Both of our 2002 Trailblazers need to be replaced. We do mostly suburban type of work, surveys are usually <1 ac. 95% of the time they are 1-man crews, with a robot or GPS. Any suggestions?
Ford Transit Connect Cargo. Great for urban city work. You can do a u-turn in the city streets in StL without pulling the Austin Power's move. You can pre-order with the bulkhead and shelves, or pick one up slightly used that is already configured. The Transit Connect set-up also works great for scanning and Mobile LiDAR.
Crew cab long box 3qtr ton. That's how I roll. Bitch to park tho.
My State work truck is an F250 crew cab, 4WD, with steel shell and 7' bed. It's great for rural work (mostly travel) we do but I wouldn't use it for an urban surveying business.
My personal work truck is a 2WD F150 extended cab and 5.5' bed. It is short enough to be maneuverable but roomy enough for urban, non-travel, work. I have a tonneau cover on it. I don't use it for work anymore but it is just handy to have a pickup from time to time. I own it. The "upgrade specialist" at the dealership I take it to for service (really they are great, I've been taking my vehicles to the same Service Advisor for 20 years) asked me how it was working for me. She just wanted to upgrade me to an empty wallet. I own it, it runs, has low miles, what's not to like?
We replaced out Econoline with a Nissan NV200 and have been happy with it. Most of our work in in the city and short distances from home base. In order to do so we built a new box for it and eliminated about 30% of what we were hauling. If you are a big man, you may not fit though.
Tom and Ray recommend this:
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I only work in suburban areas as well. DonÛªt need 4x4Ûªs. I bought 2 Nissan Frontiers in 2014 and the crews love them. They are 4cyl, basic trucks but have a/c, Bluetooth, usb jacks, etc. They are just the basic model and cost around $17-20K depending where you are. They are also ÛÏpeppyÛ for a 4 cyl and get great gas mileage.
🙂
I currently work for a construction company, their truck, their gas, their equipment. Been there 18 years. If I was to go back to boundary surveying/self employed today, I would get a crew cab Chevy Colorado or Toyota Tacoma with an A.R.E top or one of the fiberglass tops with the side windows that open.
As long as someone else is buying the gas. I prefer the full size truck.
If you can keep your combined weight (survey equipment and body weight) down to 800 lbs, you could survey out of this Prius truck and get 43 MP.
Joe the Surveyor, post: 395936, member: 118 wrote: Both of our 2002 Trailblazers need to be replaced. We do mostly suburban type of work, surveys are usually <1 ac. 95% of the time they are 1-man crews, with a robot or GPS. Any suggestions?
Wasn't someone on here recently working out of a Geo Metro or something similar?
FL/GA PLS., post: 396050, member: 379 wrote: [USER=7286]@imaudigger[/USER]
A Pruck!
Deranged minds must think alike!
PRUCK sounds like fighting words..
all urban work, the nissan nv200 has been great for the past year
imaudigger, post: 396043, member: 7286 wrote: If you can keep your combined weight (survey equipment and body weight) down to 800 lbs, you could survey out of this Prius truck and get 43 MP.
That is flippin' ugly....
For one man, it's hard to beat a simple regular cab pickup with a camper or a bed cover.
Any solo guys with families use the same work truck as personal? Curious how you switch between?
Urban work, Mercedes Metris hands down the best small van IMHO
Norm Larson, post: 396100, member: 7899 wrote: Urban work, Mercedes Metris hands down the best small van IMHO
Is that what you use? Would like to see some pics
StLSurveyor, post: 396112, member: 7070 wrote: Is that what you use? Would like to see some pics
Our main rigs have been Sprinter vans from 2004 forward and for a construction staking they have been reliable, economical, spacious and do surprising well as just two wheel drive. If you are just going to have one rig, you can't do better than a Sprinter Worker IMHO. We found we needed something that could actually go into a parking garage though and so the last van I bought was their smaller Metris (Vito - outside US) van. It is a turbo four and has plenty of power, is economical, is big for a small van and fits in parking garages. Still new enough to us that I haven't had the box built yet (still some internal design discussions going on). So, I don't have a picture and until the box is in I don't see the point.
I want to do this with a very tight fitting slider, but, others think it is too much and overkill (true)
Obviously the slider isn't cheap and is is the better part of a 5K add, so, the discussions have broken down into just how much we need to carry. Then we just got to busy to worry about it. It is raining now, so, the really busy season will be over soon and we will get a box in it.
This is a laser scan sitting on the desk in a Sprinter
and this is a gif file of someone drifting a Sprinter, LOL
