retiredmedic
New member
First, I have to say that my hair brained scheme of converting some or all of a retired ambulance into a camper seems much more reasonable after seeing the results of some similar projects on here; Some amazing talent involved in some very cool conversions, I feel like a rank amateur to attempt this when looking at other projects, but also I feel I am on the right track.
The back story- We lost our camper to fire a couple years ago, and have not been able to replace it due to finances. I miss having it, especially when I want to travel and stay with friends away from my home. I have severe PTSD from line of duty, serving as a civilian Flight Paramedic, and having my own personal space when I travel makes things a LOT easier for a lot of reasons. The back of an ambulance was always my safe place, my “office”, and using a space like this for travel makes sense to me.
I recently saw an old ambulance box in someones yard when we were travelling in Maine, and thought it would be a great project to mount this on a trailer and use it as a tow behind camper. When I finally went back to ask about it, it was sold as scrap and was disassembled by the time I found it, so I turned to looking for another box in Neighbouring Maine, as all ambulances in New Brunswick are leased Type II vehicles that are resold to other areas after they are in service for a few years, so they were out of my price range and a little small. The only lead I found was a full Type III ambulance for sale by a small town by sealed bid, so I submitted a bid for $1,111 not expecting to win, but I included a note that said “If I am not the successful bidder, please tell the winner that I am interested in buying the rear box if they have no use for it”. I reasoned someone would buy the old ambulance to convert to a flat deck or dump truck and would not likely want the box. Weeks went by, and I forgot about it, thinking it was bought by someone else.
Out of the blue, I received a call from the town clerk to tell me I was the high bidder! I drove down the next day to pay for the unit, and take my first in-person look. For a 21 year old unit, it looked to be in great shape. I knew it had tranny issues, but it would drive for short distances, and the diesel engine started easily and ran flawlessly. At first, I thought I could take the whole rig across the border and sell the chassis to offset the camper project, but decided to take some time to think on it, as it would take a couple weeks to get the paperwork finished up and complete the export to Canada.
I opted to have the unit towed the two hour drive to the border, drive it across to complete the export/ import, then drive it a short distance on the highway to see how badly the tranny was slipping and re-assess if it needed to be towed or was OK to drive the 1.5 hours home. It performed fairly well on the highway at 55 mph (90 km/hr-ish), so I kept it going until it arrived home, without issues. It did slip occasionally, but I got a better feel for how it behaved in different circumstances. The drive also impressed me in terms of how well the truck handled… I was used to Type II trucks that had rough rides, but this thing rode like a Cadillac. It felt “homey”, and I thought keeping the unit intact and converting it to my needs made the most sense.
This is a picture of how it is sitting in my yard, more details to follow in another post. I am hoping that other folks on here may contribute a hint or tip as I progress.
The back story- We lost our camper to fire a couple years ago, and have not been able to replace it due to finances. I miss having it, especially when I want to travel and stay with friends away from my home. I have severe PTSD from line of duty, serving as a civilian Flight Paramedic, and having my own personal space when I travel makes things a LOT easier for a lot of reasons. The back of an ambulance was always my safe place, my “office”, and using a space like this for travel makes sense to me.
I recently saw an old ambulance box in someones yard when we were travelling in Maine, and thought it would be a great project to mount this on a trailer and use it as a tow behind camper. When I finally went back to ask about it, it was sold as scrap and was disassembled by the time I found it, so I turned to looking for another box in Neighbouring Maine, as all ambulances in New Brunswick are leased Type II vehicles that are resold to other areas after they are in service for a few years, so they were out of my price range and a little small. The only lead I found was a full Type III ambulance for sale by a small town by sealed bid, so I submitted a bid for $1,111 not expecting to win, but I included a note that said “If I am not the successful bidder, please tell the winner that I am interested in buying the rear box if they have no use for it”. I reasoned someone would buy the old ambulance to convert to a flat deck or dump truck and would not likely want the box. Weeks went by, and I forgot about it, thinking it was bought by someone else.
Out of the blue, I received a call from the town clerk to tell me I was the high bidder! I drove down the next day to pay for the unit, and take my first in-person look. For a 21 year old unit, it looked to be in great shape. I knew it had tranny issues, but it would drive for short distances, and the diesel engine started easily and ran flawlessly. At first, I thought I could take the whole rig across the border and sell the chassis to offset the camper project, but decided to take some time to think on it, as it would take a couple weeks to get the paperwork finished up and complete the export to Canada.
I opted to have the unit towed the two hour drive to the border, drive it across to complete the export/ import, then drive it a short distance on the highway to see how badly the tranny was slipping and re-assess if it needed to be towed or was OK to drive the 1.5 hours home. It performed fairly well on the highway at 55 mph (90 km/hr-ish), so I kept it going until it arrived home, without issues. It did slip occasionally, but I got a better feel for how it behaved in different circumstances. The drive also impressed me in terms of how well the truck handled… I was used to Type II trucks that had rough rides, but this thing rode like a Cadillac. It felt “homey”, and I thought keeping the unit intact and converting it to my needs made the most sense.
This is a picture of how it is sitting in my yard, more details to follow in another post. I am hoping that other folks on here may contribute a hint or tip as I progress.
