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What Equipment Does a Survey Crew Require

August 25, 2021

What Equipment Does a Survey Crew Require

Land surveying isn’t a simple job—it requires tons of precise equipment and a lot of knowledge to properly handle and measure everything. You carry around so much equipment that regular trucks and vans usually can’t handle it all. To help you understand what equipment a survey crew requires, just read this list.

Record-Keeping Equipment

There isn’t a standard way that people choose to keep their findings, but you’ll need to invest in some method to record everything your team measures in the field. Plenty of people use paper and clipboards, but you can also use electronic devices if you want.

Personal Protective Equipment

Although most of the equipment that survey crews use is light, there’s still a chance for injury on the job—if not from the equipment, then from the environment. A good business will provide protective gear to its employees to reduce the risk of injury on the job. Things like gloves or safety jackets can save the life and body of a survey crew member.

Saw or Axe

Working outside in nature means that you’ll never have optimal working conditions. Trees and plants will obstruct your paths, and you’ll need to move them to perform a good job. Providing saws or axes to clear out small areas for equipment and pathways can make an impossible job very easy.

Measuring Tool

One of the most basic tools a survey crew needs is a measuring tool. Your crew will often need to precisely measure large distances between two or points. There’re a variety of tools that you can use to accomplish this task, like laser measures or tape measures. It’s really up to you how much you want to spend, and which type of tool makes the most sense for your company and crew.

Theodolite

The theodolite is an essential piece of equipment for any survey team, as it helps measure angles across vast distances. A team member can use the telescope on the theodolite to measure precise angles and easily record the results. This will help with basic surveying and makes every other step easier.

Compass

Traveling around in places you don’t know can often cause you to lose your bearing. This is a major issue for land surveying. Luckily, a good compass can help your crew know exactly where they are and what direction they’re facing. You can also use a compass to measure distance if your other methods aren’t working.

Clinometers

This is a tool that people use to measure slopes and inclines, which is very important for land surveying. It accurately measures the angle and degree that a slope climbs and is something that every land surveying crew needs to accurately measure the surrounding area.

Level

Levels are tools that measure the flatness of something or the flatness of two points to see if they’re even. Levels are useful for determining if there’s a difference in height between two points and will tell you if a surface is flat. There’s a variety of different styles of levels, as some are digital and others are manual, but they all essentially measure the same thing.

Metal Detectors and Magnetic Locators

During land surveillance, it becomes beneficial to use magnetic locators to find any metals in the ground. This is important as piping or metal structures can greatly change how people need to approach the area. Metal detectors are the best tools for finding any hidden or buried infrastructure.

Poles

Another tool that every surveyor team needs is a set of poles. The poles have universal uses in surveying, as they can solve a lot of problems, but they typically serve as markers or equipment stands. A lot of the equipment needs poles for steady and accurate readings.

Prisms

Prism systems are reflectors that sit at the end of poles to help reflect lights. By themselves, they serve little purpose, but they help reflect light back at electronic distance measurement instruments (EDM). This lets you set up a pole and measure the distance from that pole to anywhere you can see accurately.

EDM Instruments

These are tools that can measure extreme distances very easily with the use of Prisms and poles. It does this by using electromagnetic waves to send and receive information about the distance between two spaces. This helps you build blueprints and survey land very quickly.

Tripods and Mounts

Like poles in some ways, tripods and mounts are very useful for accurate and consistent measurements. Holding an EDM or level when taking measurements can cause a lot of problems. Tripods and mounts prevent this by holding all the equipment for your crew as they operate the machinery. Without good tripods, all your data would be incomplete or inaccurate.

Markers

Working outside can get a bit confusing, especially when you’re working in new areas so often. Investing in good markers that don’t blow away so you can get an accurate lay of the land can really save the day and make the job easy. You’ll want a variety of markers so you can easily identify what you’re marking at just a glance.

