All Downhill

A ramp and winch system on spacious new cube bodies helps technicians at Surfside Plumbing and Rooter handle big cable machines with ease

When it comes to moving heavy sewer- and drain-cleaning equipment in and out of service trucks, technicians at Surfside Plumbing and Rooter in Beverly Hills, Calif., can let it slide – down a ramp.

Surfside equips each of its six Isuzu NPR trucks with a heavy-duty winch that makes moving heavy drain-cleaning equipment easy. “The sewer machines we use weigh up to 400 pounds,” says owner Harry Steininger III. “Before we got the winches, we’d pull up to a job and have to break down the machine – take off the head, push the cable into the drum, then disconnect the transmission link.

“Then, when we got it off the truck, we’d have to put it back together. This could take anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes, which is too time-consuming, not to mention the wear and tear on parts.”

Much easier now

As the company acquired the new trucks, with 20-foot-long, 12-foot-high HI-V-CO aluminum cube bodies, Steininger eliminated three columns of drawers from the back of the interior parts-storage system. That made room to store GO 68 drum cable machines from Gorlitz Sewer and Drain Inc.

“Now, our guys just open the rear doors, lower the ramp, release the straps that hold the machine in place, position it on the ramp, hook up the winch and lower it down,” Steininger says. “We let gravity do the work. It takes only three to five minutes to do it this way. We save so much time, and the technicians love it.”

Each truck also carries a GO 50 medium-size drain machine, a Gorlitz 3000 water jetter (3,000 psi/4.5 gpm), and a handheld sink machine and SeeSnake inspection camera, both from RIDGID.

“All our trucks carry cameras,” Steininger says. “We don’t want our technicians waiting for one guy to finish using one camera before they can use it. It wastes too much time and money. Over the course of a year, it allows us to get in more calls per day.”

Efficient storage

The trucks also carry about $20,000 in repair parts, stored in a drawer-and-bin system made by a division of HI-V-CO. The drawers have adjustable plastic dividers, and each bin includes a number that matches up to a number in a flat-rate job book. “We can’t afford to dig through 3 feet of parts to find what we need,” Steininger says.

He also loves how the cab-over design allows the trucks to turn on a dime in tight quarters. “Because of the cab-over design and the short wheelbase, the trucks can make a U-turn on a residential street,” he notes.

The trucks are kept spotless to show off the vinyl-wrap company logo. Clean trucks are important because clients include wealthy entertainers who live in multimillion-dollar homes and expect top service. Surfside technicians happily supply it, even as they let things slide.



Discussion

Comments on this site are submitted by users and are not endorsed by nor do they reflect the views or opinions of COLE Publishing, Inc. Comments are moderated before being posted.