Step Van

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JoeNorm

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Has anyone ever used a Grumman Olsen step van for electrical work. Lots of room, meant to haul a lot of weight, and can be found pretty inexpensive.

Any thoughts?
 
JoeNorm said:
Has anyone ever used a Grumman Olsen step van for electrical work. Lots of room, meant to haul a lot of weight, and can be found pretty inexpensive.

Any thoughts?
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What type of electrical work?
How many miles would it be driven daily ?
What kind of load would you need to haul ?

A step van is great if you don't need to put to may miles on it or you need to haul heavy loads. If you need to do service work the cost of fuel can get expensive. It can be a little big to park in some areas.

If you need something that big then it will pay for it's self. If you don't need it then you are wasting money on fuel.
 
growler said:
... A step van is great if you don't need to put to may miles on it or you need to haul heavy loads. ... If you don't need it then you are wasting money on fuel.
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Step vans were equipped with different chassis capacities. Some were configured to haul newspapers; others were configured to haul bread. (if you see a twenty-footer with a four-wheel, 3/4-ton chassis, it wasn't a newspaper truck!)

If you put a light load into vehicle with a heavy-duty chassis, it will be unpleasant to drive, especially in snow or gusty winds.
The fuel consumption of a step van isn't going to be markedly different than a full-size van (of equal chassis capacity) unless you do a lot of high-speed highway driving. Which you probably shouldn't do in a step van.
A step van (with squared-off corners and the aerodynamic profile of a brick) will also be somewhat noisier at highway speeds.
 
Not practical for where I live (suburbs with occasional city work) but some contractors use them. They are pretty rare all around here. The Transit/Sprinter/Ram is fast taking over.
 
Pros: already devalued, possibly cheaper insurance, doesn't have a whole bunch of expensive diesel emissions junk to go bad on it, should be easy to fix

Cons: terrible fuel mileage, terrible ride quality, looks like an ice cream or moving truck, too big for city work.

I would take a compact car with a trailer hitch and luggage rack any day over something like that van. if you want a rolling garage and parts wharehouse though, then you may have found your vehicle.

You can always get something newer and better at a later time. As for reliability, or issues with those vans, I have nothing for you. I've only ridden in one, never owned one.
 
One of the main reasons they are tempting is because you can get a lot of vehicle for relatively little money. A full aluminum van where you can basically house everything you'd need for $5K. They do look pretty terrible as a daily driver though.

How bout the other end of the spectrum. Anyone using the smaller Ford Transits, or Promaster City? The fuel mileage would be so nice compared to a bigger vehicle and it seems like if you're well organized and don't want a "rolling shop" they'd work pretty well.

I know it all depends on the work you're doing, just curious if others have experience with them.
 
Have done the Ford Transit connect. Pretty much perfect for what I do. It's going to require an OCD level of organization to make use of all of the available space, which is obviously much much less than a sprinter or ProMaster. And you can't walk inside of it. Those drawbacks aside, it is better than either of those two vehicles in every other respect, including reducing overhead, which will afford you a combination of either lower hourly rates at the same profit margin, or the same rates as your competitors with a higher profit margin.

Just a 40 mile round trip in a huge box van is going to burn up $10 in gas. The same in a Connect, $4. $6, big deal right? Except it is also going to take you less time to park the smaller vehicle, and to get your materials and tools off of it. Your insurance is cheaper. You're not half beat to death by a horrible ride quality when you arrive at the job site, so you can get the job done faster. Doesn't take as long to warm up, so you will get to the job site faster. When it needs new brakes or tires, or breaks down, it will have cheaper repair bills and less downtime than a more commercial type vehicle.

That $6 per trip has now tripled or more when all overhead is taken into account.
 
JFletcher said:
Just a 40 mile round trip in a huge box van is going to burn up $10 in gas. The same in a Connect, $4. $6, big deal right? Except it is also going to take you less time to park the smaller vehicle, and to get your materials and tools off of it. Your insurance is cheaper. You're not half beat to death by a horrible ride quality when you arrive at the job site, so you can get the job done faster. Doesn't take as long to warm up, so you will get to the job site faster. When it needs new brakes or tires, or breaks down, it will have cheaper repair bills and less downtime than a more commercial type vehicle.

