Heartattack

Whew!!!!!!!
Don't scare me like that, man!!!!!!!!
With my luck it would have flown off and smashed through my windshield as I met the truck.

broken window,,,,,new R10,,,,,,not a bad trade 🙂

God I hope that wasn't one of my crews!!

Oh wait, you're in a different State. (phew...)

YES!

I LOVE these stories. It is great for business. And we usually don't have to dicker with the insurance companies on prices too much.

Better than advertising.

Couple of weeks ago we got back a data collector that had been left on a tailgate. Flew off on the highway and got run over by several BIG trucks. I was surprised that we were not able to replace it under warranty:

I had previously thought that if we had the serial number tag we could at least core them.
🙂

You will know them if you see them, PC said he sees them at lunch with the truck park outside the restaurant in the parking lot and the R10 still on topB-)

MightyMoe, post: 343034, member: 700 wrote: You will know them if you see them, PC said he sees them at lunch with the truck park outside the restaurant in the parking lot and the R10 still on topB-)

Wow... that wouldn't last long in Houston lol.

I wiped a microcentered antenna off the top of my truck a few years back. Had it on a mag mount. I figured it out a long time ago that any sort of extension was bad news. Anyway, slapped the antenna on the mag mount and head up a dirt road. Went under a juniper tree and it wiped the whole thing off the op of the cab. It broke the mag mount and I couldn't find all the parts. The antenna still works fine, those microcentereds are tough. About a year later I was under the truck for something and found the mag mount magnet stuck to the frame of the truck.

I'd be a little reluctant to put a R10 on a mag mount, especially with a 2 foot extension pole. Better have the insurance paid up if you do.

Something snagged a telephone antenna off my truck shortly after I started driving it.
Offroad vehicles antenna need to be the very flexible whip style with a coil spring base to fold away when needed and the side mirrors need to be the fold in style or neither will last for any amount of time.
Hood ornaments, special side trim and underbelly spare tires are totally useless offroad.
An extra long receiver hitch will get you stuck too (well actually in a wheels off the ground state).
I've seen those GIS guys around with their top of cab mag mounted antenna dangling around the side of their vehicle.:-$

Hey,
Earlier this year I had a mag mount fail when doing a LiDAR verification survey on a paved road. Go figure, miles of driving like a mad man over gravel roads and the mount give up the ghost about a after I hit a nice paved road doing 10mph. I noticed the ATX1230 had gone missing when I lost blue tooth connection. Turned around and picked up the receiver. It looked to be no worse for the wear and still worked. It was not until I had it on a tripod that I noticed that it was not sitting flush on the mounting nut.

I really need to report it to my insurance company and get it replaced.

Crew I worked with told the story of another crew taking the work truck through the car wash, trouble was they still
had the yellow mag-mounted safety light on the roof. It started out alright then there was a constant thud thud thud on the roof of the truck getting louder and more intense which, as the truck went through the wash, was followed by the light taking out the rear window of ther cab while the wash was going.

Mark,

I recall similar stories from my Ashtech Days Tech support dayz...

A customer was performing an RTK Survey in the midwest US region, driving along a gravel road in survey pickup truck with tailgate down. The field crew took the 40 pound Z-12 RTK back back off, set the back pack on the lowered tailgate, hoped in the front seat of the truck, riding shotgun, when they arrived at the next stop along this gravel road alignment, they discovered the Husky FS2 data collector had fallen off the tailgate, the coiled, stretchy data collector cable turned into a fishing trolling line, dragging the Husky FS2 data collector behind the survey truck for a mile or so.

Upon discovering this mishap, the field crew member, turned the Husky FS2 back on, it still worked. The majority of the grey metal flake paint was worn off most of the leading edges of the FS2, buffed and tumbled to a bright metal sheen, and more than a few of the rubber buttons totally chewed up; destroyed. This particular FS2 was sent into the Ashtech Repair facility under a warranty RMA. Upon inspection by the Repair Technicians, the No-Charge Warranty repair was denied. Nice try though survey company, lol.

Reminds me of another Ellis Veatch story. In an Ashtech training class in the venerable Ashtech training center on Kifer Road back in the heady days of GPS, Ellis was boasting just how tough these new Husky FS2 and FS3 Data Collectors were. Ellis made a statement, these Husky FS series data collectors are tough enough to drive nails with...

Shortly there after, an Ashtech customer sent in a screen damaged FS2 Data Collector into the Ashtech Repair center for a warranty repair issue. Upon the Husky FS2's arrival at the Ashtech repair center, I was contacted by Doug Evans, Master Ashtech Repair Center Manager. When I walked over from the tech support call center to the repair center, Doug had this Husky FS2 on the repair bench, under a fluorescent magnifying light, upon closer inspection we could both observe wood fibers from a survey lathe still firmly embedded in the shattered display lens of the this Husky FS2 data collector. Well played survey crew, sorry, but this RMA repair didn't qualify for a No-Charge Warranty repair. It was promptly repair and returned to the Survey Company to fight another field battle.

Here's to you Senior Ellis Veatch, still think of you daily my friend, still miss your Arse...
-BbB B-)