Stealth Camper Van

There’s a lot of videos, blogs and articles about “stealth camper vans.” Seriously? Don’t even bother with stealth. It’s a waste of time. 

I could go into any Walmart parking lot and point to which vehicles were being lived it. My accuracy rate would be way up there. First of all, they are in the back of a Walmart parking lot. What the heck else would they be doing there if not for housing someone for the night? You see any van type vehicle in the regular overnight parking spots and odds are it’s someone’s home. 

If you see a van out on Federal land in a dispersed camping area -it’s occupied. You might as well put on some solar panels and other creature comforts. You aren’t fooling anybody but yourself. 

In my travels I’ve come across only two vehicles that had pretty good stealth. One was a big box truck. They could park in an industrial area near other work trucks and nobody would notice. I saw them in a county campground and they’d opened up hidden windows and a fold out staircase. The conversion was a work of art. When traveling there was no hint this was anything but your basic cube truck. 

Then there was a guy who had a “construction van.” It had a business name on the side and ladders on the roof. The guy made a habit of spending his nights parked near construction areas. His rig looked just like any of the other contractor vans out there. 

Of course, if I saw either of those vehicles parked on a Walmart back lot I’d be suspicious. 

Frankly, most “stealth van” builds aren’t worth it. Any security guard or cop with more than three months on the job gets a feel for who’s who. Stealth builds might fool a lot of people. What it won’t do is fool the very people who’ll knock on your door and tell you to move along.

-Sixbears

Vehicle to home conversions

There’s a lot of information on the Internet about people who convert vehicles into traveling mini-homes. Having converted an ambulance I’ve some ideas on the practice.

There are some really nice conversions out there. Some people put a lot of time and money into their vehicles. In many cases that’s a mistake. I’ve seen where someone did an amazing conversion: fine wood work, sophisticated water and electrical systems, and great attention to detail. No expense was spared.

Then I see the base vehicle that they started with is something like a 1987 Chevy Van with 200,000 miles on it. No matter how well it was maintained or updated, it’s an old van. It will fail. Then you are stuck with a lot of money sunk into a dead vehicle.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t do a conversion on an older vehicle. Just don’t spend a lot of money on it. You could also built it in such a way that the components can easily be removed and installed in something else. For example, when I finally sold my van, the fridge, bed, microwave, tables, and solar electric system were all easy to remove. All of that stuff found new homes.

If you are going to spend crazy money on a van to live in, might as well buy something ready to go. There are quite a few choices based on Mercedes Benz, Ford, GMC, and RAM vehicles.

Of course, some people convert vans for the joy of doing the conversion. Actually using them is secondary. If you are going to really use such a vehicle for extended periods of time I recommend going one of two ways. Either go high end and get something commercial, or go low end and do a quick and dirty conversion. If you take a used older vehicle and put a lot of money into it, it will break your heart when the engine or transmission fails.

-Sixbears

Uncampering?

I've decided to strip the van of all the camping stuff I added to it. The bed and tables are out. Yesterday the house battery, 1000 watt inverter and charge controller were removed. The solar panel will come off when it stops raining. There's still a microwave to remove and plenty of miscellaneous gear.

The whole waste veggie tank and system will stay. That's a technology that's run its course for me. In the past, I've salvaged veggie components to use in the next veggie vehicle conversion. There won't be a next veggie vehicle. There's a couple of reasons for that. Waste veggie use to be readily available. Now it's harder to find free sources as there's a commercial bio-fuels market. The second reason is that diesel engines have become too complicated to easily convert over to waste veggie oil.

I had a good long run with waste veggie vehicles, two Mercedes cars, a Ford F-250 truck, and now this E-350 van. The van's 7.3 turbo diesel powerstroke engine has just enough electronic gizmos to be finicky. I had to be extra careful on the veggie I used and the temperature of the oil. A couple of rather expensive electric pumps burned out before I figured that out. Still, over the years, I've saved thousands of dollars on fuel.

