January 18, 2024 • 20 mins
Eric Lahti shares his experience of purchasing and transforming an ambulance into the ultimate tailgate vehicle. He discusses how his love for the New England Patriots led him to explore the idea of a tailgate bus, which eventually evolved into the decision to buy an ambulance.
Eric provides insights into the process of converting the ambulance, including designing a functional and eye-catching exterior wrap, installing grills on the stretcher, adding a flat top for cooking, and creating storage compartments for clothes and supplies. He also shares his experience working with the electrical system and making necessary repairs to ensure the vehicle's functionality.
Eric highlights the advantages of choosing an ambulance over a bus for tailgating, such as cost savings and ease of customization. He concludes by offering advice for those interested in purchasing an ambulance from a government auction.
About the Guest:
Eric Lahti is the owner of a mid-size construction company specializing in building pharmaceutical plants for major pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and Takeda. With a background in construction and a passion for the Patriots, Eric decided to purchase an ambulance from a government auction on Municibid and transform it into the ultimate tailgate vehicle. His unique creation has garnered attention and admiration from fellow tailgaters and football fans alike.
Key Takeaways:
- Eric Lahti's passion for the New England Patriots and tailgating led him to purchase an ambulance from a government auction on Municibid.
- The ambulance was transformed into the ultimate tailgate vehicle, complete with grills mounted on the stretcher, a flat top for cooking, storage compartments, a refrigerator, a microwave, and even a beer tap and keg cooler.
- Eric emphasizes the importance of inspecting the ambulance before purchasing and having a clear plan for customization based on individual needs and preferences.
- Choosing an ambulance over a bus for tailgating offers advantages such as cost savings and easier customization.
Additional Resources:
- Explore the wild world of government surplus at Municibid
- Learn more about Government Surplus Vehicles: https://blog.municibid.com/the-government-surplus-vehicle-guide/
- How to build your ambulance work truck
- Why an ambulance makes a great RV
Got feedback or want to be a guest? Email us at marketing@municibid.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sophie Eden (00:00):
Hi, Eric, excited to have you on to talk about the
(00:02):
ultimate tailgate vehicle thatyou made.
Can you start us off byintroducing yourself?
Eric Lahti (00:08):
My name's Eric Lati and I am a owner of a mid-size
construction company.
We build pharmaceutical plantsfor the big pharmaceutical
companies, Pfizer, Takeda, thatkinda stuff.
Sophie Eden (00:19):
Very cool.
Can you tell me about yourfavorite government auction that
you won?
Eric Lahti (00:25):
So I won the ambulance from a local town in
Massachusetts, way out west inMassachusetts.
It was an ambulance.
And it fit the perfect what wewere looking to do, and that's,
so we bought it and very happywith it.
Sophie Eden (00:40):
Was it the first time that you'd bought and
driven an ambulance?
Eric Lahti (00:45):
Yes.
Yep.
Yeah, I had never bought anambulance before.
I'd ridden in them a couple oftimes, but never bought one.
Sophie Eden (00:52):
What made you decide to look for and purchase
an ambulance?
Eric Lahti (00:57):
I'm a big Patriots fan.
Boohoo, everybody says, butwhatever.
I've been a season ticket forHolder for 39 years and I was
looking for a bus originally,and my wife told me absolutely
not, we are not putting a bus inour driveway.
But she saw an ambulance on.
Some tailgating show or footballgame, she goes, oh, we can do
that.
(01:17):
So that gave me the okay to gobuy an ambulance.
So that's how I got to that.
And then you know, there's not alot of information out there on
how to make a tailgate vehicleout of a ambulance, so I kind of
just winged it.
Sophie Eden (01:33):
That's funny.
Can you tell me about yourprocess of some of the things
that were involved for you tomake your air ambulance into a
tailgate vehicle?
Eric Lahti (01:43):
Yeah, so what I did is I, like I said, I did some
research.
I knew what I wanted to put init kind of the best thing about
this ambulance, it came with astretcher, which 90% of'em
don't.
And I had this crazy idea that Iwas gonna mount the grills to
the stretcher, so everybodythought I was nuts.
But right now it's the, it'slike the sh the, the showpiece
(02:09):
of the whole parking lot that wepark in.
Cuz I just pull up, you unhookthe, the stretcher like you
would if there was a body in itor a person in it.
You wheel it out, the wheelsfall down and you're ready to
grill.
When you're done at the end ofthe day, you push it in and it
locks into place and it doesn'troll around.
You're not picking up grills.
It's, it was actually an amazingidea that it was just kind of by
(02:32):
luck.
So that was the first thing Idesigned that actually has a
flat top to cook with a barbecuegrill and a pizza oven.
So we cook pizzas at the end ofevery game.
Now that's a new thing for us.
