Introduction
The unimog is the latest addition to our unusual glamping pods. An ex army ambulance once used to carry injured personnel from the battle field, which will now be converted into a military glamping pod to spend the rest of its days along side Kaleb the combine on our lake site. This blog will show snippets of the process from unloading it in our farm yard to the finished article on our lake.
So far….
After having successfully completed both the Jetstream (plane) and the Lynx Helicopter situated down at the RAF Wainfleet tower site, we decided to carry on the theme of quirky forms of holiday accommodation by converting some more unusual vehicles and locating them at a picturesque lake on our farm. First of all was Kaleb the combine which was converted with a little help from “my unique B&B”. The whole process can be watched on the BBC iPlayer by clicking the link.
We then moved on to our Unimog army ambulance
Purchased back in July 2021 the Unimog was stripped out to become our laundry and maintenance vehicle for the following year whilst we got on with other, more urgent jobs. It came in the exact state that it finished it’s service, including four hydraulic stretchers. Not that we actually ever figured out how they work!
The alterations
We began reconstructing the inside of unimog towards the end of 2022 with the view of getting it up and running for the spring of 23. Either side of Christmas and new year we put most of our efforts into the project, only spending time on essential maintenance out side of this.
We started by stripping it back to the metal, removing all old wiring and the basic insulation. With a crude design to work from we then ran cables for the new sockets, tv and lighting before insulating the whole vehicle with 25mm sheeting.
Still not entirely sure that it was the correct choice, we then lined the inside with pink and white pvc sheeting to give it a completely contrasting look to its external military appearance. We put in bench seats and a table which can easily be transformed into a double bed for sleeping. Kitchen units and an electric hob for basic cooking, along with a smart tv and dvd player for entertainment.
The next steps will be to install wifi and a roof tent so that it can sleep up to four people.