The van will be sold on the cheap. I'm going to be very clear about its problems. It could be fixed up and registered again, but I don't have the time, money, or energy for that. Perhaps it would be a good source of parts. The tires alone will probably be worth what I'll ask for it.

My lovely wife and I have a camping trip planned for early July. Looks like we'll just throw a tent in the back of the car and call it good. No problems. My lovely wife never lost her love of tents. It's all good.

-Sixbears

Back to van projects

Overall, we've really enjoyed our ambulance, converted to mini camper, converted to run on waste veggie oil. Sometimes we run into issues, mostly do to the fact that it's a Wheeled Coach ambulance package grafted onto a Ford one ton van. The fact that I've grafted on a custom experimental fuel system doesn't help much either. Sometimes the pieces just do not work all that well together.

Take, for example, the second starting battery. This is my current pet peeve. Since it's a giant 7.3 liter turbo diesel shoe horned into a van, there's not a lot of room in there. They barely squeezed in one of the starting batteries under the hood. The second battery is located in the Wheeled Coach part.

The schematics show the battery on the passenger side of the vehicle. Nope. It's not there. It's on the driver's side, squeezed into a tight corner. I did not even know it was there when I installed the veggie tank, filter assembly, and 6 way valve. The new veggie parts cut off access to the second battery.

Even if the tank wasn't there it would have been tough to get to. A trained monkey with extra long arms and the ability to work blind might have had a good shot at it. Normal humans on the other hand . . .

So I've been giving it the old college try. I've ignored the problem and hoped not to have to deal with it. (what, where you do go to college?) Okay, to give it a real college try I'd also have had to order a pizza and drink a few cheap beers. Unfortunately, that's not a long term solution.

The second battery is getting pretty weak. I've made up for it by getting a really good Interstate starting battery, the largest and most powerful that would fit. It's reached the point where the bad battery is draining the good battery. To prevent that I've wired up a solar panel so that it can be switched from the auxiliary (3rd) battery that I use camping to the charging batteries. That's fine when I'm not camping, but not really a fix.

I've been dreading pulling the veggie tank. My fear is that after removing the tank and all the hoses, battery access would still be too tight for my huge ham hands. Today I figured out what to do. That battery really needs is its own access panel. I'm going to cut open the side of the van and put my own compartment door. There's a nice piece of heavy aluminum plate in my scrap pile that should do the job nicely.

Sometimes you just have to break out the power tools have at it.

-Sixbears

Camper van solar electric

The last major improvement done to the van before the snow started falling last fall was the installation of a 105 watt solar electric panel on the roof. It's connected to the largest 12 volt deep discharge battery Walmart had. As I was making the final electrical connections the snow started to fall -barely got the job done in time.

We've put the system to a fair test. It allows us to camp on non-electric campsites. Our big power hog is a large 12 volt cooler. Good quality DC refrigerators are more efficient, but cost 5 to 10 times as much as the cooler. As it was, the cooler was given to me. One good thing about the cooler is that it's well insulated so we can often can turn the power off at night and it's still cold in the morning.

Besides the cooler we charge cell phones and power a 200 watt inverter. The AC from the inverter runs my c-pap device that I use for my sleep apnea. My laptop is a tiny netbook computer and the small inverter charges it up just fine.

The system has worked well enough that we've booked 5 more nights in campsites without electric power.

That's not to say there aren't a few things I'd like to improve. The cigarette lighter type 12 volt plugs are horrible. They can get loose, fall out, and are easily broken. The plan is to replace some with 2 wire trailer plugs. Unfortunately the local stores are out.

Another improvement would be installing a switch that would allow the solar electric system to charge the van starting battery or the van to charge up the solar battery. In the short term I suppose I could just carry a long set of heavy duty jumper cables. The van should have a good set on board anyway.

Right now the system is good enough, and that's what really matters..

-Sixbears

Moving right along

For those new to my blog, I’ve been converting an ambulance into a mini motor home.