GPS

It might seem a bit silly, but a good survey team will use a GPS to help them with the lay of the land. At the very least, it’ll help the team get to the place they need to be. A GPS also helps get rough estimates and can help you organize across the whole crew. Investing in a good GPS will only speed up the surveying process.

Combined Tools

One thing you might notice if you’re searching for surveying equipment is a lot of tools combine this equipment. A good GPS might include a digital or manual compass, or a theodolite might include a clinometer in its design. This is a good thing, as it’ll save you space when storing all this equipment in a truck or van. You’ll likely find it difficult to store all this equipment in a single van, so the extra space you save from these multi-tools is very useful. You can also invest in a good truck storage organizer, which can make it easy to carry and unload everything.

This list is the answer to the question, “What equipment does a survey crew require?” This list isn’t exhaustive, but you should know the basics of what a team might need to run a full survey job.

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How To Organize Emergency Equipment on a Fire Vehicle

August 24, 2021

How To Organize Emergency Equipment on a Fire Vehicle

Speed is vital when fighting a fire, as the slower you deal with a fire, the harder it’ll be to stop. Every second can cost someone their life, and that’s why proper organization of your equipment is so important. To help you organize your equipment, try using this guide on how to organize emergency equipment on a fire vehicle.

Clear Out Everything

Every good organization job starts with cleaning out the whole space of any equipment. You should start with a clean slate so you can utilize the full space. It’s best to deep clean the whole vehicle, so you can get rid of any trash and waste as little space as possible.

Get Everything Together

Once you have everything out, list and record all the equipment you need to store. This will help you organize and plan for everything you need on the vehicle. Make sure you account for everything on your list, so you don’t miss anything vital.

Load Into the Vehicle

Loading the equipment is the hard part, as you need to optimize your space usage and store things according to how much you use them. When possible, load heavy items on the bottom, as this will limit sliding. You should store any equipment or tools in easy-to-access places near the entrances to the vehicle, as this will speed up your unloading process. Make sure that you dedicate spaces to everything you carry, so you always know where everything is when you need it.

Storage Space Modifications

There’s only so much efficiency you can get with a stock vehicle. If you really want to optimize your emergency equipment storage, you should invest in storage space organizers. Some heavy-duty drawer slides for trucks or heavy-duty tool racks can help you efficiently store equipment and utilize room that you couldn’t use before. A good slide-out can help you access equipment with ease while speeding up the process and lowering the risk of injury from carrying equipment.

It’s impossible to overstate how important it is to know how to organize emergency equipment on a fire vehicle. Taking the time to carefully plan and test different configurations and optimizing your setup is vital for dealing with emergency situations. Be sure that you’re careful with whatever setup you try, and plan to have speedy and safe access to all equipment.

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Getting Organized at Work: Start With Your Truck

August 17, 2021

Getting Organized at Work: Start With Your Truck

If you’re looking to increase your productivity at your workplace, you’ll find the best results by organizing. Proper organization of your work area can enable you to perform tasks optimally. When getting organized at work, start with your truck. This will help you quickly handle jobs and any equipment you have.

Empty the Truck

The first step to organizing anything is to empty and clear out the space in question. This isn’t any different with your truck. Remove everything you can, leaving its bed bare of any equipment or things you need to carry.

Prioritize Essentials and Heavy Items

When you’re starting to decide where items go, it’s best to put in the tools you use the most and the heaviest objects first. This way, you can ensure that you have everything you need and that your truck is stable while you drive.

Dedicate Spots

You should look to dedicate a spot for everything you have. If you set apart sections for specific items, you’ll consistently have places to put those items. This will help you ensure that you always have your essentials.

Think About Convenience

It’s wise to store things based on how often you use them. Tools or objects you need frequently should be the easiest to access. Store them in places that you can reach quickly. Placing equipment on the door or near the entrances of the truck will make it simple to take them out when you need them.