And then on the inside I, Iwanted to get all the lights to
work cause when you buy thesethings, they're half torn apart.
So I, I figured out how to fixall the lights, all the lighting
(02:54):
works now, even though I got thesirens and the outside lights to
work.
But can't use those on thestreet, just in the parking lot.
And then we wanted to put a, arefrigerator in there in a
microwave.
And we made some of thecompartments for like clothes.
We put like little.
Compartment, smallercompartments in to put clothes
in cause it gets cold duringsome of the games.
(03:15):
So there's like lots of storage.
We put a microwave in there to,to preheat stuff like when
you're come back from a game andyou want to cook something, you
can reheat some of the stuffyou've previously cooked.
Then we put a beer tap in it, weput a keg.
And we made a, we made our ownlike keg cooler cause we
couldn't find anything thatwould fit.
(03:36):
So we bought all the pieces andput it together and we ran it a
tap out for a keg.
And then I also did one formixed drinks.
We bought a container and we putthat that, so we had mixed,
mixed drinks on tap and alsobeer on tap inside.
So
Sophie Eden (03:52):
That's so cool.
Eric Lahti (03:53):
Yeah.
And then we had, I sat with adesigner that did the outside
wrap and then they did someinside wrap stuff.
And we were gonna put theAstroTurf on the floor, but the
floor was green in there anyway,so we just kinda left that alone
because AstroTurf, it would behard to keep it clean after we
had tried a piece in there andit's like, eh, this isn't really
(04:14):
working.
So trial and error.
Sophie Eden (04:17):
How was it working with the electrical that was
already in the ambulance and didyou have.
Prior experience working withelectrical things.
Eric Lahti (04:29):
No electricity scares the heck out of me.
Not good with electrical, but Iwas able to find a, a a wiring
diagram.
So I'm a construction guy.
I can read prints.
So we followed out thecircuitry.
Come to find out how theydisconnected.
Most of the stuff is they justtake the ground wires off of
everything.
And then with electricity youhave to complete a circuit,
(04:49):
right?
Positive and negative.
And they gotta touch somehowthrough some sort of connection.
So I found all the loose wiresand the ones that they
disconnected, I reconnected it.
Then just slowly, you know,there was a few fuses out and
other things, and that's how weended up putting it back
together.
Sophie Eden (05:08):
You bought this ambulance looking specifically
for a tailgate vehicle.
Do you use it for anything elsearound town or,
Eric Lahti (05:18):
so I do drive it around town but we don't really
use it for much.
I mean, we go to parties withit, we'll take it to a party,
you know, like if we are notgoing to a game.
I have, we have a whole bunch offriends we have a whole bunch of
friends that will go to theirhouses and we'll take the
ambulance with us and we'll, Youknow, do the tailgate in the
driveway or like Christmas timeand on on Saturday or no,
(05:42):
Sunday, right.
No, Saturday is Christmas Eve.
All my grandkids are gonna be uphere and my brother and his
kids.
And we're bringing the ambulanceto his house and we're gonna
cook out of it for ChristmasEve.
And then, you know, Santa willcome in for the little kids and
stuff.
So, and we're thinking ofdriving Santa into the, in the
ambulance to their house.
(06:02):
So that's, that could besomething special.
Sophie Eden (06:04):
Aw, that's so cute.
That's really sweet.
What advice would you give tosomeone who is looking to buy an
ambulance?
Who ha hasn't bought anambulance before?
Eric Lahti (06:20):
So you just, you really should go look at it
before you buy it.
And I did that.
I'm not, these things are oldnumber one.
This one was 20 years old.
And you wanna make sure it's inpretty decent shape.
Un unless you're a handy guy.
I'm not a bodywork guy, so I waslooking for pretty much a
rust-free vehicle.
Cause I really don't wanna startripping off pieces and parts of
(06:41):
it.
Mechanically I can fix justabout anything.
I'll figure it out.
I'm a car guy, grew up doingcars.
So that's, I had that advantage.
But I would definitely look atit and.
Put a plan together, causethey're all different.
They're, you know, they'redifferent seating arrangements,
you know, mine seats, eightpeople, two in the front and six
(07:02):
in the back.
You know, and that's, that wasimportant to us cause we take
six people with us all the time.
Sometimes eight.
So you, and it has seat beltsfor eight people in it.
So you gotta really look andinspect that part of it.
And just make sure it's, youknow, what you are good at, you
can fix.
And.
(07:23):
That would matter to you.
If it's, you're not good atsomething, it's gonna cost you
to have somebody look at it andfix it, you know?
And like I said, most of thisstuff is pretty old with a high
mileage, but you know, a hundredthousand miles on an ambulance
is really not a lot on a dieselmotor.
Those things are good for two,250,000 miles.