I hit a major snafu with a title problem. That was resolved while I was on vacation this winter. Now that I’m home the project continues. Today I went to town hall and was able to actually register the vehicle and get some plates for it.

Right after that it was down to my insurance agent to buy insurance. Then home to put the plates on, charge up the battery, and take it for a road test. It runs well. The big 7.3 turbodiesel powerstroke engine purred right along.

My mechanic has to look at it. There’s excessive tire wear on one of the front tires and needs to be replaced. Then we have to figure out why the tire wore badly. It could something as simple a bad alignment or maybe a bad ball joint. The state of NH allows ten days from the time of registration until it gets an inspection sticker. The garage can do that at the same time as the tire fix.

One of my friends has been gathering materials for a trailer hitch all winter. He’s ready to install a custom hitch. Last fall he crawled under the vehicle and took measurements.

It needs a few creature comforts installed: a table that folds out into a bed, stove, and 12volt fridge.

Even more important than creature comforts is converting the diesel to run on waste vegetable oil. This will be my fourth WVO vehicle. I’ve assisted on several other conversions. Every conversion is custom and a bit different. There’s a shakedown period where any kinks are worked out of the system.

It’s great that this project is moving again. Since my pickup truck, and boat hauler, is falling apart, the ambulance conversion project has moved up in priority.



-Sixbears

Projects to greet me on my return

I just got news that the title problems with my ambulance conversion have finally been straightened out. When I get home, I’ll be able to put license plates on that beast. For newer readers, I’m in the process of converting an ambulance into a mini-camper/boat hauler. Bad weather and title problems put the project on hold. When I get back, the first priority is to get the rig road legal. Then it’s being converted to run on waste vegetable oil. Finally, a few more camper modifications will have to be done. Dad donated a nifty 12 volt/120 volt refrigerator to the project.

Another project is an Ooze Goose. I downloaded the plans. They are extensive, leaving nothing out. There’s things I really like about this boat. It’s small and should be a quick build. It has a usable cabin where someone can get away from the weather and bugs. I want to experiment with a scow design and a lug rig, so this will be a good test bed. Plus, I like the idea of a light sailboat that I can drag off into the trees and hide. I bet it’ll be light enough to throw in the back of a truck. The only big downside is that the plans are metric. I’ll have to buy some new measuring tools.

I’m sure there will be plenty of other things for me to do once I get back. At least I won’t have to reopen the house. I’ve house sitters who’ve kept the fires burning while I’m gone. There won’t be leaking plumbing to patch up. It seems that no matter how careful I am draining plumbing, some little thing somewhere will spring a leak.

We don’t expect to head north for over a month yet. There’s plenty of time for more projects to pile up.

-Sixbears

Road trip plan B

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything about the ambulance/camper conversion. The simple fact is there isn’t all that much to report. The “minor” paperwork hold up still hasn’t been straightened out. The latest excuse is that the one person who can process it has been out sick for over a month.

If the documents came in today, I’d still be unable to get the vehicle ready in time. Well, I might be able to swing it but there would be no time for a proper road test. Trouble shooting on the side of the highway isn’t my idea of a good time.

Converting a diesel to run on waste vegetable oil always has a few glitches to work out. There could be problems with air or coolant leaks, plugged fuel filters -usually nothing major. It’s just part of the final fit and finish. This is all custom work after all.

Working on the camper through Christmas, my wedding anniversary, and New Years might get me into trouble. I do want my wife to talk to me on the drive south.

I’ll be taking the old Ford F250 veggie/diesel south one more time. All it needs is a new registration and state inspection before hitting the road. When the ambulance/camper project ran into delays, I went ahead and had some work done on the old pickup: new glow plugs, exhaust repair, tires, and a wheel alignment. It’s not pretty, but the 7.3 turbo diesel has plenty of power to pull the boat. Better yet, I’ll be carrying enough waste veggie to go 2500 miles or so. That’s worth a few bucks.

In the end, it’s not what you drive, but where you are going.

-Sixbears

Ever growing project list

Seasons are changing. My project list doesn’t seem to get any smaller.

