's a inflatable stand-up paddleboard so this electrical board right here from top to bottom used to be in the shower and I really wanted to have a pass through in the shower so I was able to cut the box out and get this panel out to here and remount it basically all this is is stock ambulance the wiring and these things is on these things are just absolutely incredible and it just seems like a shame to not use it I mean I can tap into any of those relays everything's protected circuit these are the victor on batteries 200 amp hours each there's the multi plus the solar controller and it's about it so electrical box basically and put paddle board there so this is kind of the water cabinet water and other things other things storage a little L track up there to hang the things this is one summers worth of compost and for a nature said toilet and one person let me just move this other thing okay so this is it's a kuma water heater the engine coolant comes in when it get little thermostat opens so it heats the water with a heat exchanger of course with engine coolant as you drive and then it also has an electrical option it's 110 volt electrical option so this six gallon water heater will stay warm for a couple days if it's relatively warm out if it's really cold you get one day out of it after you park this is a UV light and then I have three-stage filters only the drinking water goes through the charcoal filter this is I think five micron that's one micron I have it set up with the multitude of valves to where I can do a lot of different things mostly I want it to look pretty but I can suck up pond water really clean pond to hope and I can run it through everything and it should be drinkable by the time I'm done I could fill up my tanks that way I have a little legend here for my my valve so P is pump so right now I'm on the pump so as long as every P is facing up then I will be able to use my pump inside if you don't do that you've got to do algebra to figure out what to do with these for house but yeah the valves are just there to allow me to have all those options this is just hey another one of those signs this is used to be the garbage can for the ambulance but this is hoses and whatnot and that's about it all things that make you have to work so basic tools are right here and filters and oil and lube and all that and you think I'm sponsored by de Waal once you get a couple of those tools you gotta stick with them I guess anyway if anything breaks this is where I go if I need to repair alright so one of the reasons I don't have a ton of space inside my campers because I really wanted to have a garage space one of the things that I really like to do when I travel is to ride he's in her spikes or whatever you need to put in here my plan because this thing is so big is too it's an ambitious plan there's a fuel tank underneath I want to remove it and build saddle tanks up front there are no batteries up front where they normally put them and then put this tire so just another compartment for storage the really cool thing about the ambulance is it's you know everything's just so sturdy and tough and I can bounce down roads and you know nothing's gonna happen at least to the structure maybe to the stuff I did so that's where the bed is cut out up top this used to go all the way up of course in here a fire extinguisher that would be really hard to get to in an emergency and then the tall things there's a bike stands potential as a shovel table and this is SodaStream refill so tall storage notice that every time I open one of these the light comes on inside it also lights up a red light on the dash which is kind of nice because if I leave one open I'll see that and then won't drive away this is just all things bike my pack my choose tools helmet everything everything for mountain biking is in there this is squishy blue ball for some kid in Mexico edit the Baja Friday and this is the these are the batteries for the truck they come this is an error code I plugged into the air tank so I can refill my tires or whatever else I need to do I had to cut when I move the toilet over I had to slice into that box but it's kind of neat because I I sliced out a piece I was able to just turn that piece over and weld it right back in and it was the perfect floor size for the composting toilet so this is the place where you load your groceries if you don't want to get inside and honestly I don't really do it much I haven't completely decided if I'm gonna keep this open I have come in here and grab food once a while when I'm cooking outside this is one of the electronic locks that keep the doors from opening and it's just uh this one's just a pin lock so you push the button and the pin goes right there and longstead yeah so I have an antenna mast here for C am/fm radio the sure cell repeater and then the black thing is a TV antenna I just do the same thing here welcome to the inside you can see it's mostly white I wanted to use the it's called starboard instead of wood I wanted to keep it basically waterproof not having to worry about any water damage and I knew I'd have lots of windows pictures devices everywhere so so I want it to be more a marine look I want to be very sturdy it's it's kind of a unique build because it's got the windows up high I want to have tons of light and I was tired of having other RVs where you have to go like this to look out and so that's why the dinette is up high as well so my sight line is you know looking out all the windows and then when I sit in the dinette I get the same thing I'm up there my head is about the same height so I had this list of things that I wanted with the big windows I wanted the skylight and yeah I just kind of put this together based on that list so the table top or the the table base is a marine base just like the material it came from boat Outfitters I think actually and it's collapsible so I can kind of make this into a lower bed storage everywhere right in a small space you've got to make everything count so their storage under everything behind both seat backs there's little slots for storage this is kind of unique there's just a drawer slide on the table so you can slide that out get in and out and pull it up snug to you when you want to eat your dinner or get on your laptop so an example of storage I mean that's just dirty clothes but it's just huge box it goes straight to the floor and then this piece is just it's basically a step to get up but once again you know you've got to have as much storage as you can and under this one is the the sbar heater you can see the intake there and the output and there's a subwoofer there there's a water tank back there and for an air conditioner right now turns out not to be my best idea but it's just a rolling home air conditioner and it's it's not very efficient so I will be changing that in the future so back here the bed is it's about a full-size bed it's a couple layers of foam the top one's memory foam kind of like what everybody does and there's a little shelf on the side over here a little shelf up there with some controls and control the heater from there or from the other side a 20 or by 24 skylight that opens and it has a screen and the cover the blackout that hole there is where one of the lights were from the ambulance and so I had to try to come up with ways to use those and not have to weld each and every one of them close because that's a lot of work I really love those you know they came out nice and I really like peeking out there because there's no other way to see out the back my girlfriend is in Washington with her family right now but she's going to meet me in Baja we're going to travel back out so my clothing storage is way over there this is her storage area here and a couple handles here just lift this and there's a girlfriend closet so when I got this it had one window about that size a little smaller and it was about a foot below that one down