So I'll, this thing's gonnaoutlast me for sure.
Sophie Eden (07:45):
Speaking of doing work on it and stuff.
Was there any engine or othertype of like vehicle operation
work that you needed to do withyour ambulance and were you able
to do it yourself or did youneed to find someone who like
worked on ambulances before?
Eric Lahti (08:03):
Yeah, no, there was nothing that was, well, so there
was, we didn't know there wassomething wrong.
I trailered it from the place,we bought it to my house and
then I drove it down to get thewheels or the wrap put on it
after we had it designed, andthen I brought it back and then,
The first game we went to go towith it the brakes, rear brakes
(08:25):
were stuck.
So we had to turn around and goback cuz we didn't want the
thing to burn up cause it waspretty hot.
So I ended up taking it apartand it was just, you know, from
sitting from, I don't know howlong it sat from the place I
bought it from the town.
Probably six months or a year Iwould imagine.
Cause that's what most of'emseem to be taken outta service
(08:48):
for about six months to a yearbefore they go for auction.
And then it sat in my yard forfour or five months.
So everything was stuck.
And no, I didn't have to bringit anywhere.
I just took it apart and, youknow, I have my own shop, so I
just took it apart and justreplaced the brakes and
everything.
So.
It works beautifully now.
(09:09):
No issues at all.
It goes down the road.
Very good.
Nice and straight.
It's beautiful.
Sophie Eden (09:14):
That's wonderful.
I'm glad to hear thateverything's running great on
it.
Speaking of parts sounds likemaybe you haven't, like, needed
to replace that much with yourambulance, but as far as parts
or getting things that wouldlike fit either on or inside
your ambulance, did you findthat pretty easy to do?
Eric Lahti (09:35):
Yeah, I did.
So, so it's, it's a Ford.
So the Ford.
The truck itself is a Fordtruck, right?
And then the box is a Hortonwhich is a big manufacturer of
ambulances.
But the ambulance itself is madewith like a lot of house, like
the plugs and stuff.
(09:56):
It's just regular householdplugs.
The wiring is nothing special.
It's just like extension codematerial.
It's called so cord, but so theyrun so cord through the, between
the plates of the box.
In anything I've needed.
I've, you know, anything like Imodified, we put a TV in it and,
(10:17):
you know, to blank out a, acompartment, I, I used a piece
of plastic and the plywood andwe built it out a little bit so
it, it rotates in the place.
And you know, it just takes alittle time to think about what
you're doing and you can.
Buy almost anything for it, youknow, like the truck, I wanted
(10:37):
to put chrome wheels on it.
We put those on.
But that's, there was no problemat all getting parts for it.
Sophie Eden (10:45):
That's really good.
Your wife had had seen likeambulances, tailgate vehicles on
tv.
Had you seen ambulances person,like prior to getting your own
ambulance.
Eric Lahti (10:58):
So I had seen them, but I'd never been anywhere near
close to one.
You know, they're in otherparking lots.
The parking lot I was in neverhad an ambulance.
It was always big buses andstuff like that.
Mostly cars and trucks, butthere was never an ambulance.
It was.
You know, like panel vans andstuff like that that people had
converted, but nothing like anambulance in my parking lot.
(11:21):
So I didn't, there was no way toget ideas except for all the
searches I did on online lookingfor it.
And then I just put my ownthoughts into how I wanted to do
it.
I made a whole big list ofthings that we were gonna do,
and that's what we did was
Sophie Eden (11:37):
That's awesome.
Eric Lahti (11:37):
Took three weeks to put it together.
So,
Sophie Eden (11:41):
Wow.
That's amazing.
Eric Lahti (11:43):
Yeah.
Well, once you figure out whatyou're gonna do and you just, as
long as you have everything youcan build it.
So me and my brother, my brotherhelped me put it together and
we, we knocked it out in three,three weeks.
We were under pressure cause thegames were starting.
Sophie Eden (11:56):
Oh, that's fantastic.
You'd mentioned like originallyyou were looking for a bus,
you'd seen buses before at thetailgate parties.
What would you say were likesome of the advantages or.
Why you're happy you went withan ambulance as opposed to a bus
for a tailgate vehicle?
Eric Lahti (12:15):
Well, number one is it's a tail.
Ambulance is one car space,right?
So you pay for the one carspace, so it's only the 50 bucks
you bring a bus, it's$150.
The park that I never reallythought about that and to, to do
the work on the ambulance was,Fairly simple.
We did it in three weeks.
(12:35):
I think if I did a bus, I'dprobably still be working on it.
You know, there was a lot of, I,I had a lot of ideas for, it,
still had a lot of ideas for atailgate bus, but it, those
conversions aren't as simple asa, an ambulance.
An ambulance is done, it'sinsulated.