My projects break down into three areas of concern right now. The house, the vehicles, and the boat.

House projects are mostly centered around cold weather preparations. I’ve gotten lucky, as it has been a fairly mild fall. I just finished resealing some joints on my kitchen woodstove. It’s one of those things you keep an eye on when you have an old stove. I noticed they had to be redone when I changed out the kitchen stovepipe. I bought enough stovepipe to replace the basement stove’s, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. It’s been mild enough that I haven’t felt the need to use that stove yet. Chimney could use a good brushing too.

It’s time to change the angle of my solar panels for the winter sun. There are some pretty fancy and expensive systems that do that automatically. My cheapo DIY system requires that I climb a 10 ft step latter with a couple wrenches every 4 months or so. At about the same time I do that, I also check the water levels in the battery bank and top them off with distilled water.

I’ve other little house projects that I’ve promised my wife I’d finish. She’s been patient, but even she has limits. The lady wants a new custom bed frame. It’s reached the point where she’d started to do the measurements for me to cut the lumber. When she starts to do stuff like that, it’s time to move the project up the priority list.

My vehicle projects are in slow motion. I’m still waiting for the DOT to straighten out the small paperwork glitch that’s held up registering the camper conversion. While that’s been going on, I’ve slowly gathered most of the parts I’ll need to convert it to run on waste vegetable oil.

Just to keep me out of trouble, the header pipe on my pickup rusted through. It’s in a tight place with little room to cut rusty bolts. My mechanic could do it in short order using a lift and a cutting torch. However, I’m pretty sure he took the week off to go fishing in Florida.

I really want to use the camper conversion to haul the sailboat down to Florida come January. The paperwork hold up bugs me no end. Worse come to worse, I can put new tires on the old truck and make one more long distance trip with it. If the paperwork comes though on the camper, the truck tires can wait until I come back in the spring.

Then there are the boat projects. In some ways, I’m ahead. The bottom paint is all done, thanks to a break in the weather. There’s nothing the boat absolutely needs to be sea worthy. It’s the little extras I’m working on now. The new cabin hatch with solar panel mount is not completed. A new fuel locker panel could use more varnish.

I want to replace all the wires that go from the outboard to the battery. The insulation is starting to crack. Wrapping the bad sections in electrical tape was an acceptable field repair, but not really a long term solution. All the wire will be replaced with heavy enough cable to run a electric trolling motor. The outboard plug is getting replaced with a heavy duty trolling motor plug. The idea is that I can charge the battery from the gas outboard, or use the same wire system to run an electric trolling motor. How’s that for a redneck hybrid system?
With all these things to keep me busy, it’s a wonder I ever found time to go to a job.

-Sixbears

Experimental Vehicle #4

I’m gathering the materials that I’ll need to convert my ambulance/camper project to run on waste veggie oil. This will be the fourth vehicle of mine that I’ve converted. The previous were two Mercedes diesels, a 240D with manual transmission and a 300D automatic. The third vehicle was a Ford F250 pickup truck.


The new vehicle is basically a 350 van with a 7.3 turbo powerstroke diesel. I’m going to repurpose parts salvaged from the Mercedes conversions. I’ve two fuel tanks to choose from, some copper pipe, filter heads, heater cores, clamps, hoses, and various bits and bobs. I salvaged a homemade filter heater from the 300D for use on the pickup, but the truck is still in service so I can’t use that right now. Instead, I’m using something from the 240D.

I thought long and hard about reusing the 6 port transfer valve. It gave great service on the 240D for 400,000 miles. My only concern was the fact that it does have so many miles on it. I decided a new one was in order, just for heighten reliability.

If I was rich, I’d use all new parts for everything. As it is, I’m going to be tearing things apart and getting greasy. It can be messy work. Oh well, that’s what soap is for. If I was afraid to get my hands dirty, I wouldn’t be doing this sort of thing in the first place. Come to think of it, if I was rich, I wouldn’t be messing around converting old diesels to run on alternative fuels.

