hi there welcome to my channel where I take you on tours of tiny and unique homes and
showcase stories of people living alternatively in today's video we're meeting a pilot who has a
very unconventional home but it's also very on brand I'm a pilot for Southwest Airlines
and how cool would it be to actually buy a Southwestern Airlines truck and live in it
Mark is going to take us on a tour of his airline scissor jack style box truck tiny
home which has got to be one of the coolest homes we've ever featured on this channel
and if you like these kind of videos make sure that you subscribe and hit
that notification Bell so that you know every single time we publish a new tour
hi I'm Mark and I'm happy to show you my tiny house on Wheels a snack pack [Music]
what I used to think was happiness is going to work making a lot of money and buying things
I was a fighter pilot and a special operations pilot once I retired I got a job with Southwest
Airlines [Music] the biggest turn point for me was when covid happened and they said hey we
just don't need Pilots anymore from that day on I went you know what if one incident of a virus is
going to shut down the entire world maybe I need to think of alternatives I always wanted to live
in a box truck or a provisioning truck at work I deal with these trucks every day because they pull
up to the airplane when the passengers get off we refuel and how cool would it be to actually
buy a Southwest Airlines truck and live in it if you haven't seen one of these on the road
but it's pretty funny looking to see one of these things going 70 miles an hour down the interstate
I won this truck on an auction and there was only one other guy bidding against me and it was like
500 it went to a thousand I said okay I'm just going to put in the maximum bid 3 300 bucks winner
winner chicken dinner I'm like no no for I can't even I can't even buy tires for that much money
the build process took me seven months I knew what I wanted to do I had a plan and
I was just ready to execute cleaned it all up got all the dirt out I dove right into it
foreign [Music]
the total cost for the build was right around 30k and that includes the truck
I've been in the rig for two years and a month [Music]
so this is a 2000 Ford 650 and it is a Southwest Airlines provisioning truck total overall lengths
about 28 29 feet 25 000 pounds it's got a 5.9 liter Cummins diesel 24 valve when I'm pulling
my 2018 Toyota Tacoma I get about five miles of the gallon when I'm not pulling it it's roughly
about eight miles to the gallon started out white and I painted it fighter gray since I
used to fly fighters in the Air Force decided to make it kind of look more like an aircraft so I
airbrushed on some little rivets and the access panel my call signed Spanky in the Air Force when
I flew f-16s I also have up top the Silhouettes Of all the Jets that I flew in the Air Force and
one of the remaining paraphernalia that I have for one of my squadrons the fireball Squadron
if you look up here you'll see the box here is a 14 foot box roughly 10 and a half feet tall on
the leeward side at about nine feet on this side imagine when you're at the airport you see these
trucks will pull up to the Jets and they'll service so they'll raise up and pull up the
front deck to the exterior doors and they'll resupply ice and beer and snacks Etc kind of
wanted to keep it as original as I could just so people would know one of the unique things
about a provisioning truck is that it's got a high lift Jack on it it goes up approximately 17 feet
this was original with a truck here this is an emergency shut off for the hydraulic system and
this is the reservoir for the hydraulic fluid as you can see the scissor lift here it's got
two big Rams just like you see on a dump truck it's a two stage again it goes up about 17 feet
total and really it's just a novelty kind of thing I mean who has a tiny house that goes up
in the air 17 feet always have a view I've got a black tank here this is a five gallon this is
for my recirculating shower I've got a system where I can either do a normal shower pulling
from my freshwater tank or I can flip a switch and I can have it pull out of this tank so it's
recirculating going through a series of filters and a UV light in order to maintain keep the
same water so I can use it over and over and over recycled water so on the driver's side a
couple features I'd like to point out I've got a short power hook up here so whenever I pull into
an RV park I can plug in a 30 amp 50 amp as well as added a gen set here 4 500 watts this
was originally on the truck I'm using it for a sink water gray tank the white box here is the
the compressor for the mini split I've got an Accu level here so that I know when the truck is level
I built a mountain bike rack here so that I can work on my mountain bike the bike comes
off I haul the bike on the back of my Tacoma and the arm swings in so I don't take out mailboxes
for the top this is where I extended it up roughly about two feet [Music] [Applause] [Music]
I was sleeping I was thinking oh that'd be cool I could put some skis and then encircle those around
some windows so I've got the windows in the middle of the skis I've also got a security system up top
in the front the back motion cameras with security and an alarm system on the roof I installed three
solar panels their LG solar panels they're almost 400 watts a piece it gives me a total of 1200
watts I decided to go with a single slant roof in order to have a water harvesting system put a