You know, just a little bit ofwork to get lights going and
(12:57):
make some tables and do the, thegrill thing and.
It was fairly easy to do.
Sophie Eden (13:05):
What's been your favorite game that you've taken
it to?
Eric Lahti (13:11):
It was the first game that it went that we
actually, not the first time Itried to go to a game, but the
first game that we went to wepulled in the parking lot and
there was actually anotherambulance in the parking lot at
the time.
We pulled in, we parked, and Ibet there was 200 people waiting
in line to see this thing.
To see my ambulance.
It was the funniest thing ever.
(13:32):
I've never had that many peopleat my tailgate.
You know, I go with 20 people toevery tailgate.
Like I take eight friends ofmine take six, and there's like
F five, five cars that come.
So we all kind of congregatetogether, but there was a line.
Waiting to walk through theambulance.
It was the funniest thing.
And then the guy that owned theambulance that I passed on the
way in, he goes, I saw you pullin.
(13:55):
I wanted to check it out.
He goes, I got the bestambulance in this place.
And I said, oh, cool.
You know, really neat.
That's, that's a good thing.
I said, mine's pretty good, butyou know, he goes, might be
better.
He comes out and he goes, Nope,I gotta give up the number one
spot.
You're the best one here.
So that was funny.
That was the most.
That was the coolest thing causeI didn't build it for anybody
(14:17):
but myself.
No, I wanted an ambulance model.
My wife did, cause she wants tostay warm.
Cause all the heat and the ACworks so she can go sit inside.
You know, I designed tables tofit in there.
Like you pull out the Thestretcher with the grills on it.
And then I have a table thatlocks right into place where the
stretcher was so that you cansit inside and eat and stay warm
(14:38):
and you know, have a few drinksor whatever you wanna do is not
be out in the cold elements.
Sophie Eden (14:43):
That's wonderful.
So switching gears a little tolike government auctions more
generally.
This ambulance that you won, wasit the first government auction
that you'd won?
Or had you participated ingovernment auctions before?
Eric Lahti (15:00):
No, I bought a, probably two or three things
from them.
Small things, you know.
I bid on a whole bunch of stuff,but you know, it gets to a point
where it doesn't make any senseto me to buy it at that, right
at that price.
So it's I figure out what I canpay for it or what it's worth to
me.
Is probably the best way to putit.
I set my value and then, then Istopped.
(15:21):
So, you know, there was, I triedto buy a couple of backhoes and
stuff through it, I do buy otherthings.
I bought some small machineryand stuff like that.
Sophie Eden (15:32):
What advice would you give to someone who was
brand new to government auctionsand hadn't participated in any
before?
Eric Lahti (15:43):
So I would say that you know the value of what
you're looking for.
Realize that this is usedequipment.
Doesn't matter what it is, it'sall used pretty much, not
everything but 90% of it.
And then set of value to what,you know, say you can pay X, say
it's a thousand dollars for itnew, what is it worth to you
(16:05):
used, you know, is it$500 is750?
You just need to have that planbefore you get carried away as
a, on an auction.
Cause that's the biggest problemwith some people.
They get carried away and I wasat fault of doing that.
I, I love auctions.
That's my thing.
That's my like, hobby, I guessyou'd say.
My wife hates it, but whatever.
(16:27):
They come home with a lot ofcrazy stuff.
Sophie Eden (16:29):
What's the most unique or strangest government
auction item that you've won?
Eric Lahti (16:38):
Let's see.
It was, hmm, no, I'm trying tothink.
Oh, it was a field, like a handfield mower, you know, like a,
not one that attaches to atractor.
It was this like big wheel,high, high field mower.
And when I got it, it needed alot more work than I thought.
(16:58):
But that's, that's, it's fine.
I still use it.
So that was kinda the weirdestthing I bought.
I really didn't need it, but itwas one of those things that I
could use it, you know, we havea small little Christmas tree
farm and we use it around that,so.
Sophie Eden (17:11):
What do you like the most about government
auctions?
Eric Lahti (17:16):
You can get stuff on here that's just not ordinary,
you know, like an ambulance.
You're not gonna buy thatanywhere else except for on a go
government auction, a firetruck,you know, they, people are
really into converting thi thiskind of equipment now.
And it's, I myself think it's agreat idea just because.
(17:37):
It's, it's cheaper for somebodyto do it, right?
Number one, they can buy a, likeI say, an old ambulance.
You can make a camper out ofthem.
I've seen a few that people makecampers out of them.
There's pretty cool campers.
And for, if you're handy enoughand you can do the work, it's
well worth it.
You'll save yourself, you know,tens of thousands of dollars.
(17:57):
If you're not so handy, you'renot gonna save money.
You, you have to be.
You have to have a handy bone inyour body.
