Living in a ambulance?
January 30, 2024 6:01 AM   Subscribe

Hi everyone; Has anyone here lived in an ambulance full time? Thinking of doing that,would like some feedback about it,good or bad. Share your thoughts? Many thanks :-)
posted by LOOKING to Travel & Transportation (16 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I have to ask - why an ambulance? There are a number of vehicular homes out there, and an ambulance seems like it would come with a number of difficulties to overcome.
posted by Rudy_Wiser at 6:17 AM on January 30, 2024 [7 favorites]


I think the sheer level of public confusion that would come from even owning an ambulance that is not a working one isn't worth it.

Also I remember reading a book as a kid where they were riding in a white van and as a joke someone painted red crosses on it. Police were not amused.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:23 AM on January 30, 2024


At the very least, you will probably need to have the lights removed and the body repainted to at least remove any text identifying you as an ambulance. Laws are generally pretty strict about what kinds of vehicles can be labeled as ambulances (they must be ambulances).

Spacewise, it seems like it should be all right? Assuming you are looking at a used one for cheap, you would still need to do a decent amount of work on the interior anyway. You may be better off looking for a used camper van.
posted by thecaddy at 6:25 AM on January 30, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I personally haven't, but my neighbors built out an ambulance and lived in it full time. They painted it a solid green so it wouldn't be confused for a working emergency vehicle. It was a nice build, they put a lot of thought into it.

The biggest advantage was all the wiring that was already in place, the disadvantage was the low ceiling height (the guy was over 6'). They dropped the floor in one area to create a shower and that was the only place he could fully stand up.

The couple spent a lot of time traveling to different places in Canada, where its easy to find places in nature to park and sleep for free. It's very different in most of the US and a lot of folks end up sleeping in Walmart parking lots bc it's challenging to find accessible legal areas to park for the night.

They traveled in it for a while and then built out a schoolbus for more space the next winter. The ambulance was cool but for long term living they wanted something they could both stand up in.
posted by ananci at 6:25 AM on January 30, 2024 [16 favorites]


On TikTok, I recently stumbled across someone who had done that. Hitting up the search bar on TT for "living in an ambulance" gets many results which could help you figure it out.

Note that a lot of those hits are people who renovated an ambulance and they generally thought it was good thing to do. The biggest selling point was all the built in storage space.

You might get better answers on here if you clarify if you're looking to renovate an ambulance and include a photo or mention what kind of ambulance. There's different models from different times that are different sizes and shapes.

Good luck!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:31 AM on January 30, 2024 [3 favorites]


Response by poster: WOW-U folks answered my question much faster than I thought,lol.
Just to clarify,the ambulance would be a type 3,the one that u can get to the drivers seat without having to get out of the ambulance,and walk to the front.
Yes,it would be used,and renovated-bed,fridge,etc.
Hope that clears a bit of the confusion.

Again-thanks for your tips-good and bad. Keep them coming. :-)
posted by LOOKING at 6:54 AM on January 30, 2024


Bryce, a kiwi who has the Living Big in a Tiny House channel on YouTube was kitting out an ambulance. I think it was in the US (where he does a lot of videos) and then Covid hit so I'm not sure what happened but he's very informative and a lot of fun to watch.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 7:10 AM on January 30, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Ambulances are extremely sturdy, extremely heavy. They have storage. If you plan to use the ambulance for transportation, the gas mileage will be really bad. If you plan to mostly park, that's less of an issue. Check out CheapRVLiving.com. Bob Wells has lived in vans for many years, I think he's now living in a converted ambulance.
posted by theora55 at 7:15 AM on January 30, 2024 [9 favorites]


FWIW, the "van life" trend seems to have crested and then died down (at least in my area).

If you can put together the money up front, it seems like it might be cheaper now to buy someone else's abandoned van project than to do your own.

A lot of fixed up Sprinters and Econovans and the like are being unloaded on FB Marketplace these days.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:05 AM on January 30, 2024 [11 favorites]


Youtube is chock full of ambulance conversions (that's the phrase you want to search), and a lot of them talk about the particular mechanical and electrical components.

My primary concern would be getting it checked out by a mechanic who knows what to look for. Ambulances are beasts, mechanically, but they're also driven very rough.

Fulltiming in one is something you'll need to research pretty extensively, especially in the places you plan to travel/stay. They're big and they're just not stealthy, so if this is something you want to live in on private property that allows that sort of thing, campgrounds, or a lot of dispersed camping land, that will work out a lot better than trying to urban-dwell on the California coast or street-park pretty much anywhere.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:18 AM on January 30, 2024 [3 favorites]


Best answer: My mom's friend has a converted ambulance. They don't live in it full time, they just use it for camping. They really like it and the interior is really cute and cozy, but that's more a property of the conversion process than of the former-ambulance-ness of the vehicle.

I don't think I would want to live in it full time, though. We have an RV about that size and I think even as a pretty small person I start feeling claustrophobic after a few days.

I agree with other folks that RVs had a huge moment during the pandemic and I bet a lot of those vehicles are relatively cheap to buy used now. Is the situation that you already have an ambulance and you're trying to decide whether to live in it?
posted by potrzebie at 8:42 AM on January 30, 2024 [2 favorites]


Just as a warning: prices have not come down in most places because people think they're going to recoup the pandemic costs of vehicle and materials (or just match the sale prices of 2021-22), and honestly if you haven't tried to book a campsite in 2024 I assure you there's still lots of people on the road. Things are very very weird out there right now.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:25 AM on January 30, 2024 [7 favorites]


"Also I remember reading a book as a kid where they were riding in a white van and as a joke someone painted red crosses on it. Police were not amused."

"No Coins, Please" my favourite book when I was 10 or so, written by beloved Canadian YA writer Gordon Korman.
posted by joelhunt at 12:17 PM on January 30, 2024 [4 favorites]


Ambulances tend to have very hard service lives, by the nature of the use they’re put to. They’re driven urgently every single day and don’t necessarily get the maintenance other working vehicles do. I’d look very hard mechanically at any former ambulance I was buying.

That said, if what you’re after is a van to live in, pay attention to the models that are used for ambulances in your area, they’re usually highly adaptable and the parts plentiful. Mercedes Sprinter vans, where I am.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 12:29 PM on January 30, 2024 [1 favorite]


YAY!!!! SOMEONE RECOGNIZED THAT BOOK!!!! :)
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:54 PM on January 30, 2024 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: Thank you all-the info and tips provided has made me look deeper into this. :-)
posted by LOOKING at 7:54 AM on January 31, 2024


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