gutter on one side and then into my tank and then that goes through a house filter so I can drink
rainwater this is the primary entrance uh here's my little uh doorbell so here's how we get up
[Music]
I've got an outdoor shower this is the shower platform that also goes up when
I'm driving little climbing holes here in order to get up on the roof
on the door here I've got an ice ax for the handle all right let's head inside [Music]
all right here's the kitchen area a ton of stuff going on here I used some live edge
here for the uh the counter I've got a kerosene cooktop stove here the reason I decided to go
with this is because this stove in particular as well as a hydronic heater they pretty much
sip kerosene and currently right now I'm up to 10 and a half months on uh 20 gallons [Music]
for my coffee espresso maker I'm a big coffee drinker one of the priorities was
to have a very nice espresso machine so voila from Germany comes the ECM
for the kitchen layout a lot of magnets are involved so everything pretty much stays put
how you see it up here I've got these holes that are drilled out for the glasses and then for the
coffee cups I have magnets and they stay in place same here the plates there's a magnet on on these
little uh stanchions here they go up so only two try to keep it simple kind of a minimalist
I've got three ropes that come across here nose hook over here on these three eyelets and then I
just pull those tight with a taut line knot and that holds everything that's on the top shelf
for the refrigerator and the freezer this was from a yacht store so they put these on boats
isotherm it's a 6.9 cubic foot so I have plenty of space in here just it's just so homey to have
the first summer that I lived in the snack pack I didn't have a air conditioner I was up in Montana
they had a heat wave it was 105 and so I told myself the next summer I was going to have a
air conditioner this is a DC operated 6000 BTU mini split air conditioner it works fantastic
and when I have it on during the day when the sun's out it doesn't my batteries don't go down
at all so I can run this thing all day and it keeps it really really cool in here [Music]
let's check out the bedroom a lot of people ask how do I get up to my bed I just use uh one of
these telescoping ladders and it works really well so what up for the bedroom I have a queen size
mattress it's a Tempur-Pedic it was a California king originally I basically took a filet knife
and cut it to fit up here so now it's a queen size I decided to go with a uh a three foot by
three foot Skylight that's got automatic blinds so you can see it's going up there as well as
an automatic opener and it opens up it's going to open up now it's got a screen I can take the
screen off uh when the bugs aren't an issue and I can put it down here I've located a spot where
I can put it up and I can watch the Stars uh screen free which is pretty nice but it
also gives me extra Headroom so when I sit up I've actually got plenty of room in here to move around
I've got an iPad up here that I can adjust with a RAM mount that I can watch Netflix or if I want to
bid on trips for work or try to pick up trips for work you can see I've got a little place for all
my remotes that I can actually watch my movies on the big screen uh with a projector [Music]
for the windows I didn't want to go with glass or buy any kind of specialty Windows
it was going to cost way too much money so I decided to go with a half inch acrylic kind of
a Plexiglas and basically I just framed those in there and I wanted them around the bed area so
that whenever I'm parked like uh with just magnificent views or rivers or mountains I
could just wake up in the morning open those up and and have it just right there I've got three
that go down to let in lots of ambient light so I can see in here it's super nice these are
just homemade blinds that are held up with a little magnet and just kind of simple [Music]
okay let's check out under the hood if you will so under this I try to keep it simple with just a
blind that I could just drop or whatever because uh I want to keep it functional functionality
that's really what the key is here but if you come underneath you see I have some shelves I'm
basically just some canned foods Etc and then I've got a little vacuum cleaner that's rechargeable
and it's got a little stand in here as well in the back corner I've got a hydronic heater
that is used for heating the floor so radiant heated floors I've got a heat exchanger for my
recirculating shower that it heats up the water so it's like a tankless water heater instantaneous it
also heats the I've got a four gallon water heater that stores the hot water in it will
typically last about 24 hours of hot water so which is pretty nice if I want to store that
for the electrical system everything back here all the wires and all the different connectors
I built homemade from scratch I did have some help on YouTube I went with a victron system yes it is
kind of a higher dollar system but I basically wanted to build it and not have to worry about
it and that's pretty much how it's been the entire time I've got 600 amp hours so these
are Lithium-ion batteries they're 300 amp hours apiece most everything in the rig is DC so that
was one of the priorities is that whatever I was going to put in here I was going to make sure it
was DC in order to conserve electricity this is a peplink 5G capable cellular modem which