You know, you have to be able todo one thing or another.
You just can't pay foreverything because it, you'll,
it's not gonna be worth it atthat point.
Sophie Eden (18:14):
Wonderful.
Is there anything else thatyou'd like to share about your
ambulance or government auctionsin general?
Eric Lahti (18:24):
No, I just, like I said, I think it's a great
thing.
It's a great tool.
I don't think there's enoughpeople that know about it and I
don't know how, you know, I tryto spread the word as much as I
can.
Not too much cause I still wannaget some good deals, but but I
think it's a good thing.
You can buy some pretty coolstuff on there and for a pretty
good price, you know.
Sophie Eden (18:45):
Yeah.
Awesome.
Well it's been a pleasurechatting with you today, Eric.
I really appreciate it andfantastic stories about your
ambulance.
Really cool to hear.
Eric Lahti (18:55):
It was fun.
Sophie Eden (18:56):
So thank you so much.
Thank you Eric.
Eric Lahti (18:59):
Thanks, you too.
Hi, Eric, excited to have you on to talk about the
(00:02):
ultimate tailgate vehicle thatyou made.
Can you start us off byintroducing yourself?
Eric Lahti (00:08):
My name's Eric Lati and I am a owner of a mid-size
construction company.
We build pharmaceutical plantsfor the big pharmaceutical
companies, Pfizer, Takeda, thatkinda stuff.
Sophie Eden (00:19):
Very cool.
Can you tell me about yourfavorite government auction that
you won?
Eric Lahti (00:25):
So I won the ambulance from a local town in
Massachusetts, way out west inMassachusetts.
It was an ambulance.
And it fit the perfect what wewere looking to do, and that's,
so we bought it and very happywith it.
Sophie Eden (00:40):
Was it the first time that you'd bought and
driven an ambulance?
Eric Lahti (00:45):
Yes.
Yep.
Yeah, I had never bought anambulance before.
I'd ridden in them a couple oftimes, but never bought one.
Sophie Eden (00:52):
What made you decide to look for and purchase
an ambulance?
Eric Lahti (00:57):
I'm a big Patriots fan.
Boohoo, everybody says, butwhatever.
I've been a season ticket forHolder for 39 years and I was
looking for a bus originally,and my wife told me absolutely
not, we are not putting a bus inour driveway.
But she saw an ambulance on.
Some tailgating show or footballgame, she goes, oh, we can do
that.
(01:17):
So that gave me the okay to gobuy an ambulance.
So that's how I got to that.
And then you know, there's not alot of information out there on
how to make a tailgate vehicleout of a ambulance, so I kind of
just winged it.
Sophie Eden (01:33):
That's funny.
Can you tell me about yourprocess of some of the things
that were involved for you tomake your air ambulance into a
tailgate vehicle?
Eric Lahti (01:43):
Yeah, so what I did is I, like I said, I did some
research.
I knew what I wanted to put init kind of the best thing about
this ambulance, it came with astretcher, which 90% of'em
don't.
And I had this crazy idea that Iwas gonna mount the grills to
the stretcher, so everybodythought I was nuts.
But right now it's the, it'slike the sh the, the showpiece
(02:09):
of the whole parking lot that wepark in.
Cuz I just pull up, you unhookthe, the stretcher like you
would if there was a body in itor a person in it.
You wheel it out, the wheelsfall down and you're ready to
grill.
When you're done at the end ofthe day, you push it in and it
locks into place and it doesn'troll around.
You're not picking up grills.
It's, it was actually an amazingidea that it was just kind of by
(02:32):
luck.
So that was the first thing Idesigned that actually has a
flat top to cook with a barbecuegrill and a pizza oven.
So we cook pizzas at the end ofevery game.
Now that's a new thing for us.
And then on the inside I, Iwanted to get all the lights to
work cause when you buy thesethings, they're half torn apart.
So I, I figured out how to fixall the lights, all the lighting
(02:54):
works now, even though I got thesirens and the outside lights to
work.
But can't use those on thestreet, just in the parking lot.
And then we wanted to put a, arefrigerator in there in a
microwave.
And we made some of thecompartments for like clothes.
We put like little.
Compartment, smallercompartments in to put clothes
in cause it gets cold duringsome of the games.
(03:15):
So there's like lots of storage.
We put a microwave in there to,to preheat stuff like when
you're come back from a game andyou want to cook something, you
can reheat some of the stuffyou've previously cooked.
Then we put a beer tap in it, weput a keg.
And we made a, we made our ownlike keg cooler cause we
couldn't find anything thatwould fit.
(03:36):
So we bought all the pieces andput it together and we ran it a
tap out for a keg.
And then I also did one formixed drinks.
We bought a container and we putthat that, so we had mixed,
mixed drinks on tap and alsobeer on tap inside.
