Portable Paint Can Shaker Patent Granted

[ProfessionalLocator]

I find no problem with paint in left in the cans during Spring, Summer and early Fall.
It is during Winter that the cold makes getting the last of the paint out of the can a problem. On cold days I usually have 10% to 20% of the paint left in the can when it stops working. I put these cans in a warm area of the vehicle and use them for short locates later.

I worked at one firm that prohibited paint inside the cab even during Winter. So I complied and put the frozen cans of paint inside the engine compartment on the intake manifold. None of the cans ever blew up but occasionally they shorted out the ignition system and the truck ran rough.

[spraypray&sweat]

CUS has recently given us all Dodge Calibers so no problems with paint freezing for me. Nice idea though as far as the shaker goes.

[paintitnow]

with no more HHr's or ford rangers , time for new vehicles. How do you like the caliber? head room for 6' guys, blind spots?

[spraypray&sweat]

The Calibers have there ups and downs im 6'1" but the caliber I have the driver seat is fully electric and the base can be lifted up or down as well as forwards or backwards and is reclinable so no problems on the height.CUS put cages in ours so the recline part is limited but in the rear against the cage I can fit 12 cases of paint 8 cases of flags measure wheel locate equipment paint stick a back pack with extra cloths and shoes and a small asortmant of tools and organized right everything is readily excessible. The small rear windows do create a bit of a blind spot issue with paint cases stacked 2 high but as long as you look good before you leap into traffic its ok. They get pretty good gas mileage I have a lead foot and I worked mine out as getting around 25 miles to the gallon. But if your in to tunes they also come with a good sound system and bought new a year free sirius xm satelite radio which I can no longer do without. and the benifit to having a car over a truck is nothing freezes.

[ProfessionalLocator]

The Calibers have there ups and downs im 6'1" but the caliber I have the driver seat is fully electric and the base can be lifted up or down as well as forwards or backwards and is reclinable so no problems on the height.CUS put cages in ours so the recline part is limited but in the rear against the cage I can fit 12 cases of paint 8 cases of flags measure wheel locate equipment paint stick a back pack with extra cloths and shoes and a small asortmant of tools and organized right everything is readily excessible. The small rear windows do create a bit of a blind spot issue with paint cases stacked 2 high but as long as you look good before you leap into traffic its ok. They get pretty good gas mileage I have a lead foot and I worked mine out as getting around 25 miles to the gallon. But if your in to tunes they also come with a good sound system and bought new a year free sirius xm satelite radio which I can no longer do without. and the benifit to having a car over a truck is nothing freezes.

A Ford Ranger or Chevy Colorado with the extended cab has enough space behind the seat to keep enough paint warm for a days work.

While it is nice to have a lot of interior climate controlled space these cars are not rugged enough and lack the ground clearance needed for out work. We need to climb over and dive down curbs, which need the larger diameter tires of a pickup, and sometimes go cross county or across raw land on a construction site, this beats these cars to death. Plus all the stuff we keep inside damages the interior.


I know of two of these small cars, not Calibers, that had in excesses of $3,000 of front end and frame damage. The fleet man insisted that some locater had been wrecking these cars by hitting objects that were not high enough to cause body damage. I think the repeated hard use of the vehicles resulted in cumulative damage.

The ideal vehicle for most of our industry is a small pickup truck with extended cab and a good tonneau cover on the bed. My truly ideal vehicle is a little larger like the size of a Dodge Dakota. The full size pickups have the sides of the rear bed too high to reach over and work from.

[spraypray&sweat]

I have had my caliber for a little over 9 months and have climbed curbs rode power lines climbed the steep hills to cell towers and rode raw land on farms and construction sites the company has a fleet management program and when the caliber is taken in for oil change and inspection there has been nothing wrong so far as long as you dont drive them like your driving a off road 4x4 set up for rock crawling you will be fine. I could not stand the fact of going from my extended cab chevy colorado which I loved to the Caliber at first but since ive had it its grown on me there are ups and downs to both i mean the caliber handled a lot better on the icy roads last winter than the colorado did because of the front wheel drive and traction control granted I was able to be rougher on the truck but so far the caliber has went every where the colorado did.I mean I'm not trying to cell the caliber I am just giving my opinion from experiance in the last 9 months of driving it Personally I do prefer a truck but I can't knock the caliber because it has been a good car for doing what we do.

[Redd Marx]

When you drive like I do you don't need to shake your paint cans.

[The Big-E]

I would like to chime in on the calibers, since I drove one for two yrs. from brand new to over 100,000 miles in the remote terrain of southern IL locating...

Loved it, never let me down, and I am 6'3"

My model had the 17" wheels and routinely went off-road... wish I had one with my new job, but I guess my full-size F-150 will have to do... ProfessionalLocator is right though, if I were a shorter man, I would have a hard time reaching stuff in my bed...

[TBONE]

there is no what with all the crap we have to carry that I can locate out of a car the trucks we have are too small to start with