Use Storage Space Organizers

Another option for organizing your vehicle is to use storage space organizers. These are aftermarket modifications that can help you utilize the space your vehicle already has more effectively. Things like a truck storage organizer or a tool board can help you store all your items. Mounting these on a telescoping or sliding deck will further improve quick and safe access to them. The modifications allow you to utilize your vehicle’s storage space to its fullest.

Now you can see why you should start with your truck when getting organized at work. With this guide, you can arrange your truck to handle whatever equipment or gear you have and access it quickly and safely.

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Upfitting Can Save Your Company a Lot of Money

July 26, 2021

Upfitting Can Save Your Company a Lot of Money

It may seem like a large upfront expense, but upfitting can save your company a lot of money. It costs you resources and money every time someone takes out a vehicle, even if they need to. That’s why you want to ensure that your vehicles minimize these costs by enabling your workers the best they can. That’s what the upfit process is all about, enabling workers to lower costs and wasted resources.

Storage

One of the biggest benefits of upfitting your vehicles is the improvements you can make to your vehicle’s storage capabilities. Upfitting will give you the option to add more storage options for your vehicles and carry more equipment, thus enabling your workers.

Organization

Upfitting will also give you the ability to increase your organization inside the vehicle. You can get storage space organizers like vehicle slide-out trays, which allow you to maximize the storage capacity of your vehicle. One tip, give everything a dedicated place to keep your vehicle neat.

Loading and Unloading Efficiency

Increasing your organization is a great way to also increase the efficiency of your workers. Loading and unloading equipment is one of the biggest time wastes, and proper storage and organization will help to lower this time waste.

Productivity

Along with increase to efficiency, your workers will handle more tasks or complete more service calls with the time they save due to proper organization. Standardizing your vehicle organization and dedicating items to certain spots will lead to less confusion on the job and faster work.

Safety

A good upfit will aim to increase your vehicle’s safety for your workers. Loading heavy equipment is a common cause for injury, but a good slide-out storage organizer will help workers load and unload equipment safely and lowers the chance of injury.

These are just some of the ways that upfitting can save your company a lot of money. Although there is a bit of an upfront cost, it’s a safe investment into your workers and your business.

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How To Find More Storage Space in Your Trunk

July 26, 2021

How To Find More Storage Space in Your Trunk

It can often feel like you never have enough space for everything you need to carry in your trunk. You get to loading the trunk, and there’s just too little room, or you need to stack things weirdly to get it to all fit. This is why it’s nice to know how to find more storage space in your trunk.

Stack Heavy To Light

The first thing you need to do is know how to properly organize your items to efficiently use your storage space. The first thing you should do is store any heavy things on the bottom and stack lighter things on top. This will help limit sliding, ensuring fewer objects suffer damage as you stack them and giving you more options for organization.

Get Boxes and Containers

The next thing you can do is invest in containers to help store your items. Placing loose items in bags or boxes helps keep them contained, limiting how much room they take up by preventing them from spreading out. It’s a good idea to get a small box or two to hold the smaller objects and a big one to hold larger items.

Create Dedicated Spaces

You should try to dedicate spaces to different tools and items. This will speed up your loading and unloading processes, as you’ll know exactly where everything goes. It’ll also keep your storage area consistent, helping you manage your space.

Use Trunk Bed Extenders

Another thing you can consider investing in is a trunk bed extender or storage organizer. These aftermarket modifications help extend your trunk storage, letting you better organize and store items. They work perfectly with the organization tips listed above as well. A good storage extender, like a large aluminum storage trunk, can extend well past your bed and can come with a variety of extra shelving and drawers to help with storage.

These organization tips and tricks can really help you find more storage space in your trunk. This knowledge can help speed up loading and unloading processes and organize your storage space.

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How To Get the Most Out of Your Truck Bed

July 19, 2021

How To Get the Most Out of Your Truck Bed

When storing things in your truck, you might feel that you need more room. But getting a whole new truck just for a bit of extra storage isn’t worth it. The real trick is to learn how to get the most out of your truck bed to maximize the space you already have. There are several ways to accomplish this. Many people add on additional storage or adjust their organization methods. Here are some of the exact ways you can better utilize your truck bed for storage.

