Ambulance – General Maintenance and Fun Things!

Hello! I have been doing a lot of general maintenance on the ambulance lately and developing some fun plans for future trips and things like that, so I figured I should write a little update to tell you guys about those things! 

The general maintenance that I have been doing is mostly driving it every week, sometimes twice a week. This helps the battery stay charged, the oil does not drain out of the injectors, and just helps keep the engine well lubricated and running. I try to do this twice a week, even though I know I can do it once a week. I like to do it twice a week because this brings me more peace of mind and it also helps me to get more comfortable with driving it and being inside of it for longer periods of time. 

I try to drive it for about a half hour every time, since this is usually how long it takes to recharge the engine battery from starting the engine. I do realize that this uses a lot of gas and is costing me money every single time I do it, but I can’t stop doing it and run the risk of even more things going wrong than I already have. 

One of the more interesting things that I have found out about the van is that I discovered the place to access all of the electrical for the house and most of the light sequencing. Take all of that with a grain of salt because I know very little about all of this, but I know what was written on these things. I will include pictures of what I found in this section as well, especially since I think it was so interesting. 

The way I found out about this panel was a very funny one, to me at least. I had gone to visit the ambulance to do some cleaning and to drive it around but I forgot my registration sticker, so I couldn’t drive it. I stood in the middle of the ambulance thinking about what else I could do, and I started thinking about how this panel and the one below it are hiding a lot of unused space. 

I realized that the panel doesn’t have any screws or anything in it so I started wondering if there is some way I could pull it off the wall or peel it off to see what was under it, so I walked up to it and I tugged on the panel. It actually opened! I had no idea that it would be a door to a whole entire electrical system, but it was! It felt like I had hit the motherlode. 

There was a ton of information in front of me, but only a few things were really labeled. One of the things that was labeled was the light sequencer, which makes a lot of sense. I am still very curious about what all of the other stuff is for, and I think it is all for the stuff that is in the house of the ambulance such as the oxygen tanks, the AC for the back, the speakers, and the lights. There is probably a whole lot more that is controlled there, but I was just so happy to find it. 

I have been thinking about how I could bring my ambulance to a hospital or a place that does maintenance specifically on ambulances and ask them to tell me all about it, but that takes a lot of guts and I haven’t worked up to that yet. I know this would be very helpful though, and I need to do it soon. 

Recently I also found out that the air conditioning does not work in the cab of the ambulance, which was fine because it was already getting cooler in Vegas, but I am going to bring it to the mechanic soon to fix that up. I found out the other day as well that the heat still works, and I am very very grateful for that. 

It is also very hard for me to find time to bring my car or the ambulance to the mechanic, but I know I have to do it very soon. Fixing the AC is necessary for all future projects, I will mostly be working on it in the summer, and I also still have to drive it at least once a week for the rest of time, so I will really need the AC to be fixed by then. 

Now for a fun thing before I end this post. I did recently measure the inside of the ambulance to see if I could fit a twin size air mattress in there, and I can! This means that I can start taking trips this winter, short one or two day trips, and that is super exciting! 

I realized recently that I am not really going to be making much progress, if any at all, during the winter. This means that I won’t be able to do any traveling or exploring any time soon, so I figured an air mattress is pretty cheap and relatively easy to store and then I can go on short trips and start getting myself more acclimated to sleep in the ambulance and just spending more time in there in general. 

The electrical problems that I am having scare me a little bit, and I would need to bring a lot of warm stuff to sleep with since there isn’t much insulation in the ambulance, so it might be a struggle to take short trips in it right now before I fix those two things. I still really want to challenge myself to do things that I am not entirely comfortable with yet, and this would be one of them. 

I am also going to start and finish editing all of the videos that I have made previously, so people can more closely follow my journey and I can receive advice that people might have on things I am doing incorrectly or just not in the most efficient way. 

Anywho, thank you so much for reading my post and sticking with me throughout my journey! I appreciate you all so much. I will see you guys in the next one!