everyone's different.....
everyone's different.....
tom baker said:
My company is looking for new service vechicles, either vans or pickup trucks. Fuel economy is high on the requirements, as is storage. This is for small electrical contracting and maintenance.
in what they want to drive....
last year i bought what hopefully will be the last work vehicle i'll need...
a 2006 Ford E-350 extended cargo van with 6.0 liter diesel. i looked long
and hard at a E-450 with large cargo body and lift gate, but as it'll be
sitting in front of my house often, i didn't go that route as where i live
has a 6,000 lb weight limit on residential streets, as a motorhome and
commercial vehicle control, and i didn't want a
ticked neighbor calling
the police to invoke it.
as a bare van is so noisy as to be dementing to drive, i dynamatted
everything.. floor, roof walls and doors, then put in a headliner, and
on the sides, used mass loaded vinyl with a foam backing to end up
with a smooth black vinyl finish that eliminates most noise. the single
most noise generating spot is the rear wheel wells, so those got an
extra layer of dynamat. it's not as quiet as a limo, but it's pretty good.
2 pieces of strut are welded each 4" the length of the floor, and
through bolted to the frame, and serve as attachment points for
the entire interior. there are two 4' long pickup bed storage pullout
bins, one facing forward, and one facing rearward, butted end to end,
for storage.
on top of that, i fabbed two angled steel bins to sit atop the pullouts,
and give me 60' of shelf space for tools... the shelves in the bins are
angled slightly, so stuff placed on them settles to the back of the bins,
and stays quiet, and doesn't "dance" around on the shelves. doesn't
"launch" from the shelves, either.
across the front of those bins, there is a 4' x 4' double sided hinged door
that is 8" thick, with locking acco bins on both sides of it, and a
piano hinge on the drivers side. this bin swings 90 degrees, and can
be locked in either position, so long stuff can be carried when
necessary, but it is normally locked across the side bins to serve
as a safety barrier against flying tools in the event of an accident.
the side bins are #14 mild steel, and are coated with spray on
bedliner material on all surfaces to reduce noise. the double
faced door is tigged out of 304 stainless.... ok... i wanted it to
look pretty....
across from the side sliding door, there is another stainless box,
4' x 4', single sided and filled with locking acco bins, behind the
drivers seat. on the driver's side, underneath the side bins, there
is a 12" x 12" space for conduit storage, 12' long.
underneath the van, drivers side, outside of the frame rails,
is a stainless battery case with three optima deep cycle 75 ah
batteries, hooked in parallell to a 3kw inverter, for onboard power
for the plasma cutter, tig welder, wirefeed, and cable tugger.
underneath, behind the rear axle, ahead of the spare tire, there is
a huge void occupied by two 12v. air compressors feeding three 5 gallon
air tanks, providing air for the plasma cutter, vehicle air springs,
air tools, and amtrack horns..
for vehicle navigation, i went with the alpine in dash stereo with external
GPS navigation, and as i work in southern california,and traffic is the single
major time constraint, and barrier to making money, you can get a feed
from xm satellite radio that plugs caltrans traffic data and feeds into the
mapping software, and routes you around accidents and traffic jams...
this is worth it's weight in gold.
it also has capability to search out the nearest home desperate or
wholesale house, so i can be just about anywhere, and find just about
anything, quickly.
in case you don't want the diesel sound to be noticable, there are amps
and speakers, and an iPod hooked to this stuff, and bluetooth so my
work cellphone feeds thru the stereo.
to keep all of this from being snitched, i have an alarm with remote start,
satellite location, and it calls my cellphone if the alarm is set off.
there is a class 4 hitch behind this, and a wells cargo trailer is coming,
for the scissorlift, pipe threader, bender, tugger, etc.
what's this thing weigh? the van loaded with everything is about 11,000 lbs.
the vehicle is titled for truck and trailer weight of 20,000 lbs., and the
whole thing, when it's done, will be about 18,000.
what milage does it get? vehicle alone, in town, 14 mpg. vehicle towing
trailer from phoenix to LA, 65mph, 15,500 lbs total weight, 19 mpg.
no ladder racks on top, everything is inside. it's white, nondescript,
fits in a parking garage, and doesn't carry signage, 'cause in some
parts of LA, signage just draws crackheads looking for something
to steal for drug money. i lost a trailer off the back of my last work
van, it had $22,000 in equipment inside. a low profile is better.
FulThrotl