So
Sophie Eden (03:52):
That's so cool.
Eric Lahti (03:53):
Yeah.
And then we had, I sat with adesigner that did the outside
wrap and then they did someinside wrap stuff.
And we were gonna put theAstroTurf on the floor, but the
floor was green in there anyway,so we just kinda left that alone
because AstroTurf, it would behard to keep it clean after we
had tried a piece in there andit's like, eh, this isn't really
(04:14):
working.
So trial and error.
Sophie Eden (04:17):
How was it working with the electrical that was
already in the ambulance and didyou have.
Prior experience working withelectrical things.
Eric Lahti (04:29):
No electricity scares the heck out of me.
Not good with electrical, but Iwas able to find a, a a wiring
diagram.
So I'm a construction guy.
I can read prints.
So we followed out thecircuitry.
Come to find out how theydisconnected.
Most of the stuff is they justtake the ground wires off of
everything.
And then with electricity youhave to complete a circuit,
(04:49):
right?
Positive and negative.
And they gotta touch somehowthrough some sort of connection.
So I found all the loose wiresand the ones that they
disconnected, I reconnected it.
Then just slowly, you know,there was a few fuses out and
other things, and that's how weended up putting it back
together.
Sophie Eden (05:08):
You bought this ambulance looking specifically
for a tailgate vehicle.
Do you use it for anything elsearound town or,
Eric Lahti (05:18):
so I do drive it around town but we don't really
use it for much.
I mean, we go to parties withit, we'll take it to a party,
you know, like if we are notgoing to a game.
I have, we have a whole bunch offriends we have a whole bunch of
friends that will go to theirhouses and we'll take the
ambulance with us and we'll, Youknow, do the tailgate in the
driveway or like Christmas timeand on on Saturday or no,
(05:42):
Sunday, right.
No, Saturday is Christmas Eve.
All my grandkids are gonna be uphere and my brother and his
kids.
And we're bringing the ambulanceto his house and we're gonna
cook out of it for ChristmasEve.
And then, you know, Santa willcome in for the little kids and
stuff.
So, and we're thinking ofdriving Santa into the, in the
ambulance to their house.
(06:02):
So that's, that could besomething special.
Sophie Eden (06:04):
Aw, that's so cute.
That's really sweet.
What advice would you give tosomeone who is looking to buy an
ambulance?
Who ha hasn't bought anambulance before?
Eric Lahti (06:20):
So you just, you really should go look at it
before you buy it.
And I did that.
I'm not, these things are oldnumber one.
This one was 20 years old.
And you wanna make sure it's inpretty decent shape.
Un unless you're a handy guy.
I'm not a bodywork guy, so I waslooking for pretty much a
rust-free vehicle.
Cause I really don't wanna startripping off pieces and parts of
(06:41):
it.
Mechanically I can fix justabout anything.
I'll figure it out.
I'm a car guy, grew up doingcars.
So that's, I had that advantage.
But I would definitely look atit and.
Put a plan together, causethey're all different.
They're, you know, they'redifferent seating arrangements,
you know, mine seats, eightpeople, two in the front and six
(07:02):
in the back.
You know, and that's, that wasimportant to us cause we take
six people with us all the time.
Sometimes eight.
So you, and it has seat beltsfor eight people in it.
So you gotta really look andinspect that part of it.
And just make sure it's, youknow, what you are good at, you
can fix.
And.
(07:23):
That would matter to you.
If it's, you're not good atsomething, it's gonna cost you
to have somebody look at it andfix it, you know?
And like I said, most of thisstuff is pretty old with a high
mileage, but you know, a hundredthousand miles on an ambulance
is really not a lot on a dieselmotor.
Those things are good for two,250,000 miles.
So I'll, this thing's gonnaoutlast me for sure.
Sophie Eden (07:45):
Speaking of doing work on it and stuff.
Was there any engine or othertype of like vehicle operation
work that you needed to do withyour ambulance and were you able
to do it yourself or did youneed to find someone who like
worked on ambulances before?
Eric Lahti (08:03):
Yeah, no, there was nothing that was, well, so there
was, we didn't know there wassomething wrong.
I trailered it from the place,we bought it to my house and
then I drove it down to get thewheels or the wrap put on it
after we had it designed, andthen I brought it back and then,
The first game we went to go towith it the brakes, rear brakes
(08:25):
were stuck.
So we had to turn around and goback cuz we didn't want the
thing to burn up cause it waspretty hot.
So I ended up taking it apartand it was just, you know, from
sitting from, I don't know howlong it sat from the place I
bought it from the town.
Probably six months or a year Iwould imagine.
Cause that's what most of'emseem to be taken outta service
(08:48):
for about six months to a yearbefore they go for auction.