That $6 per trip has now tripled or more when all overhead is taken into account.
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If all you are thinking about is gas, you're making less money than you think. I calculated my older model service truck costs $1.00 a mile to operate. Direct costs of operating a vehicle: Gas, oil, other fluids, tires, repairs, maintenance. Add to that $1.00 the indirect costs of operating a vehicle (goes in overhead): insurance, depreciation, shelving, bins, etc. Don't forget labor to drive it (added to service labor). Somebody's got to pay for those transmission repairs and it won't be me.

My average round trip is 50 miles which is why I charge a $49.00 trip fee. I figure going to look at a job is $100-200 with labor which is why I phone quote as much as possible.
 
JoeNorm said:
Has anyone ever used a Grumman Olsen step van for electrical work. Lots of room, meant to haul a lot of weight, and can be found pretty inexpensive.
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I have tried various vehicles. The proper one for you will depend on what you carry around. I do mainly residential service work. My truck has to be a warehouse and toolshed on wheels. I need a large one-ton capacity vehicle to carry all my tools and materials. (We have debated exactly what should be in a truck before. Check out previous threads.) My current favorite for next purchase is a Nissan NV3500 high roof van. Probably just as good as the Ford and Ram models but with a five year, 100K, bumper-to-bumper warranty.

I have also contemplated buying used small box trucks from U-Haul. Some are actually too small for 10 foot sticks of pipe.
 
I used to do irrigation service work before I got into electrical and the company I worked for had a Grumman step van that was just sitting around. I liked the idea of being able to walk around in it as opposed to climbing into the back of a box truck or on my hands and knees into a van. I adopted it and drove it several years and loved it. Yes, it was hard on fuel, little V8 diesel, but not enough more so than the other vehicles we had to worry about. It had an amazing amount of space it in for parts. I even had a little work bench with a vice. I never had an issue parking it honestly. I live in a mid sized city and did a mix of commercial and residential work. One thing I really liked was being able to park on the street and exit on the passenger side. Safer and more efficient. Didn't have to open the back door all the time. We would pull air compressor trailers around to do fall blowouts and backing them up with a box truck is next to impossible because you couldn't see what the short trailer was doing until it was sideways behind you, but with that step van I could open the back door and see it from the drivers seat. I could back it up narrow winding driveways easily. I could haul 20' sections of pipe if I let them stick up between the front seats. Honestly if my current company offered me a step van id take it in a heart beat.
 
The previous place I worked at I drove an older ambulance for a service van. It had the older ford Diesel engine (7.3?). I loved it. Lots of space for parts and tools once we got it set up with bins and shelves. I could stand up in it and do prep work where it was warm an d out of the wind. I would definitely look into something like that again except now I’m the one writing the checks!
 
Buck Parrish said:
We'd like to get a couple of mail man trucks, four wheel drive. Who makes them? Would need the wheel on the correct side, though.
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No state requires your steering wheel to be on the left side, but life is harder at fast food places and banks and tolls... if you don’t use those places, go for it... just like driving a British car in Europe...
 
With reasonable care they last 30 years.Put 2 new engines in my first one. T grumman parts are very well made.
 
Adamjamma said:
No state requires your steering wheel to be on the left side, but life is harder at fast food places and banks and tollbooths ...
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Stay away from fast food, (always good advice) and drive through the bank lane the other direction.

I have driven quite a few right-hand drive vehicles in the States. (a perk of working in the car biz is the opportunity to borrow pool vehicles overnight) A few observations:
- Everything's just about the same, except passing on a two-lane road. It's not really feasible because you need to drift out pretty far before you can see around the vehicle ahead of you.
- Turning corners and ending up in the appropriate lane takes a little extra thought, but most lanes are wide enough to accommodate a brain fart.
- The passenger in the left seat has a unique opportunity to taunt other people, including waving to them with both hands outside the window.
- Once, while out to lunch with five people in the car, I watched a cop pull us over and have a discussion with the left-seat passenger (who handed over his license, without comment, when asked) about speeding.

Adamjamma said:
The one I used to have was long enough inside that the ladders went inside ...
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There's sometimes room to stow ladders on the ceiling and still walk around inside.
 
When I was working overseas for a couple years, I bought a right-hand drive vehicle and got my driver's license. I never had an issue with being on the wrong side of the road, but I hit the wipers every time I wanted to use a turn signal.
 
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