-Sixbears

Current camper project status

This is what the project currently looks like. My lovely wife applied more coats of paint. Finally covered all the ambulance red.

All the red flashing lights have been disconnected and blacked out. The lightbar above the cab is now three spotlights. The nice thing about all the spotlights is that they run off the auxiliary battery and not the starting battery. If for some reason that battery gets drained down, the vehicle will still be able to start.

-Sixbears

Doing the bureaucracy shuffle

I attempted to register my ambulance/camper conversion. Notice the word, “attempted.” Of course, there is a snafu. There’s a minor paperwork problem that needs to be sorted out. There are budget cuts in the state office that handles these sorts of things. They are at about half strength, and also acquired more duties. Things that once took days now take weeks.

I’ve got to give my town clerk credit. She tried every work around that she could do on her end, but to no avail. At least she was able to give me the proper forms. We are at a bad point in history. The bureaucracy is getting more and more overburdened and inefficient, yet we are still expected to follow the rules.

The town clerk had a hard time even getting the state offices on the phone. To save money, they now only have one phone line. If a town clerk has an involved time consuming problem, the calls just keep stacking up. Once my clerk had the state on the phone, she had the presence of mind to also ask if there was anything special that I needed to do to the former ambulance. The good news is that as long as there’s no change in the body dimensions or transmission, the town clerk can just change the title from “ambulance “ to “camper.”

All in all, it’s a darn good thing that I did not wait until the last minute to sort out the paperwork. While I wait for that to be straightened out, I’ll continue working on the project.

-Sixbears

Paint!

Looks pretty odd right now, doesn’t it?

This is only the first 2 coats of blue paint. It’s going to get at least 3 more. Working outside, in cool temperatures, the paint has to be thinned a fair bit. Otherwise it’d never dry. I hope 5 coats will be enough to cover.

The doors, indicated with red and white paint will be painted a hunter green. The patriotic red white and blue motif is temporary.

There’s a chance of snow predicted for the next 4 - 5 days. I’m hoping to paint during the warmth of the day in time for it to harden up before the snow flies late at night.

Painting under these conditions sucks, but you do what you gotta do. Worse comes to worse I can always redo it later.

-Sixbears

From Sanding to Sailing

Wonder of wonders, we actually had a sunny day.

Much progress was made on the ambulance/camper conversion. I finally completed the removal of all traces of decal adhesive. That stuff is tenacious. There are products that can remove it quickly, but they also have the tendency of removing the paint along with it. A more careful but slower process using a pinstripe eraser, fine sandpaper and paint thinner eventually did the job. The vehicle is about 95% sanded in preparation for painting.

Sunny days being quite rare lately, my lovely wife and I tackled another job that’s been put on hold. Heavy rains raised the level of our lake. High winds moved the sailboat right up next to our beach. Before we could move it back to its proper place, the lake dropped about 6 inches.

What that left us with is a sailboat that draws 12 inches of water sitting in 6. The keel was grounded pretty solidly. Removing the outboard helped, but all we could do is turn the stern towards deeper water. The keel was still grounded. Finally, the boat was freed by rolling it up on its side. That lifted the keel out of the sand enough to push it into deeper water. I’m a pretty big dude, but could not have done it without the extra push from my wife. She’s always ready to give me an extra push.

Of course, once freed, we just had to go sailing around the lake. After all, we haven’t had many sunny days lately. In late October in NH, there’s no telling when we’d next get the chance. My next trip might be to haul the boat out for the season. This little excursion allowed me to test our new anchor. It should keep the boat from moving on its lines into shallow water.

After our little jaunt it was back to the conversion project. Rain had been predicted for the evening, so the vehicle had to be buttoned up. I reinstalled a dozen lights that had been removed for sanding. Those will have to come out again, but it was the best way to keep rain from getting between the walls.

Sure enough, in few more hours I was splitting woodstove kindling in the rain, by light of a headlamp. That’s a job that could have been done earlier instead of sailing, but what’s life with all work and no play?