And then it sat in my yard forfour or five months.
So everything was stuck.
And no, I didn't have to bringit anywhere.
I just took it apart and, youknow, I have my own shop, so I
just took it apart and justreplaced the brakes and
everything.
So.
It works beautifully now.
(09:09):
No issues at all.
It goes down the road.
Very good.
Nice and straight.
It's beautiful.
Sophie Eden (09:14):
That's wonderful.
I'm glad to hear thateverything's running great on
it.
Speaking of parts sounds likemaybe you haven't, like, needed
to replace that much with yourambulance, but as far as parts
or getting things that wouldlike fit either on or inside
your ambulance, did you findthat pretty easy to do?
Eric Lahti (09:35):
Yeah, I did.
So, so it's, it's a Ford.
So the Ford.
The truck itself is a Fordtruck, right?
And then the box is a Hortonwhich is a big manufacturer of
ambulances.
But the ambulance itself is madewith like a lot of house, like
the plugs and stuff.
(09:56):
It's just regular householdplugs.
The wiring is nothing special.
It's just like extension codematerial.
It's called so cord, but so theyrun so cord through the, between
the plates of the box.
In anything I've needed.
I've, you know, anything like Imodified, we put a TV in it and,
(10:17):
you know, to blank out a, acompartment, I, I used a piece
of plastic and the plywood andwe built it out a little bit so
it, it rotates in the place.
And you know, it just takes alittle time to think about what
you're doing and you can.
Buy almost anything for it, youknow, like the truck, I wanted
(10:37):
to put chrome wheels on it.
We put those on.
But that's, there was no problemat all getting parts for it.
Sophie Eden (10:45):
That's really good.
Your wife had had seen likeambulances, tailgate vehicles on
tv.
Had you seen ambulances person,like prior to getting your own
ambulance.
Eric Lahti (10:58):
So I had seen them, but I'd never been anywhere near
close to one.
You know, they're in otherparking lots.
The parking lot I was in neverhad an ambulance.
It was always big buses andstuff like that.
Mostly cars and trucks, butthere was never an ambulance.
It was.
You know, like panel vans andstuff like that that people had
converted, but nothing like anambulance in my parking lot.
(11:21):
So I didn't, there was no way toget ideas except for all the
searches I did on online lookingfor it.
And then I just put my ownthoughts into how I wanted to do
it.
I made a whole big list ofthings that we were gonna do,
and that's what we did was
Sophie Eden (11:37):
That's awesome.
Eric Lahti (11:37):
Took three weeks to put it together.
So,
Sophie Eden (11:41):
Wow.
That's amazing.
Eric Lahti (11:43):
Yeah.
Well, once you figure out whatyou're gonna do and you just, as
long as you have everything youcan build it.
So me and my brother, my brotherhelped me put it together and
we, we knocked it out in three,three weeks.
We were under pressure cause thegames were starting.
Sophie Eden (11:56):
Oh, that's fantastic.
You'd mentioned like originallyyou were looking for a bus,
you'd seen buses before at thetailgate parties.
What would you say were likesome of the advantages or.
Why you're happy you went withan ambulance as opposed to a bus
for a tailgate vehicle?
Eric Lahti (12:15):
Well, number one is it's a tail.
Ambulance is one car space,right?
So you pay for the one carspace, so it's only the 50 bucks
you bring a bus, it's$150.
The park that I never reallythought about that and to, to do
the work on the ambulance was,Fairly simple.
We did it in three weeks.
(12:35):
I think if I did a bus, I'dprobably still be working on it.
You know, there was a lot of, I,I had a lot of ideas for, it,
still had a lot of ideas for atailgate bus, but it, those
conversions aren't as simple asa, an ambulance.
An ambulance is done, it'sinsulated.
You know, just a little bit ofwork to get lights going and
(12:57):
make some tables and do the, thegrill thing and.
It was fairly easy to do.
Sophie Eden (13:05):
What's been your favorite game that you've taken
it to?
Eric Lahti (13:11):
It was the first game that it went that we
actually, not the first time Itried to go to a game, but the
first game that we went to wepulled in the parking lot and
there was actually anotherambulance in the parking lot at
the time.
We pulled in, we parked, and Ibet there was 200 people waiting
in line to see this thing.
To see my ambulance.
It was the funniest thing ever.
(13:32):
I've never had that many peopleat my tailgate.
You know, I go with 20 people toevery tailgate.
Like I take eight friends ofmine take six, and there's like
F five, five cars that come.
So we all kind of congregatetogether, but there was a line.
Waiting to walk through theambulance.
It was the funniest thing.
And then the guy that owned theambulance that I passed on the
way in, he goes, I saw you pullin.
(13:55):
I wanted to check it out.
