Converting Our Ambo or Buying a Class C

The Plan.
My wife and I originally intended to purchase a used 25-year-old Prevost Bus Conversion. OK, so at $200-300,000 it might have been overreaching our budget, but that was our plan. Had we ever driven a bus, have our air brake tickets (required in Canada) or had a place to park it? The answer to all three is NO!

Hmm, a dilemma! We figured a Class B was definitely out as you couldn’t stand up in most of them and the Class C’s, well, just didn’t look right either. I guess the big thing is, if either of those two classes broke down somewhere, you were stuck unless you had a Toad (pulled vehicle). Stuck in your home at a place that might not welcome a motor home.

We pondered on this for months. Liked this floor-plan but not the flimsiness, or liked the truck part, but the cabin layout sucked – you get the point. The endless variables made it confusing and kept reducing our options in a market that was getting tougher all the time.

Enter covid and our selections disappeared almost overnight, and people added 20-30% to the price of everything, including junk. If I bought a unit from a person, will they tell me about the rotten floor in the bathroom or the propane leak they couldn’t locate? I’m not a good one to buy from people because if someone tells me it is an awesome deal I’ll buy it, ahghg.

Just for fun, we went to our local repo lot down the street from us and saw a fleet (yes, 12 of them) of ambulances lined up for my inspection. They had been inspected by the dealer, maintenance had been conducted monthly by law when they were in use as an ambulance. We found a really neat one bigger than the rest with the ambulance intact inside. On the window, it had the date for the next inspection still in the future.

Something Unique
The idea of something relatively unique, piqued our interest and even though it was on an auction we bought it that day for the asking price of $12,000 ($9000 USD). Our idea was rather than buy something we knew nothing about, let’s build out this vehicle the way we wanted.

Now let’s recap both as a 2013 vehicle:
The Class C already built
old for an RV
no service/repair history but lower mileage
other peoples tastes
cheap tin construction but very light
inexpensive industry building materials all round
low towing/storage capacity

The Ambulance
We needed to build it
our vision
service/maintained by law but higher mileage
built to last at 6 tons
reinforced roll cage design
dualies (4 back tires) for stability and weight distribution
8 ton towing capacity
two alternators for better power, tougher/bigger engine
built for speed and comfortable
easily converted

OK, so you got the point. We loved the idea of doing our own thing. I must admit, besides building a deck and fixing little things around the house, I knew nothing about RV construction, electrical or motors, for that matter.

Our Build
It took the better part of 5 months spread over a year to build, with around 180 hours just dedicated to the electrical systems. We used top quality stuff, actually the best – from the Furrion stove, hitech security systems, to the Cubic Mini Wood Stove and the OGO toilet. Granted, we did have help from our brand sponsors, but our cost including the purchase price and the $6000 in safety/engine overhaul (to be sure of what we had) was another $30-40,000 (still counting the receipts).

Compare it to the unknown inferior Class C’s we perused, online and in-person, at around $60-100,000 for the same 2013 model year, we are happy with our ambulance. By the way for you folks who have driven a Class C, you know all those shakes and rattles, well, our ambo is like driving a Rolls, nothing shakes!

It is certainly unique and with the chimney coming out of the roof and a 24’ mast holding our Starlink, it is noticed at a campsite. As proven by our first door knock on our first trip by the police, it is not stealthy.

Any regrets? Well, all of our friends say we should have gone diesel rather than gas, but I love how that Ford 6.7 L Super Duty purrs. Is’s going to cost money to drive it, whether it’s an original RV or our Ambo. I’m so thankful I didn’t buy that 3MPG Prevost bus -phew!

Besides, I can beat any old or new Class C at the stoplight and scare the heck out of them with my siren!