-Sixbears

Racing the clock for project completion

Today I made more progress on the ambulance to camper conversion. Removed all the pinstripping. Also discovered the “paint” on the passenger side door was not actually paint. It was red decal material, the stuff I’ve learned to hate. My patience was all used up on removing the first half of it. My lovely wife volunteered to remove the rest, saving what little was left of my sanity. With her long nails she was better at it that I was.

The lightbar will not come off in one piece. When the ambulance was built, they bolted in the lightbar before finishing the interior. Too much of the interior would have to be destroyed to get to the bolts. Instead, I’m disassembling it from the outside in and saving all the pieces for reassembly later.

Removing hardware and sanding is next. There may be a clear day or two coming up. If all goes well, I’ll get some paint on the beast before the snow flies. Once painted, it’s on to registration and inspection. The rest of the conversion will go better once it’s road legal.

My lovely wife stained lumber for another project I promised to work on. Once the wood is ready, the rest of the assembly can be done inside.

There are boat projects still in the works. My buddy is still putting coat after coat of marine varnish on my custom tiller. The new cabin hatch with solar electric panel mount is partially completed, but that project was pushed back when the ambulance arrived.

The UPS van showed up at my place today. My Florida and the Bahamas cruising guides came in. That’s what all the hustle is about. I want to sail on those warm waters so bad I can taste it. After a hard day working on projects, I often spend my evenings studying charts and planning trips.

There’s a lot of craziness going on in the world right now. Very little of it can be affected by my actions, but I do what I can. Once all my projects are completed, I’ll be more than ready to head south, out of the frost lands. The world’s problems can’t really be left behind, but some days we go sailing and forget about them for a while.

All I have to do is get these darn projects finished in time.

-Sixbears

At first we backpacked

When my wife and I met, I was an avid backpacker. She soon joined me on a lot of my hiking trips. Even after having kids, we still went hiking. Before long the kids were hiking with us.

Later, we did more canoe camping. We’ve always been water people and a canoe allowed us to take more comfort items. I even built a 20 foot cedar strip expedition type canoe. We had some great times.

Eventually the kids grew up and moved out. At the time, I was involved heavily with an on-line magazine. It occurred to me that as long as I could occasionally get to an Internet connection, I could do my work. My wife quit her job and we hit the road. Our car at the time was a tiny Dodge Neon. We put a canoe on the room, a tent in the back, and loaded up the dog. We spent up to 6 months a year living out of that tiny car.

Then I picked up an old Mercedes 240 D and converted that car to run on waste vegetable oil. It was roomier than the Neon and cheaper to run. I put a trailer hitch on it and towed a small utility trailer. Once again, the canoe went on the roof and the aging dog in the back.

We moved from that arrangement to a big Ford F250 extended cab diesel. It could carry a ton of stuff -and a canoe on top. Like the old Benz, this too was converted to run on waste veggie oil. After my wife had surgery on both shoulders, we thought it best to not do as much canoing. Instead, we got into sailing. Of course, the big truck worked out well as a tow vehicle for the boat.

Now I just picked up an old ambulance to convert into a mini camper. It’ll make a pretty good tow vehicle for the sailboat. This vehicle will also be converted to run on waste vegetable oil. We’ll be able to travel at a more relaxed pace. To avoid paying for hotel rooms, I’d often drive for 24 or more hours straight. I’d leave NH and drive non-stop for up to 1600 miles. With the new vehicle, I’ll just pull into a safe place to stop, crawl in the back and get a good night’s sleep.

Recently my lovely wife was reflecting on how complicated we’ve gotten since our backpacker days. Of course, we aren’t in our 20s anymore. My wife can’t hoist a backpack like she used to. I could, but the trips would have to be either longer in time or shorter in distance. That’s fine once in a while, but I do like to have adventures with my wife. The sailboat allows that to happen. It’s a small enough boat that either one of us can handle it alone, but it’s big enough to be able to comfortably lie down and get some rest.

