van vs truck

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We do a lot of resi work along with our commercial work and I have worked out of a truck with topper (never again), a trailer (horrible to park and horrible in the snow), a standard van and now I have a 12' box on a 1 ton van chassis. It's tall enough to stand in and it has a ton of room inside. I though it might be too big, but it's just right for resi/commercial work IMHO.

And it's just small enough to avoid the DOT medical exam requirements in MN. :thumbsup:
 
MNSparky said:
We do a lot of resi work along with our commercial work and I have worked out of a truck with topper (never again), a trailer (horrible to park and horrible in the snow), a standard van and now I have a 12' box on a 1 ton van chassis. It's tall enough to stand in and it has a ton of room inside. I though it might be too big, but it's just right for resi/commercial work IMHO.

And it's just small enough to avoid the DOT medical exam requirements in MN. :thumbsup:
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Less than 10,000 GVW.
 
You got it. The sticker say 9,950 GVW. I also thought it would be hard to park in the crowded areas of downtown, but I've found I can parallel park it just as easily as my standard van.
 
MNSparky said:
You got it. The sticker say 9,950 GVW. I also thought it would be hard to park in the crowded areas of downtown, but I've found I can parallel park it just as easily as my standard van.
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Minnesota is ridiculous with it's regulations.
 
MBLES said:
our shop is looking to start new residential homes electrical. full rough and trim. we are trying to figure out which vehicle van or truck for residential work. we will be doing residential and commercial so i was thinking something versatile. a single cab truck i can put 3 man crew, a van only 2 man crew. is it common to have crews take their own vehicle to job site on new residential homes?
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Consider a Dodge Grand Caravan. Can haul big crew with seats up, or a full sheet of plywood or drywall in back with seats stored. Can haul 10ft sticks of conduit down the center console or on a roof rack if needed. Easy to load back or side doors.Can pull a small trailer if more materials need hauled. Weather tight secure storage. I have a 1999 with 165k on it still going strong!
 
zstarch said:
Consider a Dodge Grand Caravan. Can haul big crew with seats up, or a full sheet of plywood or drywall in back with seats stored. Can haul 10ft sticks of conduit down the center console or on a roof rack if needed. Easy to load back or side doors.Can pull a small trailer if more materials need hauled. Weather tight secure storage. I have a 1999 with 165k on it still going strong!
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I did this for a while and it was GREAT to work out of for service work, everything very easy to reach without crawling in. I had some shelves in the middle facing out both ways, and drawers underneath those, every square (egg-shaped) inch was used. Uses 1/2 the fuel of a full-size.

It was a challenge to not overload it though - instead of carrying 50 of every fitting, you carry 5 or 10. In my setting this worked fine because we had other trucks for bigger projects.

Probably the biggest issue was ground clearance on job sites, and getting stuck in snow (we do lots of rural/ag service work). For that reason I had to get rid of it.

Ultimately replaced it with a pickup with a 6-ft bed and fiberglass tonneu. EVERYTHING that came out of the van fit in the cab and box. (It's surprising how small the van really was). Stuff is slightly less accessible, but much of it doesn't need to be anyway. That's offset by being able to drive right up to the work, and never being stuck or stranded.

Bottom line - if most of my work was in town, and I put on at least 40-50 miles/day then I'd go back to the minivan for service work. But not for EC work, then you need something heavier, unless strictly res. and most of your materials supplier delivered right to site.
 
Fulthrotl said:
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me too.... i'd put a bullet thru peter's head before i'd work out of a pickup as well.

if you get a van with a walk in body, and good bin locks, that would be about
the best thing to work out of, unless you do a lot of work downtown where you
have to park in parking garages.

then your life sucks.

regular bed on a pickup = surely you're joking.

utility bed on a pickup = soggy, wet, or stolen. pick one.

utility bed with a pull over cover = a pile of stuff you can't get to easily.

van with racking = you have a fighting chance.

the last two years, i was using a long body E-350 diesel van, towing
a 14' trailer. that was about right for the work i was doing.
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I would never do that, the lines too long.

It's been a long time, but I liked working out of a truck better, but they didn't have all these fancy walk in vans like they do now and I always had to hunch over and try not to hit my head on the door jamb on the way out.
 
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electrofelon said:
The problem with vans, is they are high in the back so it makes it hard to transport poles....
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I carried a 30' aluminum pole on a van roof rack. It had been hit by a truck and was laying in a customers parking lot.

I would not have tried that with the wood pole in your picture.:happyno:
 
iwire said:
I carried a 30' aluminum pole on a van roof rack. It had been hit by a truck and was laying in a customers parking lot.

I would not have tried that with the wood pole in your picture.:happyno:
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Years ago I did carry some rather large wood light poles on a van. It was the E350 extended version with beefed up suspenion and a custom heavy duty ladder rack. I had purchased the van from a carpet installer and he had it rigged to carry as much carpet as possible.

I didn't really feel comfortable doing it and I got some strange looks from cops but didn't get stopped.

I wouldn't even think of doing it today.
 
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