Stocking one's truck

[ProfessionalLocator]

Having read in other threads how we deal with the truck failing to proceed I was wondering what other people stock their truck with to keep it going.

I keep in the truck at my own expense.....

A vehicle tow strap should I or another get hubs deep in the mud.

Shovel to dig out the truck. A digging pick called a maddox because it also can double to open manholes.

One or two gallon can of gas. This also allows production to keep up should
I be low on gas and not near a gas station so I do not have to be Inefficient and drive out of the way to get gas.

Five gallon can of gas when oncall because we can be way out in middle of nowhere in the middle of the night and need gas.

A jumper battery to jump start the truck should battery die.

An electric air pump you can plug into the dash and pump up a tire with.
Many firms prohibit fix-a-flat or tire patch kit. If you have a hole screw in a screw and pump the tire up and limp in to get it repaired of replaced. Of course put the spare on instead but sometimes you find the spare flat or you get more than one flat tire.

Engine oil, brake fluid, washer fluid and the various other fluids needed.
Large lug wrench should tire need to be changed and the lugs are frozen with rust or put on by a demon with an air driven impact wrench.

Snow chains are good but I never put them in the truck myself.

Part of keeping the truck going is keeping me going.

Canned food, bottled water and soda.
Change of clothes, especially socks and an old pair of spare boots.
Wash cloths
Aspirin, anti diarrheal , bandages, cold capsules.

Keeping my equipment going.

A 75 watt soldering iron to repair broken equipment leads. Note: Plug this into a power inverter. The laptops draw about 70 watts so if you have an inverter as a power supply you can use it.

Large clear plastic bags to wrap locating equipment to protect it from rain.

Spare batteries. I have worked at places where you cannot get spares. You have to turn in your worn out batteries to get new ones. So I put my own spares in until I get back to the shop and then swap the worn out ones back in.

Any spare or extra locating equipment I can talk the equipment manager to stock my truck with.

[Locateforlife]

Where do you fit in the following:

Paint, Flags, Manhole pump, Manhole guard, manhole ventilator, spare paint sticks, fish tape ( for locating empty duct packages ), Meet sheets.

[ProfessionalLocator]

Where do you fit in the following:

Paint, Flags, Manhole pump, Manhole guard, manhole ventilator, spare paint sticks, fish tape ( for locating empty duct packages ), Meet sheets.

Oh, it's all in there. What you wrote is usually all company issue, all the stuff I put down is stuff that I purchase on my own.

Many firms have a policy of not allowing locators to go into manholes. This may be becasue of an old OSHA equipment requirement they do not want to pay for. For all I know the requirement has been removed.

The foreman had a fish tape and would bring it when I needed to locate a duct line but I was still thinking of buying one myself. Any job I can do without bothering the foreman is better for him and faster for me.

[Locateforlife]

I hear you. It is just interesting when you get right down to it how much stuff we have to carry in our trucks. And yet people call our job easy.

[ProfessionalLocator]

I hear you. It is just interesting when you get right down to it how much stuff we have to carry in our trucks. And yet people call our job easy.

Well it LOOKED easy to me till I did it!

[yahoo]

spare tire for me.....scatch that ...don't have one of those no more.....ha!! nothing extra for me except what the company gives.....

[Mke]

we don't carry the MH Ventilator, if we need to get down into something, we have to go though some red tape to get all the equipment there to get down into the hole.

I have a pair of thigh high muck boots, Roll of papertowels, Hand degreaser, Headlamp, flashlight, Mirror, Pair of shoes, socks, pants, shirt. Vault wrench and ped wrench (which are mine) small conduit saw (don't ask), Dye, Fishtape, Blow up sheep (don't ask).

One of these days, i'll get a truck that will hold all this stuff too.

mke

[hellbilly]

Alright I'm a rookie but have been in the construction industry for a while extras i have include

mini sledge
wire stripper
lineman pliers
crescent wrench
head lamp
flashlight

[ProfessionalLocator]

I did not add this becasue it does not keep the truck running, but improves productivity.

A pair of binoculars. I can see pole numbers, transformer numbers, etc. that are at an inconvenient place like across a ditch. Saves walking around time.

Another thing is an extension stick for the ring clamp. Certainly these are needed for manholes but they have another use. I use them to slip the ring clamp onto the SEC cable at the electric meter. Often this saves me from climbing a fence or threading through bushes, often thorn bushes, planted around a meter. You can clamp onto any exposed cable such as electric, phone, catv.

If you have to connect to a cable coming down a pole but there is a guard over the cable I can reach up high enough for the clamp to often work. I left the extension stick off becasue so far all my employers were willing to pay for it as truck stock.

[Locateforlife]

A pair of binoculars. I can see pole numbers, transformer numbers, etc. that are at an inconvenient place like across a ditch. Saves walking around time.

Yeah for looking at poles, and trans

[ProfessionalLocator]

Yeah for looking at poles, and trans

Okay, so there was this one public pool that had this great looking girl working as lifeguard.

[Bad Robot]

Many firms have a policy of not allowing locators to go into manholes. This may be becasue of an old OSHA equipment requirement they do not want to pay for. For all I know the requirement has been removed.

Many OSHA regs were overhauled during the Bush admin. with an emphasis on making companies more "competetive" in the face of foreign competiion. The enclosed space regs were jacked with in order to help the phone companies, et. al. squeeze more out of their predominantly union workforce. Which they have gradually farmed out to contract outfits anyway. Which IMO was the idea all along.

[ProfessionalLocator]

Many OSHA regs were overhauled during the Bush admin. with an emphasis on making companies more "competetive" in the face of foreign competiion. The enclosed space regs were jacked with in order to help the phone companies, et. al. squeeze more out of their predominantly union workforce. Which they have gradually farmed out to contract outfits anyway. Which IMO was the idea all along.

The requirement that I was referring to was where to work in a manhole an explosive gas meter and an oxygen meter had to be in use. They could be two separate units or a combination unit. They had to have a continuously running pump for constant sampling plus have an audible alarm.

I have been in countless manholes before the new regulation and just used a gas tester prior to entering. The regulation came to be because once you open the manhole the conduits can "chimney" gas in from another location. I know of one case where this happened and burned two men working in the manhole. The explosion blew the wooden ladder out of the hole.

Low oxygen can come from two sources, depletion and displacement. In a closed manhole the metal can rust and the oxidation process of rust uses up the oxygen. Been in such holes and you take a breath and it feels like your lungs are empty. The other is that a gas, explosive or not, can seep into the manhole and displace the oxygen.

[paintdown]

u forget the port a poty, or the ole bumper dumper

[ProfessionalLocator]

u forget the port a poty, or the ole bumper dumper

On that delicate subject I keep a large soda cup, 44 oz, and it's lid in truck just in case.

That just reminded me. Years ago I marked for a large directional bore job replacing electric. One lady called and complained becasue the bore crew was pissing in her hedges.

After that they broke down and rented a port-o-potty which they put on the back of one of their flatbed trucks.