We all know with tiny house design that people can get really creative,
but I've never seen a tiny house quite like the one that I'm going to show you
in today's video. Zach and Crystal bought,
an old army truck and using a lot of ingenuity and a little bit of Zach's
engineering skills,
they were able to convert it into the ultimate expedition home on wheels.
So let's jump right in and learn a little bit more about this one of a kind
home.
Hi, I'm Zach. I'm Crystal.
We're from Washington and we're out here on our second six month tour.
Come on in and see our not so tiny, tiny home on wheels.
We do a lot of outdoor activities,
a lot of camping and I always kind of wanted to build a little tiny home slash
camper out of a 20 foot shipping container.
So in our research process on finding a vehicle that could tow a 20 foot
shipping container and tiny house, we ran across this thing in Texas.
When we first saw this, we knew that this was going to be us. We flew to Texas,
spent two days going through it with the mechanic and the private party.
I took about a year and a half off of work and made this my full time job is to
convert this into an expedition RV. Before we even did this,
we had some conversations on what are things that we're not willing to give up.
Unlimited hot water, showers, King size bed. Once we found this,
then it was trying to figure out how to design all those features into this
space.
My formal training as an engineer and a software made it
possible for us to figure out how to put all those features into this.
We're really, really lucky
because both of us have amazing families,
very supportive and both of us have very adventurous parents that I think
probably set quite an example for both of us.
They've done nothing but encourage us.
I don't think they're really surprised that we were buying a big army truck.
It's just wonderful. The experiences we're having are just amazing.
We said we'd do this for a couple of years.
We're already over a year into it and there is no way I'm ready to stop in
another year, no way.
Oh, we'll
start here on the outside to a family of medium tactical vehicles.
They take this truck and chassis and they'll create,
I think it's like 14 different vehicles and they give them a different
designation and were able to purchase this from a private party out of Texas
about a year and a half ago.
These trucks were designed to be serviced anywhere in the world,
so they've got a lot of standard parts. The engine is just a CAD engine, diesel.
These vehicles do come with a CTIS central tire inflation system,
so there is a controller in the cab and it will inflate and deflate the tires
according to conditions you're driving and these vehicles max out at 55 miles an
hour. We're not in any sort of hurry,
so it's kind of why we named her Banta looking for some big animal name.
Dumbo wasn't going to do it. When we realized that Bantas
those were beasts of war in the Star Wars, it just kind of fit.
The paint job is original. We just added
the logo and our social media handle
on a daily basis we get people stopping by going,
what is that and where did you get it?
Second favorite question is how many miles per gallon do you get in that?
We definitely get five to six miles per gallon.
So the exterior of this FMTV is pretty much stock.
This box right here is the original location for where the spare tire is.
This controller here is an air over hydraulic.
So a hydraulic Ram would swing the tire out cause they weigh about 450 pounds a
piece. And the other controls on here are cab tilt.
So hydraulic will tilt this cab forward so that you can access the engine.
So we do carry a generator on board.
Really only used when we run our induction cooktop,
just cause those suck a ton of power.
We do have 1700 Watts of solar on the roof,
which supplies us with more than enough for what we need just for lights and
refrigeration.
So we're in the back of the truck here. This is our tow bar.
We do have a tow bar and we tow a Jeep behind us between the frame rails is where
we located
60 gallon freshwater tank directly below that is where we re located the spare
tire too.
So there's a little winch right here that'll drop this arm down and then the
spare tire can slide out the back.
These are the original stairs that came with the truck.
It didn't come with a handrail, so we had the build a temporary one.
These stairs are impossible to walk up and down in high heels.
Crystal loves her shoes,
so added these little extra spots here so she can continue to wear them.
We don't have a Blackwater on here.
We've got a parking system which we actually really like.
It gives us a ton more flexibility.
This will last us anywhere between four to six days.
Campers or motor homes have to fold up and go find a dump station and we can
just yank the cartridge system out,
take it into town and dump it and not have to fold up our entire house.
One of our requirements before starting these is we wanted unlimited hot water
showers. We took a Marine grade 20 gallon hot water tank electric.
So when we're hooked to shore power, we'll use that.
That tank has connections that hook into our hydronic heating system so we can
heat the hot water that way. Or we've got an on demand propane.
So we've got three different methods of heating hot water.
And so let's go jump in the cabin, take a look what's in there.
We're in the cab. We absolutely love the view from up here,
probably eight feet off the ground cab over design.
Nothing in front of us is amazing view going down the road
So a few things that we've done to the cab on this.
These trucks are very noisy Crystals
put dynamat on every surface that she could find in here and then done felt and
carpet in the back wall here.
All the dynamat and all the extra insulation has made a huge difference.
Some of the controls in here, we haven't done a lot of work to it.
We've got our CTIS controller, so this is the central tire inflation system,
our air brakes, our headlights. It's that kind of a dual hand operation,
so you have to unlock and then roll this over our master power switch.
There is no key. These vehicles did not come with a key. We did install one.
Oh we love our rooftop deck.
We've been told that the center section of this can support 800 pounds per
square inch and each of the slide outs can support 300 pounds per square inch.