here so I I cut these windows the holes and I took one of the holes and trimmed it to fit that other hole that I took out and then bonded it and all you can see my not so good bondo work out there all right to the kitchen so I had the countertop made it's basically a chorion type this is a garbage can back here filtered water regular water hot and cold and then a little kind of a bar sink type thing that's built into the countertop something I really wanted was no edge to go there you know for bowls well the minor silver for plates little rice cooker there's a microwave down there ever a robust electrical system so the microwave stays on you can just use it any time so for fresh water I have 75 gallons including the low water here so this is a induction cooktop it's got two burners burners works really well I really like these things I heard stories about people saying that it wouldn't go down enough to simmer soup or something like that and I don't find that to be true at all so this is an isotherm fridge I believe it's the I think it's the ein ox mm I'm not positive it's 12 volt or 110 it's only hooked up to 12 right now it's got a lot of room I think it might be seven cubic feet I believe it's five and two there's the fridge side yeah no complaints I've always wanted have a freezer right and so it's wonderful to have that it uses a little bit of power but I do have the electrical system to handle it alright other side across from the fridge we have kind of let's see what is this there's some more bedroom there there's some entertainment and this is just open shelving for goodies garbage can so these are this is basically 90% of my clothes on that one and and these these have magnet locks any of the doors that slide including this door the pantry door they're magnetically locked and I can show you how that works so this is the pantry basically this is all the dry goods in one place and then this is just you know this is kind of my junk drawer that's where my keys go and stuff like that girlfriends junk drawer and then all the spices and cooking stuff tea and coffee and then I don't know mechanical truck stuff this is the garbage container or garbage can in here I really like these infectious waste doors so I tried to put them everywhere I could so that's the garbage can when you don't want to throw it just in the little sink hole there there's a composting toilet on the other side of this wall and I don't like to put the paper in the composting toilet so this is another little tiny one where you can dump it into the same garbage and that's kind of a little utility closet there as well all right this is kind of the control station although I like the switches so there are a few other places where we have some this is one of the things I really wanted to build in this camper it's the victor on is it the GC GX maybe control center so it shows your battery stay your how much solar is coming in and how much is going out basically the solar system is armed sorry the electrical system is all vic tron except for the panel's so i have a multi + 3000 watt inverter I have two lithium batteries for 400 amps and I have 1300 watts of solar on the roof so I like the I like movies so I play movies on the screen here I have a Raspberry Pi that I can hook into here I also have just over-the-air TV so this is where all the electrical stuff goes but mostly it's filled with this standard home surround sound receiver so you can slide the TV door closed and then we go into the bathroom so I cut a hole in the floor and I welded up a 2 inch 2 or 3 inch aluminum pan for the shower pan and then I welded that in and then I just put a great across it I have a composting toilet that it's a nature's head and I got rid of the pea bottle because that's the most disgusting part of a nature's head and so that goes into an 8 gallon yellow tank they call it I didn't want to use all of the space so I kept I kind of measured and realized that you don't have to have head height in your toilet compartment because when you sit down you don't sit down like this you bend down and sit and so I fit right in here nice and cozy there are some switches in here as well so we have the bathroom light and we have I don't remember so we'll talk about the shower in a second and the toilet fan and then there's also a exhaust fan up here thanks to the ambulance I had lots of goodies like that that I could repurpose the toilet room is kind of fun because I have anybody that wants to can go in there and write something on the wall so we write everything and there's all kinds of quotes and sayings and whatnot so this vehicle was commercially insured and not an RV and according to the state of Arizona there are four things or they're I think a list of six things you have to do to become an RV I wanted to get this thing on the road and so I needed a sink and I couldn't find a sink so I just made one out of this material it's pretty amazing and I thought it was gonna be temporary but I turns out I really liked it and I just finished it off and it came out good I thought the shower in here works a little bit different than other showers I didn't want to have to waste water I built this thing to be out in the hills for maybe as long as I could with my 75 gallons so one of the places where you waste a lot of water is you turn the water and you wait for it to get hot so I put a recirculating water line in and then I have it on a there's a cylinder valve so you flip a switch it opens a cylinder the pump pumps the hot water through the lines and back into the freshwater tank so I do that first and now the lines are hot and then I also have a thermostatic mixing valve so I don't have any on-and-off hot and cold hot and cold both come into here you just set the temperature and I don't move it anymore because it's the perfect temperature for me and now you flip a switch in here which opens another cylinder valve which energizes the shower and then you just use this to turn it off and on so I have magnetic locks on all the doors the switches are up here so I can just flip this switch and it releases this magnetic lock and allows this to open and then it also locks in the front or the open position which is how I generally drive and so there's the pastor to my cab I've pulled into a place when I'm traveling and I just crawl through I come in the back I make my food I go to sleep I get up I need to go I don't even step outside I don't even open that door right I just go right back in there and I drive away it's not easy getting rid of your stuff and going into such a small space but once you do it it's so liberating it's basically just freedom this vehicle allows me to get out a little bit further and stay there long as I want basically until I run out of food the electrical system provides all the power I need 75 gallons of water will ask me a long time depending on showers so it's it's been the right fit for me I'm not a campground guy I spent all last year I camped in one campground and that was because they had great trails for biking it was just convenient the trail started and ended in that campground everything you need is with you all the time you know it's hard to drive this into town sometimes you know it's bulky it's bouncy it's basically a giant dump truck but when you pull into the grocery store you know I pre eat so I don't buy a bunch of junk you know it's just the lifestyle is amazing you can follow the water the weather I call it following the butter if the butter turns into liquid you need to go north if the butter is rock-hard you need to go south it just works out in so many different ways for me I appreciate you watching everybody Chris thank you so much for taking the time to come out here and film this if anybody has any interest in the vehicle or what I'm doing I do have a blog it's lost box dot o-- r-- g-- and then you can find me on instagram @ @ the lost box with underscores between each word