You Can Stack

One simple change you can try is to stack the things you’re storing. When you are placing objects in the truck, there’s often lots of air space left over. Don’t be afraid to stack your things to use up that space, as long as you’re smart about it and don’t stack things that can break easily without proper protection.

Heavy To Light

When it comes to stacking things, you want to be sure you’re doing it correctly. One of the biggest risks to stacking is falling or sliding objects as you drive. This possibility is something you must take into account. The best strategy to limit this problem is to stack heavy things on the bottom and lighter objects on top. This should help limit the damage of sliding objects.

Dedicate Spots

When looking into your truck bed’s storage, you should try to keep everything in the same place. Tools or things you commonly carry should have a spot they always stay in. This will help you plan your space better and keep things orderly.

Lighting

Numerous truck beds don’t have enough lights to provide good sight for loading and unloading items. This fact can cause many problems, as it’s hard to navigate a space you can’t see. Invest in lighting that can reveal the whole truck bed and provide you with a clear field of vision no matter the conditions.

Think of Unloading

You can solve lots of problems with truck bed storage by planning around the unloading process. Items should be easy to unload and safe to carry. Proper organization isn’t just about filling up your truck bed; it’s also about having the ability to take things out quickly. Once you have a system that’s easy to unload, you’ll find that it’s also easy to store items efficiently as well.

Frequently Used Things

When planning where items should go, look for anything you use often. You should dedicate a convenient place for these tools that’s easy to reach even when the truck bed is full. This way, you won’t need to unload things just to take out something you use often. Many people use door storage for items like this.

Cargo Ties

Items will move during transportation, and this can lead to many injuries or damaged products or the vehicle itself. One way to prevent this is to invest in cargo ties. These ropes or straps will hold down your items and prevent them from sliding. The best way to use them is to tie down any item with two different ropes.

Cargo Nets

Cargo nets have the same purpose as cargo ties, but they’re better for holding many items at once and are useful in conjunction with cargo ties. You usually only need one cargo net, as they’re wide and can cover lots of space.

Boxes

Adding boxes is a great way to help organize your space usage. Smaller items take up a lot of space when loose in a truck bed. They spread out, and you can’t stack objects on top of them as easily as you can with big items. Boxes help hold these smaller items together and limit the amount of room they can take up.

Drawers

Drawers are very similar to boxes because their purpose is also to hold smaller items. However, they don’t take up nearly as much room as stray boxes. They’re also much easier to load and unload because they slide out and give great access to the items they hold.

Sidewall Racks

Another aftermarket modification that many people add to their vehicle is a wall rack. These are basically racks or boards that can hold tools and equipment. As they sit off the floor, they help you maximize the space you use to carry these tools.

Additional Racks

Just like wall racks, you can add various kinds of additional racks to hold whatever you need. Many people already have ceiling racks in their vehicles. These are ideal for securing anything that can hang or tie with cords that you wrap around the racks. Using them also frees up plenty of room for all your other goods and things you need to carry.

Storage Organizer

A storage organizer is a larger investment for your storage space. But it’s well worth it if you need to utilize your truck bed better. These organizers take up most of your truck space but add various storage options. You’ll get things like extra drawers or specific places to hold your specialized tools. They can slide out from your truck bed, giving you easy access to all your storage space. A storage organizer also aids in speeding up the loading and unloading process while increasing the safety of anyone who uses the truck bed, as you no longer need to climb in to load items.

Slide Out Trays

Slide out trays are similar to storage organizers, but they’re flat platforms instead of full organizers. They’re valuable for storing lots of large equipment. A good truck bed slide out tray will enable your workers to carry massive loads—up to 3000 pounds—without worrying about weight distribution. They should also extend past the taillights (at least 110 percent ), giving you the best access to the storage area without needing to twist or climb to handle the equipment.

