My Grip Truck/ Van

Hectorxd

Hectorxd

Well-known member
Last year I finally got tired of loading and unloading my jeep and I wanted to buy more gear so I got a used van and spent a month building it out, adding the floor, and all the shelving. A month or two after that was all done I added the ladder rack and tubes up top to hold speed rail and frame pieces. I scoured the internet for pictures of smaller grip trucks and grip vans that people had made so I could get inspiration. I didn't see much of what I was looking for so I wanted to post this in case it could help anyone.
You can go to the grip page to see how much stuff I can actually fit in there. Behind all the crates there is space for other stuff as well. As you can see everything is a tight fit and I built the truck around the items so I could pack in as much as I could. I wasn't even thinking of a cart while I was building it but it ended up having just enough room for most 2 feet wide carts to slide right in the middle. The only thing not in the pictures that I usually carry is more sand bags. There is not much I would change from the original design, maybe a few small things here and there that are too hard to modify at this point.
http://www.23profilms.com/truck.html
 
That is really well thought out, bravo.

I am still trying to figure out how to get my speed rail and butterfly frame 1" square pipe inside my interior roof.
 
thanks for the comments. I made all the apple boxes and I made the open apple boxes as well. On the passenger side top shelf you can see 5 boxes. They are close to apple size but have no top. They are for storage and can be used as apples if need be.
 
The one thing that always makes me nervous in such setups are the bungee cords holding things in - the springiness and lashing out can easily take out an eye or do other damage... far safer IMHO to secure with non-elastic tie-down straps - these have the additional advantage of being more durable... I've personally experienced bungee cord hooks detaching from the elastic cords with devastating results. Nice setup overall, but the bungee cords are an absolute no-no in my book - yes, I know everyone will say "but I've used them for 50 years and never had a mishap blah, blah, blah", but that's the nature of risk, it's all easy to ignore until that one time it actually happens, and then all those times it didn't happen for 50 years means nothing when you're missing an eye.
 
Love those apple boxes. Organization is paramount, if you made them to sell, I'd buy some no doubt.
 
I agree on the bungees. I started out with bungees on every shelf and moved to the rope with carabiners. The only shelves now that have them are the apple box shelves. I plan on replacing them but not sure what as I want it tight enough so they aren't sliding back and forth. I don't have a problem with the shelves that are facing sideways as I go very slow on turns.

The closest thing to a C stand cart that I have thought of is getting the Junior cart and adding the C-stand rack attachment. Most of my work is outside so I use my combos more than anything else.
 
My van is nowhere near as tidy as yours is, but I like it. It's wonderful showing up to a job knowing I have all the gear available.

van.jpg

However I do have a solution to attaching speedrail to the ceiling. I took some 6" lengths of 1.5"ID PVC pipe and cut about a third out of it lengthwise to make clips. Then I pop riveted them to the roof. The speedrail snaps in perfectly.

speedrail.jpg

Peter Rummel
Lighting Cameraman
Seattle
 
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I like that idea. I might have to do some of that at some point with some shorter sections of speed rail that would get lost in my bigger tubes up top.
 
I need a van. I have Yukon beast that is sucking up the gas and is just way to long. This is really good stuff!
 
Fuel economy is always an issue. After I sold my big truck some years back, I had enough with trying to fit gear into smaller vehicles, so I started to investigate a new solution. One of which was a smaller box truck. But after finding out my buddy was getting around 8mpg as he stated, I axed that idea. I had always wanted a Sprinter Van as they get very good fuel economy, but they can be a little pricy when new. As it was, I lucked into a used Sprinter traded in on a new model at a local dealership.

Im still hoping to to one day be able to fit my kit into the boot of a Porsche 911 Turbo. :grin:
 
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