Channel: Tiny Home Tours

Views: 1,563,004

Rating: 4.9246278 out of 5

Keywords: tiny home, tiny house, tiny home on wheels, van life, camper van, shipping container, design, tiny houses, tiny homes, tiny house tour

Id: wssu8Wp9W74

Length: 23min 3sec (1383 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 28 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/BigTanVan05]

I haven’t watched this video recently, but I remember him saying that this is the fourth or so camper he built, he wanted a big ambulance, and it was not a cheap build at all. Can be off grid for a few weeks. He has a really awesome water filtration/ heating setup as well.

Also, I like that he added windows along the top of the inside as opposed to mid height.

[u/Microphilia]

That bed height is claustrophobic... And limiting if you have anyone you want to share it with for... Activities. I always wonder what you short-overhead-bed people do!

[u/thisAintMyFirstUser]

I saw this video a month or two ago and I've been looking for it again recently. Thanks OP.

I would love to know the purchase price of the vehicle. An ambulance built on a Kodiak 4x4 chassis, plus insanely low miles.

[u/TBearRyder]

This is beautiful!

[u/fast-as-fuck]

These rigs look very cool but remember they are 12+ feet high, over 11,000 lbs, are top heavy (high CG), and will sink to the floorboards almost immediately when faced with deep mud or sand. If you get either axle cantilevered in a ditch you will almost certainly snap it (or break other suspension parts) leaving you stranded.