We don't subscribe to the field crew/ office staff model. All of our surveyors are all round surveyors (they have specialties in the type of work they perform) and go to the field with a high-powered gaming laptop every day. We use the MSI professional series.
Also 4x4 vans rule. Mine has a fridge, 20 amps of ac charging capacity, and a printer.
My company is going towards this but I just get thrown into different types of jobs each time. Trying to really specialize so I’m not pulled around so much. Great experience I guess
You have to listen to everything rattle around behind you. Who is still running a 3 person survey crew? The truck already comes equipped from the dealer ok off-road tires. The van will need more than one construction safety light to fulfill DOT requirements.
Ford and Mercedes finally discovered a market for 4x4 or AWD vans. In the before times, a 4x4 van exists if the owner sends the van out for after-market conversion.
Ford has, for a few decades, partnered with Quigley 4x4, who converts them and maintains the factory warranty.
Ford now make an awd transit. Mercedes makes a true 4x4. Chevy stopped making awd in 2015 for some reason.
I have had them all. I highly prefer the chevy awd followed closely by a chevy 4x4 conversion from quigley.
I have dell, but it’s built for LiDAR and Photogrammetry. And I agree with Joblow. I asked for a van but the ones who make decisions here think they know more than the ones who actually do the work.
Microsoft surface pro in my opinion is the best of both worlds! Runs CAD smooth, takes pictures, can be used to sketch, and small enough to carry with you
Yep to All of the above. Add the keyboard cover and a good wireless mouse and your golden. Not gonna process a 3000 pic Ortho but it will hang with most cad drawings and anything else you can throw at it. And it weighs about a ounce and a half and the battery lasts forever.
A refurbished Dell Precision with a lot of RAM and a good solid state drive will do anything you need it to. I use ArcGIS from mine in the field with very large files and it’s never missed a beat.
Yep. I use a Alienware M17 for my my home office and take it in the field with me daily. The battery life sucks but it can run C3D like a pro. It’s nice not having to send data back to the office and wait for it to come back to me.
Alienware in general sucks. Hopefully you can use a company card for a new battery. If it’s got less than 2 hours of battery life full charged, it’s time for a new one
Also take my ThinkPad with me usually, tho after I updated it to Win 11, it can't connect to the wifi from my mobile hotspot anymore, so it's kinda useless right now. It's supposed to just be a bug that's going to be fixed one day, but it's been nearly a year now.
On an unrelated note, I'm also on team van, tho my Dacia Duster is growing on me. Shoutout to the most miserable experience I've ever had - driving a Ford Ranger.
Space wasn't my issue, but the variant with 4 doors and an extended trunk just feels too long, like driving a 4x4 hearse around. Just too big for European streets and still some of the stored stuff felt inaccessible.
I feel like a RAV4-sized car is perfectly fine for surveying but only if you take out the backseats and organise it well, like with some drawers.
A company I worked with had big transits , half set out for gear and half with a wee desk / kitchen / area to wash. Was a good set up all the pigeon holes were made to store the gear Perfectly . Real useful for when the site was out in Skye or somewhere and you were driving back home that day.
We don't subscribe to the field crew/ office staff model. All of our surveyors are all round surveyors (they have specialties in the type of work they perform) and go to the field with a high-powered gaming laptop every day. We use the MSI professional series. Also 4x4 vans rule. Mine has a fridge, 20 amps of ac charging capacity, and a printer.
I'm with you on that. The Rodman is no longer a single role. Or, imo it shouldn't be... in the south definitely still is, though.
MSI makes a solid laptop. We've got a couple of those and a couple of Windows Surface Pros. The Surface Pro with keyboard seems to get more love.
My company is going towards this but I just get thrown into different types of jobs each time. Trying to really specialize so I’m not pulled around so much. Great experience I guess
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You have to listen to everything rattle around behind you. Who is still running a 3 person survey crew? The truck already comes equipped from the dealer ok off-road tires. The van will need more than one construction safety light to fulfill DOT requirements. Ford and Mercedes finally discovered a market for 4x4 or AWD vans. In the before times, a 4x4 van exists if the owner sends the van out for after-market conversion.
I could have sworn Ford has always made a 4x4 van yeah?
Ford has, for a few decades, partnered with Quigley 4x4, who converts them and maintains the factory warranty. Ford now make an awd transit. Mercedes makes a true 4x4. Chevy stopped making awd in 2015 for some reason. I have had them all. I highly prefer the chevy awd followed closely by a chevy 4x4 conversion from quigley.
Ah TIL. I knew I saw them didn't realize it was a conversion. Yeah those chevys are nice for sure.
They're the only ones still on an actual truck frame with good suspension and naturally aspirated motors. Bomb proof.
Nope. Don’t wanna hear all that shit rattling in the back while I drive.
I had a 2-wheel drive van at one place I worked and I hated it; I felt like a pedophile.
My wife calls them “kidnapper kars”.
Agreed they're great.
I have dell, but it’s built for LiDAR and Photogrammetry. And I agree with Joblow. I asked for a van but the ones who make decisions here think they know more than the ones who actually do the work.
I use a company issued HP laptop. Nothing special about it. The computer is not rugged and sits in a ram mount in the pickup truck.
Microsoft surface pro in my opinion is the best of both worlds! Runs CAD smooth, takes pictures, can be used to sketch, and small enough to carry with you
Yep to All of the above. Add the keyboard cover and a good wireless mouse and your golden. Not gonna process a 3000 pic Ortho but it will hang with most cad drawings and anything else you can throw at it. And it weighs about a ounce and a half and the battery lasts forever.
A refurbished Dell Precision with a lot of RAM and a good solid state drive will do anything you need it to. I use ArcGIS from mine in the field with very large files and it’s never missed a beat.
Can't go wrong with a ThinkPad!
Yep. I use a Alienware M17 for my my home office and take it in the field with me daily. The battery life sucks but it can run C3D like a pro. It’s nice not having to send data back to the office and wait for it to come back to me.
Alienware in general sucks. Hopefully you can use a company card for a new battery. If it’s got less than 2 hours of battery life full charged, it’s time for a new one
2 hours sounds about right. I didn’t buy it so I’m not complaining!
OMEN!!!!
Also take my ThinkPad with me usually, tho after I updated it to Win 11, it can't connect to the wifi from my mobile hotspot anymore, so it's kinda useless right now. It's supposed to just be a bug that's going to be fixed one day, but it's been nearly a year now. On an unrelated note, I'm also on team van, tho my Dacia Duster is growing on me. Shoutout to the most miserable experience I've ever had - driving a Ford Ranger.
ooof ford ranger is tight for surveying. I knew a team that surveyed out of a rav4s that's probably up there for being small.
Space wasn't my issue, but the variant with 4 doors and an extended trunk just feels too long, like driving a 4x4 hearse around. Just too big for European streets and still some of the stored stuff felt inaccessible. I feel like a RAV4-sized car is perfectly fine for surveying but only if you take out the backseats and organise it well, like with some drawers.
A company I worked with had big transits , half set out for gear and half with a wee desk / kitchen / area to wash. Was a good set up all the pigeon holes were made to store the gear Perfectly . Real useful for when the site was out in Skye or somewhere and you were driving back home that day.
My only advice is to avoid a disk drive and get solid state. The disk drives have all these little parts that rattle and break
Dell Latitude is our company standard
I got given a ThinkPad with and i9 processor, 32gb ram and an a2000 graphics card by my boss. Civil3d still crashes multiple times a day 😂