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| Ek's Home | Forum | Chat | Electrical Links | |
| Subject - Vehicles | |
| kiwisholland |
What type of vehicles do you guys use for service work? Ford/Chevy cargo van? Sprinter? Ford/Chevy box van? Imported box van? What type of body? What do you carry? Thanks! |
| wilkie | We use new Chevy 3/4 ton vans. Just the regular work van style that carries all our stuff. We only do residential electrical service and repair, so our inventory is geared for that. We stock almost 4k in inventory on each van. How about you? |
| cvelectric | I have a '94 Ford cargo van with a gang box for tools and the three drawer unit from American Van (real nice) for small parts. Not happy with the Ford though. The tranny slips, the back doors leak, the turn signals don't work right, brakes wear out quickly, front end is messed up...the list goes on. I'd love to have a Sprinter. |
| lbr enterprises | I may carry a GLOCK for the 'hoods,LOL.
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| INDIANA | We typically use 1 ton ford extended vans, we have 1 standard F350 its a pain in the butt. Because you can't get 10' pipe in it.... If your gonna haul 10' pipe which if your an electrican I'd say your gonna haul 10' pipe!!! I suggest a extended van.... |
| kiwisholland | Hey Wilkie, I have a FORD E250. Do you guys have specialized racks and bins, or factory ones? Would you be willing to share your vans' layouts? Thanks! |
| John A. Peters | I use a 2001 Volkswagen golf, AM/FM with 6 CD changer. Power steering, power brakes, electric windows, automatic transmission. Keyless lock system that automatically relocks the trunk when you close it if the rest of the car is locked. This is very handy when running out to the car for a part. I only do bid estimates, start the jobs, meet the inspector for inspections, and take power restoration and troubleshooting calls. I give all the service calls and contract work to my electricians. I only stock a trunk full of parts that include those items that have commonly turned up wanting at the final inspection, and parts I might need to restore power. I carry a small collection of device and plates, scrap lengths of each size of wire including three feet of #2 copper. I carry a fairly large collection of circuit breakers, a bunch of fuses, three or four couple-taps, about 12 dimmers, with DV-600 being my favorite. A compartment box of all the screws that could be found missing including tiny white painted GFI cover screws, some smoke detectors and all my tools, but only a tiny little tool belt, a battery-powered screw gun but no other power tools. No ladders. Lots of experience. The 50 foot extension cord for trouble shooting, a chime tester, a pigtail lamp holder, a porcelain fixture with pull chain, a telephone toner tester, a tri-volt transformer and four types of dry cell batteries. I used to keep a set of walkie-talkies but now we just use the cell phones. When troubleshooting a knob and tube circuit, I plug the 50 foot extension cord into a fully grounded modern plug outlet often found in the kitchen and use this is a source for a guaranteed good hot, neutral and ground for testing against the sometimes totally unmarked all-black wires found in knob and to outlets in these old Victorian houses. It is important to know whether you have lost a hot or a lost neutral. When you know whether it's a lost hot or lost neutral, you only have to deal with half of the wires in each junction box. My tool pouch has 2 offset speed drivers phillips and flat, a mag light, pen, pencil, voltage sniffer and a Greeley 6708 (no longer made) and a few wire nuts and screws. That tester is really unique. When you insert it into a plug outlet it makes either a steady tone if the power is off or if it has power it makes a steady tone overlaid with the alternating sound of AC current. This makes it easy to tell what's going on when you have an intermittent and you can even hear it through the floor. I would be lost with out it. The newer Greeley testers do not have the ability to test a GFI by stretching the cord from the hot slot to a ground surface of a sink. I mentioned this to the Greeley rep, but so far as I know, nothing has been done about it. |
| wilkie | kiwisholland, We use the rack system provided by GM under their business incentive program. After the interior shell is installed, we use a bin system that I order through Granger. I will email you a photo later today or tomorrow. |
| JimmyDee | quote:. Using a foreign named vehicle in the state of Michigan could cost you a lot of work. I remember a time when a local contractor was removed from an industrial job for delivering material with a Toyota pickup. I know that the foreign trucks are OK in some areas but in the highly industrialized, unionized areas, it could cost you work. This is changing. Jim |