is very nice I know it's old school I should go with starlink but you know hey guess what
this is what I have for the radios I wanted to kind of be apocalyptic ready I wanted to
make sure that I had communication so I went with a I've got a ham radio it's an Icom about
a 200 foot antenna that I can put up with my 30-foot flagpole I've heard the UK I've heard
people in Asia and I've heard Central America so I I can pretty much talk and hear people
everywhere around the world okay let's move over here to this side I decided to go with
just some Cubbies so just just basic shelves so I got you know wires toiletries Etc up here is a
little mini bar that I had with a little bit of decoration from the F-16 throttle and the stick
above the minibar I built some Cubbies out of this very nice closet finished Cedar it smells really
good so I just have everything folded up in here it doesn't fall out it stays in there as long as
it's packed foreign ties that I wanted in my tiny house was to have a nice little wood stove so this
is one of the smaller ones that dwarf stoves make kind of pricey but it's something that I wanted
it was a it was a must so this thing right here I can basically get about this much wood put it
in there a little bit of paper get it going fire it up open all the air vents and then let it get
up it gets up to like 500 Degrees the fan is heat controlled so this thing heats up and I just kind
of point it where it's chilly and then this is all homemade I've got a background in plasma cutting
and welding and so this is all just some kind of metal art that I created for the heat shield
I had some extra wood left over and I wanted a map I also had these rocks here and the story behind
these rocks is I've had these for about 20 years I started kind of a little challenge with my kids
when they were little is that we were going to go to the highest point in all the 50 states and
so I kept up with all these rocks over the years and little Ziploc bags and put little Sharpie the
dates and whatever Peak that we climbed and so we would climb up and we would snag a rock from the
top and bring it down so essentially these are all the these are all the high points in the 50
states [Music] for toilet uh decision I decided to go with a composting toilet I didn't want to
deal with a cassette toilet and the black tank I just didn't want to deal with all that this thing
here has been a lifesaver this thing's money I go about four months it is so nice highly
recommend the other important component that I wanted in here was a very nice shower most RVs
the showers they have are about this big it's a locker I didn't really feel like taking a shower
in a locker so I went with a this is an in-home Corner style frameless tempered glass a shower I
was a little worried initially when I installed it just because I didn't know what would happen
to it going down a dirt road so far so good it's uh it's been working fabulous it's got
a pull string to turn it on it's a manual mixture control valve that adjusts the temperature so that
I don't have to deal with a bunch of knobs on the inside I future proofed it by making leaving room
for recirculating shower currently right now I can go roughly about five weeks on 55 gallons of
water I change the diverter drain that goes into a five gallon tank and then flip a Swish and that
allows the recirculating shower to come through the shower head now as opposed to the fresh water
but essentially what it does is it goes through a big strainer like a 50 Micron strainer into the
pump and it goes through three separate filters through UV light and then a heat exchanger to heat
up the water and then comes out over here I've got a little closet here where I keep all my jackets
and keep my uniforms I'll actually be putting this on tomorrow but this is my my work uniform
I've got a little flight coming up gloves hats and any kind of winter apparel that I need or my
pads for down downhill mountain biking foreign as well as the uh the snacks are on me is where that
comes from put my vegetables in the little hammock over here can I have some peanuts of course you
can have peanuts [Laughter] [Music] and welcome to the front deck this is uh one of the main places
that I come out here to relax enjoy and cook I have asked her Turf out here got grass I built a
little table out here kind of like a lazy Susan goes up and down and I can use it to uh Aid me
in cooking or you can eat out here standing up or sitting down I've got a Traeger grill over
here it's a 575 series it's welded out here on a little platform that I welded up I've got outdoor
speakers you can see the weather station over here to the left is a rain catcher so that tells me how
much rain I've got this is my Chill Zone this is where I come out here to relax take in nature
watch the birds fly watch the animals when I was in the Tetons I would watch the the Bison migrate
across the field it's just really nice to come out here and sit I can sit out here for hours [Music]
this is heaven I'm just I'm in heaven right now I'm waking up in my bed in the middle of nowhere
and I hear the wind blowing I'm gonna make some coffee and I'm gonna go sit out on my deck and
I'm just going to enjoy just looking out just enjoying everything the feeling of waking up
and not having anywhere to be and no stress is the most liberating thing in the world
thanks for watching this week's video please make sure to like share
and subscribe and I will see you soon with another unique home tour [Music]