Side-by-Side / ATV questions

I don't think it'd be worth the money for only a 17 mile line. I don't know what you're doing on the project, though, so you'd have to judge that for yourself.

The power lines I've worked on always had some access roads and enough cross-roads, that driving the truck or walking always worked fine.

My vote is for a side by side, they are safer, they have seat belts and a roll cage, can be street legal, and can haul more gear and supplies. Most pipeline companies use side by sides as well. You can get them with one or two rows of seats. Why buy 2 when you can just buy 1.

There was a thread about this a couple of months ago, or maybe a hijacked thread that had a discussion on 4-wheeler vs ATV

When it comes to hauling "survey gear" I would recommend a side-by-side ATV. But as [USER=6636]@JPH[/USER] mentioned, I'm not sure that a 17 mile line would pay for an ATV and access roads are usually available for trucks and....yes, I'm going to say it.....walking. 😮 😉

Granted, I too don't know what the scope entails so use your best judgement.
T

okay...
insofar as i can be brief here...
1. regardless of what you choose, you're not buying a race car. keep that part in mind when people advise to get the biggest turbocharged monster possible. most times you'll be running it at like 15% of it's hp/torque/rpm, max.
2. i don't agree that it isn't worth the money. in my experience a 10K investment in one, if used properly, can pay for itself within 2 weeks of solid field work.
3. if sxs is the way you go, polaris and kawasaki seem to be the way to go, at least in terms of market share/reviews/accessories/aftermarket support. (based upon the homework i did a couple years ago).
4. i went with an ATV for a few reasons:
-footprint (many here will argue a sxs will go just about anywhere a quad will. maybe- but i parked my nissan frontier 4x4 next to a polaris ranger and they had practically the same profile.
-i was going to use it MAINLY to shoot topo. hauling gear and/or personnel was at most a secondary consideration, and even if so in a quantity that
wouldn't require the capacity of a sxs.
-towing and/or hauling options (again, not a biggie, but the size difference does make a difference)
-cost. i was admittedly a little dubious as to the value of purchasing anything at all. so i went for a quad at 8K vs. a ranger at like 12 or 13K. funny thing
is the quad doesn't even get used too often (maybe a week out of every month), but it paid for itself on the first two jobs. and with stupid cheap
financing, even sitting there it's a nice depreciating asset in regard to taxes.
5. if you decide quad... i bought a loaded honda rancher. cost a bit more than the more popular polaris (or anything else), and gets reviewed negatively for being underpowered, but: see note 1. above, it has a real transmission (i still can't get my head around CVT being a reliable platform), and it's a honda (it'll run forever). but i made sure to get power steering and independent rear suspension.

good luck, go spend some money!

I think Polaris is currently a leader in the side by side market.
Per 4-wheelers, I'd look at the Honda brand.

Some quick notes. There are about 8 accessible road crossings. The plan set gives the conditions of each access road and about 85% of this says it is "Utility Vehicle Access Only" or "4x4 with Dozer Assist". We will be heading out there later this week to confirm some conditions before we buy anything. We'll be doing stakeout of poles, clearing limits, drainage, grading, and a complete ROW Retracement Survey.

I was weighing out the same question recently. I ended up with a quad. I bought it used with low mileage, and paid cash (not a fan of debt). I'm a solo operator, so I didn't really need the crew seating. I was thinking I wanted to be able to carry more, which is why I thought seriously about the side by side. Ultimately, I felt like I would be able to reach more places with a quad than a side by side. The crew cab sxs especially make no sense to me. Long wheel base reduces turning radius and promotes high centering.

I agree with [USER=8089]@flyin solo[/USER] in everything he said. My quad is a Honda Foreman 450. They make bigger engines, but I don't plan on racing, I just don't want to walk up and down every hill on a job. I suspect it'll top out around 40mph, but I don't need that. Mine does not have power steering and I wish it did. I do like that it has a real transmission because it will slow down by down shifting and I have more control over the power. Mine does not have independent rear suspension and I wish it did to handle terrain better. I do have a winch that I have appreciated. I surveyed 200+ acres without it in December and I just surveyed 140+ acres and 200+ acres with it since January. It easily saved a day on each job. Of course now I have to figure out how to charge for it, instead of simply spending money to reduce billable hours.

I use RTK almost exclusively and the quad is capable of carrying everything I need, plus a few just-in-case extras.

Shawn Billings, post: 414215, member: 6521 wrote:
Of course now I have to figure out how to charge for it, instead of simply spending money to reduce billable hours.

might i suggest a Kent McMillan course in fieldbook note taking?

I'll have to start using a fieldbook again...

Seriously though, I spent 3k on the four wheeler plus another 2k on a trailer. On the right big jobs, it's saving 20% of my time in the field. How do we make it up? Volume? I'm thinking I need a daily charge rate (at least to apply to my calculation for job estimates if not on itemized billing) for the four wheeler. I'm thinking $250/day. If I use it one week per month (and that seems like a pretty good estimate), that's 60 days per year that it would see use which figures to 60*$250=$15,000. This sounds like a lot, but it must recoup the cost of investment (5k) and make up for the loss of billable hours which would be about 15 days. The $250 per day starts to look pretty thin then, considering my goal is to be around $1000/field day (although my bottom line is lower).

Of course, it's not just about the financial side. The four-wheeler definitely reduces wear and tear on the body improving job satisfaction (so long as I don't get it stuck... but that's a story I won't go into.)

I have both and Honda Forman ATV and a Kawasaki Tyrex side by side. I prefer the Tyrex for working out of but it has some draw backs such as size. It barley fits in a 12' enclosed trailer and even that entails removing the roll bar. That being said, the size has never limited my ability in the field. It is much easier to 'drive' the 'riding the ATV'; mounting GNSS on the roll bar is much better than any of the funky pole mounts I have destroyed on the ATV; it hauls much more equipment; and it is nice to be able to have a passenger.

I have been thinking about trading them both for a Honda SxS. The 500 has a smaller footprint than the Tyrex, is fuel injected and has a true transmission rather that the belt driven Tyrex.

[USER=6521]@Shawn Billings[/USER] - issue i never ran into, as the brunt of the work was (pre-negotiated) lump sum stuff that would be but a small piece of full-bore development work. so i just kept bidding jobs based upon the same metric as before. made it really easy to see what kind of impact it had.

i imagine if i were billing hourly i'd just adjust that rate upward in some minor way to account for the expense of purchase and upkeep. something that would work regardless of how much it was actually being used.

I prefer an ATV. Here's how I set mine up...

oh, dave's picture reminds me: and anyone with access to a mig welder (even an arc box) can easily get an ATV to hold/haul/mount whatever you want on it. in fact, i have a couple designs for antenna and controller mounts that i swear are 10000 times better than anything currently offered. but, alas, my attention span doesn't have room to go into trademarking/manufacturing/losing my hide in making an extremely niche product/being robbed by seco.

I don't know how much boundary you will be recovering but in my neck of the woods (or lack theroff) in West Texas, a UTV is invaluable. One can easily reduce time spent getting to corners that could only be otherwise accessed by walking. A week or two of walking distance could be covered in a day on the UTV. Polaris rangers are what we use.