These tips on how to get the most out of your truck bed will help raise the speed at which you can load and unload your truck bed, promote safety, and increase the amount you can carry in your truck bed. All it takes is a bit of planning and proper organization of your truck bed to get some great results.

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How To Choose the Best Truck Bed Slide for Your Pickup

June 28, 2021

How To Choose the Best Truck Bed Slide for Your Pickup

Picking the right pickup truck is a careful balancing act between functionality and expense, among other things. A large factor in getting a truck for many people is the truck’s bed. This one piece of the vehicle adds so much utility that it’s a major function. A lot of people base their vehicle choice on the truck’s bed. However, even the biggest beds aren’t enough to carry some of the loads that people and workplaces need. That is why there are truck bed slide-outs, to add on the needed space. But there are a variety of different truck bed slides that do different things. So, you need to know how to choose the best truck bed slide for your pickup if you want the right one for you.

Load

Just as with a regular truck bed, a truck bed slide-out platform does have a limit to how much weight it can carry. This is very important to note, as going over this weight limit can damage the slide-out and even the truck itself. That is why you want to account for the weight of anything you are looking to move when buying a slide-out tray. If you are carrying only light equipment, you might get away with a lower limit, but most people load heavy equipment onto their trucks. If you do load heavy equipment, look for slide-outs that can carry 2000+ pounds for your truck.

Weight Distribution

Another common limitation of slide-out platforms is the distribution of weight of any equipment on the slide-outs. Typically, you must carefully place any equipment on the truck bed and slide out to evenly space out the weight of what you are carrying. This is very inconvenient for many people as it slows down the loading process and means that there is a limit on what you can actually carry, even if you don’t hit the weight limit. This is because it’s basically impossible to perfectly balance several thousand pounds of equipment unless you are transferring a load that is just the same item. Even just one piece of heavy equipment might throw off your weight distribution and limit your load. However, there are some slide-outs that don’t have this weight distribution limitation. So, unless you plan on only having light loads, get yourself a platform that doesn’t require weight distribution.

Length

The length of a slide-out is another factor you need to consider when purchasing the modification. Typically, you measure the slide-out of a truck bed by how much it extends the truck bed in percentage. This means that a 50% slide-out will extend your truck bed by about half of its current length, whereas a 100% slide-out would double your truck bed’s length. The length of a slide-out platform measures the extra space the modification gives you to load more items and how much the slide-out comes out of the truck. For most people, the higher the length, the better it’ll be for storage and carrying purposes.

Accessibility

Another thing to consider in terms of the length is how it affects the accessibility of the loaded equipment. One of the bigger benefits to a slide-out tray is how it makes loading easier. When you are pulling out the platform, it gives you easier access to the area and lets you load more without requiring you to climb over the vehicle. Once you start getting to higher lengths, you can load and unload a lot of larger equipment with easy access. Extendobed is the only one that extends over 110% – past the taillights, giving you complete access to any equipment you have without needing to step into the truck at all. You get to use those last few inches of your truck bed without struggle.

Risk Reduction

Along with this ease of access comes a variety of risk and injury reductions that can save you problems and even lower worker’s injuries. By having a tray that can load equipment without worrying about weight distribution, you can load for safety and efficiency rather than weight distribution. The extra extension of the platforms can be very useful for increasing safety as well. A lot of injuries occur during the loading and unloading process. This is because individuals must use improper techniques to move any loads from a normal truck bed. Climbing into a vehicle to get to a heavy item can cause a lot of injuries and generally isn’t safe. A long slide-out platform makes it easy to load and unload equipment and loads without needing to climb inside a truck bed by pulling out the load to you. This will greatly lower potential risks and injuries during the loading process. The 110% extension that the Extendobed platforms provide even allows the slide out deck to be loaded directly by forklift, making it even safer than other slide-outs.

