Instrument Carrying Policies

I never carried my instrument further than I could spit

With the legs splayed

...cradle the underside on your shoulder. I don't know much about any strain on the instrument from carrying it horizontally.

Modern total stations aren't built like the old transits.

I always carry it in its box.

Until a couple years ago I almost always carried the gun in case with the exception of really short moves on flat concrete. Then I worked for a boss who viewed it a waste of time to put the gun in the case between moves doing tunnel work. Rule was to carry the instrument on the tripod but pretty close to vertical on the legs. These were TM30 guns so heavier than most and they did not come out of adjustment.

I am more concerned with falling while free carrying the gun or hitting something overhead than the stress on the instrument. I have the sense that my new boss would frown on any moves not in case so I now carry the gun in the case out of deference to what I perceive his preference to be. I know that some of the guys that trained me would not approve if they saw the way we carried the instrument down the tunnel.

Muchas gracias everyone for chiming in with your thoughts/experience.
ibenhavin

Tell the PC that it is OK to carry the equipment like that as long as he is willing to buy the tribracs. Everyone denies doing this, but when you have a crew that goes through 3 or 4 sets of tribracs every year, you pretty well know what they are up to. :-@

At my first employer the instrument was always carried on the tripod no matter the terrain, usually over the shoulder at an angle nowhere near vertical. Then one day a guy slipped and fell backwards while carrying the almost new Leica down a slope. The gun got pile driven into the ground. The damages were in the thousands and a new policy was born.

The manual for that Leica and my last two Topcons have specifically recommended against carrying in a non-vertical position while attached to the legs due to the strain on the tribrach. Mine goes in the case 99.9% of the time.

No problem at all. I'll fire any member of my crews I see trying to carry one of my Leica totalstations attached to the pod over his shoulder like a transit. :pissed: That's just asking for trouble...

"If it's a short move over easy ground, it's OK to use the handle, otherwise use the case or the backpack case. Act like your job is riding on it. Because it is."

We still tote the 1994 Topcon GTS-302 over the shoulder. It hasn't seemed to affect it any, but then it's a fairly light gun. The Leica T2000, TCRA1102, and Geodimeter 640 all get boxed, unless it's a short easy move, in which case shoulder-under-the-tripod-head is okay (if painful).

I never carry it attached to the tripod.

My TS is Sokkia and your policy is the policy I understand

With may own son, I exclaimed this is the proper way or hit the road

I have put the fear of retribution and redneck solutions into my vocalizations of the intentions of my crew/s to following proper etiquette in their field procedure to the extent they left and never came back and at some times resigned by email

Should they want to stay, give them the alternate solution of using their own equipment and you will know if they really want to continue their present situation

0.02

Mine goes in the case.

I was taught/enforced to pack up gun in the case before moving it. Might be 2' or 2 miles - didn't matter. I was late 40s before I was surveying so I figured these folks must know something more than I so I went along with it.
That said I was on a job one late Friday afternoon and my PC (young enough almost to be my kid) got in a hurry and tired of me packing the thing up. He walked over and picked up the tripod with TS and all hooked up and walked off with it to the next setup. He kept the whole thing vertical so I didn't see a big deal out it except for it being taboo the way I was taught. After he did that, he looks over at me saying "you didn't see that did you?" Being it was late Friday, well after hours, we were both hearing the bar calling our names so I didn't pitch much of fit. 😉

My take on it is that a tribrach has a triangular plate that acts as a spring to hold the little parts at the corners together. When the instrument is shaken side to side, the spring flexes and the little parts hammer against each other. This wasn't the case with a 4 screw transit which even in it's box was secured by it's base. I think this can also be an issue when stepping on the legs to set up a TS. And it must be more so with a heavier robot. The best practice would be to set up with a optical plumb tribrach or carrier, then put the TS on.

When ghe people who would profit from your misuse of tbe equipment say put it in the case, I do it. The S6 case even has straps to carry it like a backpack.

Not good for the tribrach or the head of the tripod. Carrying that way puts a lot of strain on both parts.

> When ghe people who would profit from your misuse of tbe equipment say put it in the case, I do it. The S6 case even has straps to carry it like a backpack.

I agree with that. The last gun I packed was an S6 but I dam sure didn't like that hard case. Nice to sit on but uncomfortable to carry.
To me, I just didn't want to ruin someone elses tens of thousands of dollars because of my potential laziness. To this day, I have never dropped a gun nor tribrach. It was drilled into me from day-one that these things "ain't cheap". Ya reckon? 😉

I came up always carrying the gun on the tripod on my shoulder. In the 30+ years the company had been doing it, no tribracs were ever worn out and the gun was always within spec when re-calibrated. I would only carry the lighter instrument on the tripod, not the robot. I was a firm believer in it being an OK practice, until I slipped in a creek while the gun was on my shoulder. I took the brunt of damage from trying to save the instrument from taking a hit but was unable to save it. It was totaled (already long in the tooth and on its way out) and I now have a knot in my shoulder from the fall that happened over two years ago.
We now carry the instrument in the case at all times. I can now see the damage done to my shoulder and whole right side from the years of carrying the gun on the tripod.

Always in the case or backpack. Only place I ever worked where they kept it on was a mortgage survey mill in Michigan at the beginning of my surveying career. They also used range poles for prism poles (no level bubble), dimes for traverse points, and measuring wheels to prove distance to the section corner. I work in the woods a lot and the prisms on the tripods get beat up enough going from station to station, can't imagine what would happen to the TS.