By Steve Taylor
Men at Work
or actually Men at Lunch in this case! I spotted this Ram Crew Cab with the
Knapheide Gooseneck body at a McDonalds near my home in Tampa, Florida. The
crew of 4 was on break for lunch and they had just enough time to let me take a
few pictures and ask a few questions.
Their
company, United Signs and Signals is headquartered in Tavares, Florida. They
specialize in highway signs and signals. This crew is the prep crew doing the
excavating for the concrete footings. They say that some of their
work requires excavating up to 30 feet below ground level for the sign or signal footings.
The company owns several of these trucks.
The company owns several of these trucks.
This crew is very happy with the truck and body. They often pull a trailer and this Knapheide Body provides for towing a heavy gooseneck trailer. They love the open top design which allows them to quickly store and retrieve their long handle shovels tools, buckets, etc. They can easily reach them from across the side of the body.The drop-in gate prevents objects from sliding off the back of the bed.
This body is outfitted with a Miller gas or LP powered Bobcat 250 Amp welder / generator. This one appears to be gas as evidenced by the tank to the left of the welding machine.
OK, this
truck is a work truck. I would say, beneath the dirt is a very tough and
durable body. It appears to have held up very well, especially in consideration
of the likely tough conditions on construction sites it endures on a daily
basis. The open design allows for an easy hookup to the gooseneck trailer.
Notice the beveled rear corners, allowing for turning tight corners with the
trailer attached.
So What’s in Their Cabinets?
The cabinets allow for their tool storage and are lockable.
Looking at
the two front vertical cabinets, they contain their smaller work tools, a MAXX
Power Inverter, calendars and a few
other items in case of emergency!
The low rear smaller cabinet is perfect for storing the straps.
The low rear smaller cabinet is perfect for storing the straps.
Now the top cabinet (shown below) would allow for long tools or rolled-up drawings, etc. In this case they placed their "planning calendar" on the inside of the cover so they could refer to it readily! (I had to distort the image because it looks like it might contain “confidential" images!!)
Knapheide's Deluxe Gooseneck Body:
Knapheide's
PGND Gooseneck combines the secure storage of a Service Body with the hauling
ability of a Gooseneck body.
The PGND
Gooseneck Body is the top of the line Gooseneck offering from Knapheide. Versatile storage including service body
style compartments and a flip top compartment enable you to store a wide
variety of tools and equipment. The integrated gooseneck hitch and receiver
hitch systems allow you to haul virtually any trailer. Aluminum tread plate trim give the PGND
Gooseneck Body premium styling and appearance.
The Knapheide PGND Gooseneck Body is the ideal work truck for mining,
agriculture and many other vocational applications.
For
increased functionality, look to Knapheide's PGNDHD Gooseneck Body models which
have all the same great standard features as a PGND Gooseneck Body plus a
3/16" treadplate floor (ILO 12 gauge treadplate), slam lock tailgate, and
side tie-down rings in the cargo area.
https://www.millerwelds.com/pdf/spec_sheets/ED4-4.pdf
Guest Post by Steve Taylor. Steve is a consultant in lean six sigma process improvement and specializes in fleets and manufacturers in the work truck industry. He may be contacted at steve@truckarchitect.com and his website is http://www.upstreamsource.com/
Guest Post by Steve Taylor. Steve is a consultant in lean six sigma process improvement and specializes in fleets and manufacturers in the work truck industry. He may be contacted at steve@truckarchitect.com and his website is http://www.upstreamsource.com/
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