Customization

Another benefit to many of the slide-out trays is the range of customization you can get on them. Many slide-outs are just simple platforms that hold simple loads, but some slide-outs can contain a variety of extra storage options. From drawers to specialty shelving, there are plenty of additions to slide-out trays. Not only that, but Extendobeds even offers fully customizable slide-out platforms and storage organization that can carry anything you need. This way, you can tailor the trays to fit your exact needs, no matter what business you are in or what you need to carry. This customization can increase every aspect of your truck’s bed, from space optimization to efficiency in loading and unloading. It can even promote worker safety—all it requires is some careful planning on your part, and you could have a custom slide-out tray for yourself in no time.

Now, by factoring all these different things to consider, you should be able to find a truck bed slide that works for you. All it requires is some careful planning and some knowledge about how to choose the best truck bed slide for your pickup, and you’ll be able to find yourself the perfect slide-out for your needs.

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Traffic Enforcement Equipment Storage

June 16, 2021

Traffic Enforcement Equipment Storage

Carrying all the necessary equipment for traffic enforcement while still keeping track of your other items is a difficult challenge. There are just too many items for convenient storage in a normal police vehicle. Even when you do manage to get everything into one vehicle, it can be a pain to get it all out again. Oftentimes, you cannot organize all the equipment into the vehicle in a reasonable manner. That is why you should invest in some traffic enforcement equipment storage. One of the best ways to increase your storage is to use aftermarket modifications; something like a police car trunk organizer will maximize your space efficiency greatly.

Types of Trunk Organizers

At Extendobed, we offer many different high-quality organizers that provide amazing storage control and options. These organizers all provide over 100 percent slide-outs to give you easy access to all your storage. Plus, they can carry up to 3,000 pounds of equipment.

The St. Charles Organizer

This organizer is meant to carry all the forms of traffic enforcement equipment that you might need on the job. For example, scale racks carry weight scales while giving you easy access to the heavy equipment. The design also keeps in mind the proper lifting height of the equipment to best prevent back injury from carrying heavy equipment. There is also a creeper shelf to give you plenty of space to hold traffic cones and the like.

The DC Metro Organizer

This organizer is capable of carrying many of the items you may need for traffic enforcement. However, it also has many other drawers that can carry other equipment, giving you a lot of control over what you need and where it should go. The drawers pull out to give you full access over organization. There is an upper platform to give you space to store large objects as well.

Mind you that these are just a few of the pre-built organizers that Extendobed offers. There are plenty of other options available, plus you can make your own custom traffic enforcement equipment storage systems.

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How To Increase the Length of Your Truck Bed

June 15, 2021

How To Increase the Length of Your Truck Bed

Truck beds are some of the best storage spaces for working people. You can fit thousands of pounds of equipment onto the back of one vehicle. However, they do have their limitations. First, they still have rather limited amounts of space for storing equipment. They can also be difficult to load and unload, as you need to climb in and around them to do so. Luckily, knowing how to increase the length of your truck bed can fix these problems.

Switching Bed Frames

The simplest way to get a larger truck bed is to invest in a larger bed frame. This will replace your vehicle’s bed and switch it with a bigger one. Making this switch isn’t something you can do on your own, and you’ll most likely need a mechanic to do the installation for you. Also, there’s a limit to the larger frames, as they can only increase your vehicle bed space by small amounts.

Bed Extender Kit

A bed extender kit is what it sounds like; it’s a simple extension you mount onto your vehicle that extends past the original truck bed. These kits are simple, and you can even install them on your own. However, they aren’t as durable as your truck bed and stick out of the truck.

Custom Slide-Out Tray

Now, one of the best ways to instantly add a lot of space to your truck bed is to install a custom truck bed sliding tray. These trays can double your storage space, and some can even slide out over 110 percent – past the taillights. This means that you can store large equipment and bring it out to you when you need to load or unload it, saving you lots of time and lowering health risks as well.

So, if you’re wondering how to increase the length of your truck bed, these are the main three ways. You can also increase storage with storage organizers and add-ons if you so desire.

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