new to here.....question on Vivax

**harleymarc** · January 5th, 2010, 05:54 PM

hi all,

we are a small independant telco and are looking at getting a Vivax locator. right now we use dyna tel 960's. does anyone have any feed back on the vivax units?

thanks in advance.

**locator1** · January 5th, 2010, 06:01 PM

Originally Posted by harleymarc

hi all,

we are a small independant telco and are looking at getting a Vivax locator. right now we use dyna tel 960's. does anyone have any feed back on the vivax units?

thanks in advance.

they are the shizzz nitt

**Mke** · January 5th, 2010, 06:03 PM

Welcome to the vine harleymarc.

I have not used the Vivax, but.....

was curious if you were small town independant, or small independant in big town?

**TheCableVine** · January 5th, 2010, 06:59 PM

Welcome Aboard. Post often.

**yahoo** · January 5th, 2010, 08:15 PM

welcome to the vine......have never used the vivax.....

**gypsygirl** · January 6th, 2010, 05:31 AM

We have a couple of them in our area. The locators that are using them love them.

**headcipher** · January 6th, 2010, 11:47 AM

Use it, love it. Best unit used so far, at least among all the new machines.
We've demo'd rd's, ridgid, metrotech, and in the past dynatel and subsite.
Haven't tried the rd8000 or pipehorn yet. (Hint, Hint David Dodd.)

**Trent3342** · January 6th, 2010, 12:26 PM

Originally Posted by harleymarc

hi all,

we are a small independant telco and are looking at getting a Vivax locator. right now we use dyna tel 960's. does anyone have any feed back on the vivax units?

thanks in advance.

Welcome to the vine. We just purchased over 60 of the units. The technicians love them. I haven't heard any bad things about them.

**DavidDodd** · January 6th, 2010, 03:24 PM

I hear you brother Headcipher. I'm headed that way with a Pipehorn 800HL and my snowboard!

**Wingfoot** · January 6th, 2010, 04:22 PM

Hey harley - Welcome Aboard!

I got the impression from your post that you are in a position to make buying decisions for your company. Getting feedback from people with REAL experience in the field before making a bulk equipment purchase is always a good thing..... I hope this is SOP (standard operating procedure) for you. Knowing their input is valued helps keep workers happy.

When I was in outside sales dealing with businesses large and small, I've dealt with "clueless" buyers that held the notion that tires are tires, trucks are trucks, oil is oil, paint is paint, welding rods are welding rods and tools are tools. Without any feedback from the work force, they always knew what was the "best" for the workers who were creating the revenue - "F*** those guys! Cheaper is better! JACKPOT if it's made in China!" The only exception will always be the toilet paper for the company shitter - Gotta have that 3-ply Charmin! These buyers always wore their designer cologne, shoes, shirts and pants. They drove to work with the biggest and brightest vehicle in the company parking lot. I trust your NOT one of "those guys......"

Regardless, thanks for trusting the members of the'Vine for their honest input and please post often.

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**arkupsdsi** · January 11th, 2010, 09:24 AM

I'm new here too. But i thought i would give my 2 cents. our company is currently evaluating new equipment also. so far i have tested the rd8000 and the dynatel 2753. we are also looking at the vivax. i used one when we had the salesfolks in to pitch their product. I liked the vivax for the 10 minutes i used it and was looking forward to testing, but about a month later they have yet to send us a unit for testing as they said they would. This throws up a huge red flag as far as service after the sale. If you cant get me ONE unit to test, what happens when i need repairs.

**rvb** · August 3rd, 2010, 11:39 AM

Now that we are well into the locate season our Dynatel 573 decided it had enough years of service with us and retired (unrepairable). We are also comparing it to the Vivax. The Dynatel worked great as a locator for location and depth with a signal on the wire but bediocre when coupled and wasn't very reliable for finding faults to ground. I had an inexperienced salesman demonstrate the Vivax on a fault and didn't have much luck either.

**headcipher** · August 3rd, 2010, 02:21 PM

While I like the Vivax, don't limit yourself to just one unit, all the different units have their strengths. I'd suggest you call all of the distributors who offer that function and get demo units. I'm sure that the one that suits your needs will stick out to you.

Hope you find what you need.

**sprayandpray** · August 3rd, 2010, 06:52 PM

Utiliquest here bought a few and then went back to the RD8000. Don't know the reason.

**GWJ_CAS** · August 3rd, 2010, 07:00 PM

Originally Posted by sprayandpray

Utiliquest here bought a few and then went back to the RD8000. Don't know the reason.

'Cause RD is practically giving away the 8000's to compete with the Vivax. The RD 8000 used to be priced about $500 more than the Vivax, now they are offering them for $300-400 less than the Vivax. Pretty bad when the competitor forces you to lower your unit price by $800-900...even more so in bulk...