The common thread in our lives is the desire to go on journeys. We like to get away from it all and see things. Some places become favorites and we keep going back, but we are always searching out new places to go to. When a person travels, they aways learn something. Staying in one place and doing the same routine would be deadly to me. Even though I like where I live and what I do, I still feel the need to travel.

I’ve gone from a 35 pound backpack to tons of vehicles and gear. Where will I be 5 or 10 years down the road? Who knows? Maybe we’ll simplify to living in a yurt half the year and on a small sailboat the other half.

-Sixbears

Ambulance photo

Here’s my ambulance to camper project. At this point I’ve removed about 2/3 of the decals.

As you can see, the emergency lights are still on. I’m going to have some fun removing those.

There’s going to be plenty of taping and sanding before the painting starts. My lovely wife and I are still discussion exactly how it will look. We have general agreement on the basic color scheme, but the devil’s in the details.

-Sixbears

Vehicle Project

Today I took possession of a decommissioned ambulance. Several months ago a nearby EMS company ordered a new ambulance. The trade in offered for their old one was pitiful. I made them an an offer of pitiful plus a tad more. Nobody offered better than that so now I’m the proud owner of a second hand ambulance.

One of the things that surprised me was how little was removed from the vehicle. It still has its emergency lights, siren, PA system, medical suction pump, flood lights and fire extinguishers. The 1100 watt inverter system is up and running and fully wired. They took the O2 tanks, but everything else, the hoses and fittings, are still there.

There were a few things that attracted me to this vehicle. It has a 7.3 liter power stroke diesel engine. I can convert it to run on waste vegetable oil. The motor is more than powerful enough to tow my sailboat. The back is roomy. There’s a captain’s chair and three jump seats. Storage is not a problem. It has a zillion compartments. About all I really have to add is a folding bed and table arrangement. It’s so well lit back there, a person could do minor surgery . . . and probably did.

Of course, it has to be turned into a civilian vehicle. All the emergency lights will have to go. The decals have to be removed. Believe me, there are an awful lot of them. It will need a paint job, something other than the red and white motif it has now. The siren has to go. I will keep the PA system. That thing is cool. Lots of potential to annoy people with it. The built in spotlights will be useful. I’ll never have to load my sailboat in the dark ever again as the lights turn night into day.

Once the decals are removed, I’ll post some photos. If the weather holds, I might get done with decal duty soon. Some loosen and peel off using paint thinner. Unfortunately, that works on less than half the decals. For the rest, I use a propane torch. It’s a delicate balance. The decal has to be warm enough to soften the glue, but not so warm as to weaken the vinyl letters. By the end of the day I was getting the hang of it.

With the power, room, multi-fuel capabilities, and ample storage, this will make a fine bug out/camping vehicle.

-Sixbears

On-board for the ride

Sometimes something odd comes my way and I just have to check it out. Fortunately, my lovely wife doesn't mind coming along for the ride.

Yesterday, I learned an old ambulance was going up for sale. Sure, you are thinking, what does anyone need with an old ambulance?

Okay, I'll admit, it's not the first second hand vehicle people look to buy, but it has some solid pluses to recommend it. First and foremost, it has a turbo diesel that I could easily convert to run on waste vegetable oil. Since I still have a good local supply, most of my fuel would be nearly free. How much of your motor fuel is free?

It's just roomy enough to make a cozy camper for the wife and I. A few inexpensive modifications would provide a decent bed and galley space. It already has a killer electrical system. All those medical machines use a lot of power. The lighting is first rate. No one wants to do patient care in the dark. Overall construction is heavy duty, with liberal use of diamond plate. It wouldn't take much work to weld a trailer hitch on for the boat. Currently, the vehicle is still in service, so it's well maintained and road ready.

I may or may not get the winning bid. I'm fine either way. The really cool thing, is that my lovely wife is 100% on-board with this sort of thing. Most wives wouldn't want such a thing sitting in their driveway, never mind own and drive one.

-Sixbears