He goes, I got the bestambulance in this place.
And I said, oh, cool.
You know, really neat.
That's, that's a good thing.
I said, mine's pretty good, butyou know, he goes, might be
better.
He comes out and he goes, Nope,I gotta give up the number one
spot.
You're the best one here.
So that was funny.
That was the most.
That was the coolest thing causeI didn't build it for anybody
(14:17):
but myself.
No, I wanted an ambulance model.
My wife did, cause she wants tostay warm.
Cause all the heat and the ACworks so she can go sit inside.
You know, I designed tables tofit in there.
Like you pull out the Thestretcher with the grills on it.
And then I have a table thatlocks right into place where the
stretcher was so that you cansit inside and eat and stay warm
(14:38):
and you know, have a few drinksor whatever you wanna do is not
be out in the cold elements.
Sophie Eden (14:43):
That's wonderful.
So switching gears a little tolike government auctions more
generally.
This ambulance that you won, wasit the first government auction
that you'd won?
Or had you participated ingovernment auctions before?
Eric Lahti (15:00):
No, I bought a, probably two or three things
from them.
Small things, you know.
I bid on a whole bunch of stuff,but you know, it gets to a point
where it doesn't make any senseto me to buy it at that, right
at that price.
So it's I figure out what I canpay for it or what it's worth to
me.
Is probably the best way to putit.
I set my value and then, then Istopped.
(15:21):
So, you know, there was, I triedto buy a couple of backhoes and
stuff through it, I do buy otherthings.
I bought some small machineryand stuff like that.
Sophie Eden (15:32):
What advice would you give to someone who was
brand new to government auctionsand hadn't participated in any
before?
Eric Lahti (15:43):
So I would say that you know the value of what
you're looking for.
Realize that this is usedequipment.
Doesn't matter what it is, it'sall used pretty much, not
everything but 90% of it.
And then set of value to what,you know, say you can pay X, say
it's a thousand dollars for itnew, what is it worth to you
(16:05):
used, you know, is it$500 is750?
You just need to have that planbefore you get carried away as
a, on an auction.
Cause that's the biggest problemwith some people.
They get carried away and I wasat fault of doing that.
I, I love auctions.
That's my thing.
That's my like, hobby, I guessyou'd say.
My wife hates it, but whatever.
(16:27):
They come home with a lot ofcrazy stuff.
Sophie Eden (16:29):
What's the most unique or strangest government
auction item that you've won?
Eric Lahti (16:38):
Let's see.
It was, hmm, no, I'm trying tothink.
Oh, it was a field, like a handfield mower, you know, like a,
not one that attaches to atractor.
It was this like big wheel,high, high field mower.
And when I got it, it needed alot more work than I thought.
(16:58):
But that's, that's, it's fine.
I still use it.
So that was kinda the weirdestthing I bought.
I really didn't need it, but itwas one of those things that I
could use it, you know, we havea small little Christmas tree
farm and we use it around that,so.
Sophie Eden (17:11):
What do you like the most about government
auctions?
Eric Lahti (17:16):
You can get stuff on here that's just not ordinary,
you know, like an ambulance.
You're not gonna buy thatanywhere else except for on a go
government auction, a firetruck,you know, they, people are
really into converting thi thiskind of equipment now.
And it's, I myself think it's agreat idea just because.
(17:37):
It's, it's cheaper for somebodyto do it, right?
Number one, they can buy a, likeI say, an old ambulance.
You can make a camper out ofthem.
I've seen a few that people makecampers out of them.
There's pretty cool campers.
And for, if you're handy enoughand you can do the work, it's
well worth it.
You'll save yourself, you know,tens of thousands of dollars.
(17:57):
If you're not so handy, you'renot gonna save money.
You, you have to be.
You have to have a handy bone inyour body.
You know, you have to be able todo one thing or another.
You just can't pay foreverything because it, you'll,
it's not gonna be worth it atthat point.
Sophie Eden (18:14):
Wonderful.
Is there anything else thatyou'd like to share about your
ambulance or government auctionsin general?
Eric Lahti (18:24):
No, I just, like I said, I think it's a great
thing.
It's a great tool.
I don't think there's enoughpeople that know about it and I
don't know how, you know, I tryto spread the word as much as I
can.
Not too much cause I still wannaget some good deals, but but I
think it's a good thing.
You can buy some pretty coolstuff on there and for a pretty
good price, you know.
Sophie Eden (18:45):
Yeah.
Awesome.
Well it's been a pleasurechatting with you today, Eric.
I really appreciate it andfantastic stories about your
ambulance.
Really cool to hear.
Eric Lahti (18:55):
It was fun.
Sophie Eden (18:56):
So thank you so much.
Thank you Eric.
Eric Lahti (18:59):
Thanks, you too.
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