So let's go climb up top, check it out,
got the entire center section covered and solar at 1700 Watts up here.
When we come up and use our deck, slide these back panels over the front ones.
Set up our little propane fire pit. Grab a couple chairs, take a look at this view.
When we first started doing the design of this build,
there were several things that the two of us decided we weren't willing to
compromise on. And the first one of those was a King size bed.
In order to maximize our space here,
we built the bed on a lift system so that it's up out of the way during the day
and as long as you're under six feet tall,
you're free to walk around under the bed, very easy to put up and down.
There's buttons on the ceiling,
it's all electric built on independent motors so that there's no need to level
the rig. So we can be out anywhere parked on a Hill,
but we can level the bed just very easily.
So another area that we both agreed on that we didn't want to make any
compromise on is the sink, it's a great big sink.
We also put a lot of thought into the use of it because the way our rig is,
sometimes the tip outs aren't unfolded.
So we wanted to be able to use it from any layout.
So if one side is open or the other all sides, it can be completely closed up.
We can still access one side of the sink. We have a nice industrial faucet,
everything is very dual purpose.
So we also have this custom made cutting board that allows us to top and be
functional. One person can be doing dishes and another person can be cooking.
So a little bit of information on the custom cutting board is actually a little
bit of a nostalgic piece to us.
It was a gift custom made by my father and it's got a special wood from all over
the world. Originally.
He built it for a sailing vessel where they spent a lot of years sailing.
Then he custom made it for us.
So we have a little piece of family nostalgia with us.
So tucks nice and tidy underneath the sink is the military teapot.
This came with the truck. I ended up just loving this thing.
It's one of my favorite features, uh, with the bed is down.
You can just reach down,
flip the switch and have hot water ready for tea and coffee before you're even
out of bed. It just makes for a great start to every day.
So this is our main table. When we're not using it,
it's simply folds out of the way very easily. We share our meals here,
we like to entertain a lot and I'm a digital nomad and so this is my office.
Next we have our Marine grade fridge. It's electric,
doesn't run off propane and so no need to level it.
My favorite thing about the bridge is that we have an ice maker,
which makes cocktails on the roof that much better.
So this is our kitchen,
which is actually a work bench that we purchased from Costco.
We love that it's on wheels, so that makes it very flexible.
If we're parked on a Hill and it doesn't make sense to have it in one place,
we just simply move it wherever it's convenient. We cut a hole.
Zack put an induction cooktop here
on the inside we use magnets and we store cutlery and our cookware and thanks to
a family member, we have all industrial cookware.
We added storage bins underneath, so I store,
all our linens in the storage bins and then we have one storage bin that is
loaded with toys for nieces and nephews and visiting family kids.
So here we have the shower,
which I have to say is one of those areas that was critical.
We both were in full agreement.
The shower head was designed to be flexible. You can move it up and down.
It's also designed that you can extend it outside if you want to have the
outdoor shower. One of my favorite things is the temperature gauge.
It lights up, it's colored,
it lets you know exactly what degree the shower is in.
One other wonderful feature is the floor here. Again,
a little bit of nostalgia that we brought with us.
This is a gift from my parents who have a sailing vessel called the Dream
Weaver.
And so this teak floor on the shower is actually teak from their boat.
So the shower door actually slides to reveal the bathroom and we decided to go
with a cartridge toilet, which we're very happy with.
One of Zach's favorite features is that you can open up both doors. Uh,
this seat actually rotates and he gets a great view.
Well, we've got our TV here just for entertainment purposes.
I've got dual monitors down here.
I've got my tower mounted on the back wall so we can still work from the road.
We use our cell phones as hotspots. We've got some standalone hotspots.
We've set up a wireless network inside the truck.
So if either one of us turn on a hotspot,
the truck will pick it up and start broadcasting a wifi signal.
So all of our other devices will connect to it. So over on the driver's side,
we've got our battery bank.
We currently have six AGM batteries, 120 amp hours.
We do run a 24 volt system.
One thing that we were at happy to be able to keep as this blackout override,
which was a feature that came with this box.
Every door and window has sensors on it so that when all the blackout shades are
drawn, if anybody tries to open a door or window,
it instantly kills all the lights and switches over to a blue light system.
But one benefit of this blackout mode that this vehicle came with is when we
want to switch to party mode. Flip that on.
It turns on the blue light system in here. Turn on the laser lights.
We're ready for a good time.
For the short time that we've been doing this, we've learned to slow down.
We were eager to get on the road and really try it out and test it,
but we missed a lot of opportunities to stop and enjoy things because we
committed to certain dates and timeline on a map and we have a long to do list
on this rig. It's never going to be done.
We have a lot of things we'd still like to do,
but we also made a conscious decision and it took a lot of hard work and effort
to push ourselves to just go ahead and go.
There's a lot of imperfections and flaws,
but it's beautiful to me because it is taking me on the adventure of a lifetime.
I'm so glad that we pushed ourselves into the uncomfortable zones to just to
just do it.
I'm really curious what you guys thought about this particular home,
so make sure to leave a comment and please like, share and subscribe so that I can
continue to produce content for you every single week.