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My name is Carl. I'm Madison. And this is our ambulance camper aka The Campulets. Also known as, Triceratops.
So prior to buying the ambulance I was just on the road camping out with Camp Trent
which is my brother and Ives. I was traveling with
them and their camper just tent lifing it and on the road I was just meeting a lot
of people living out of their vans or trucks. That was a lifestyle that really
resonated with me so I started saving for the that for about two years. Never
really considered getting an ambulance, found this guy on Craigslist.
It really just had everything I was looking for as far as a great engine and a
great solid build. When he first told me about it I thought it was a joke. I was in a tiny
cabin and then we looked into a yurt for the summer. I think we
were accustomed to living in small spaces together, really made the
transition pretty easy. It wasn't like we went from a big house to a super small
space. I mean, I've been doing it out of a tent for the last two years so this is
like a luxury upgrade for my lifestyle.
So this is it. This is our ambulance camper aka The Campulents. It is a 1997
Chevrolet K3500 four-wheel drive diesel engine and it weighs about six tons with
all of our stuff in it so it's pretty heavy and you can feel that driving
around turns and going up hills, but is super reliable. Average around 12 to 13
miles per gallon. It does have two tanks. If you want to check out the front here
the first feature are the sirens. It still came attached to the siren
speakers and a PA system so that's what's coming off here on a super
heavy-duty bumper. On the front half here it's painted with this stuff called
monster liner which is pretty much a homemade line-x kit and it's supposed to
just be chip resistant and scratch resistant all that so I really want to
do that to the entire ambulance. Moving up front here pretty standard cab just a
two-seater but the best thing I like about the ambulance is the outside
storage. Well, the storage overall. There's a
lot of closets around the outside where we keep our big gear and pretty much our
long-term storage. Anything that's immediate we keep on the inside. This one
we keep an inflatable boat, some climbing gear, our backpacks. Our second closet here
is our tools. Pretty much everything we need for building or adding stuff to the
ambi or doing car maintenance, probably use the air compressor the most
just for filling up on tires. We also have trash access here as
well. It drops in through the main cab. That's our pup Oly by the way.
Moving back here's a third closet. This is where we keep our water systems so
this one here what you see inside is plumbed to our sink, that's six gallons. This
one here is seven gallons of fresh drinking water. Other things we keep in
here: a spare tire, a little bit of extra gas, oil pan for when we do all that.
Yeah these two back doors are usually open when we're at camp but it just
gives you a nice look into the inside and this just provides a lot of light
and a good area to chill on our cooler here. This is mainly how it is as long as
the weather permits us to to keep it open. Another closet here is just our
tallest closet where we keep our skis in this red bag. Our fishing pole is always
ready to go right here. We have some leather and suede crafts for making and
selling art on the road. Other closet just general camping gear, tents,
backpacking stuff, pretty much anything we use for outdoor living is kept in
here. We got a window which you don't see too often on modern day ambulances. I'm
not sure why that is, but that comes in clutch when we're sleeping. You can
access our closet which you'll see from the inside but you can get it from
the outside as well and then under here is just the two
batteries for the truck. That charges as we run and we can plug into that when
we camp for probably two or three days a couple hours each day but the eventual
project is to put solar on the roof so we can run those systems without
draining the car batteries. We do use these floodlights pretty frequently just
when we pull into camp and help getting set up. We don't use the center
one. You can tell it's kinda getting ripped out by trees on the drive on the Forest Service road.
Welcome to the inside of the Cambulance, come on in.
First here we've got our closet which is really accessible and nice and packed
with all of our stuff. We've got one section for Carl, one section for me and
we share the shoes. We share a lot of clothes too just to make it work.
All of these cabinets that you see in here came with the ambulance originally. Even this
red leather upholstery that you see throughout the cab here.
Right here we've got this awesome chair and it was already in. Pretty comfy and
there's a pass-through cab right here. We've got all of our utensils here. Carl
kind of showed you the outside, but on the inside this is how our garbage system
works so we have a waste circle here and we can just throw our waste recycling
down in there. This light panel was also in the ambulance already suction exhaust
fan and all the lighting's that's in here. Whenever it's nice and it's not
raining we're definitely outside doing all the cooking and this is a nice setup
for the stove if we are inside and it is raining. In this cabinet right here we've
got all of our dishes and our cookware and we keep that all stored together
right there. This is a hand-pump sink so it works like that. Down here, this is our
toiletries. We have hand towels, creams, all that good stuff, soaps,
essential oil, magic. We've got extra storage for sleeping bags, towels, some
fabrics that lives there and this one here is my art cabinet so those are my
vintage suitcases full of art supplies.
All right and last but not least this is
where our drinking water is so we have it facedown right now so you can easily
fill up anything here. It sits upright as we're driving. This is our K2 Cooler
also a couch to the outside and also our fridge. Three in one. So we've got all of
our goodies in there keeps it nice and cold. We have a dry bag that we use for
our ice and that keeps everything fresh and all the water and whatnot out of
this situation. It's a bug screen so it rolls all the
way down to the floor, if needed.
Over here it's just more cabinets. This one is
kind of our library, our office, miscellaneous storage. They have all
these plastic inserts in every single cabinet so you can move those around to
really lock things in there which is super clutch when you're driving down these
bumpy roads. Same thing over here just kind of more open miscellaneous space. We
have our ukulele here. Hasn't see much time yet, but it will.
And then the all-star of the inside which we haven't pointed out yet is this
bar right here which you just kind of hang off and hang stuff on it, work out,
stretch. So I recommend a bar like that in all vehicles. The last major feature
back here which we recently updated within the month is this bed and then we
have these four legs which is our system for now. Four, three, two, & one. Each leg has a
spot cuz this floor in here is a little bit uneven so each one needed to be cut a
little differently, but whatever, it's van life and ambi life. This is how it is.
So first step we just fold it up, has a rubber undercoat here just to hold the
futon when it's in place, but otherwise it just folds out. Each leg has a number
to a specific spot. We find that's been working.
There we go. We also stained this frame and pretty much all that other wood we put
here to a red mahogany just to kind of make it feel more like a cabin
but slowly working on adding more wood, but anyway, so when we're done we just slide it
this way, roll out some sheets, you know, throw the pillows back on and the best
feature about this bed is A.) you can just open these doors right here and just
kind of be wherever you're at but another great feature is this window
like we talked about earlier really is great just to wake up to wherever you're
parking next to you and this is the inside of the ambulance. Hopefully you've
never seen one before because I never saw one before until I bought it. It's a magical mystery tour.
It's a good sign when you're living in an ambulance and not getting picked up by one.
The quick research I can recommend if you're going this route is check
government auction websites or call local counties just kind of see what's
being retired.
Don't be so serious. We like to be in the moment. We talk about that a lot.
Try not to project too much about what's in the future, what's to come, or getting
stressed out about the things that we can't control at the time.
My message would just be to travel and just be open to stepping outside of your
comfort zone or "normal life", whatever that may be. Be open to change and open to trusting
the kindness of people. Get out there, get outdoors. Free yourself. Experience something new.
Spread the love and be awesome, every day. We try to be.
Thanks for watching.
Oh one last thing too, this. I don't know what it used to be used for
but this is just a safe for our valuables and now you know where it is. If you find the ambi, don't steal that.
I hope you guys enjoyed this week's episode.
If you did be sure to LIKE comment and subscribe and check us out we're at Camp
Trend. We're on Instagram. We're on YouTube. Thanks for watching. Peace.
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