Our business has a Mercedes Sprinter van and is built out to be our mobile office. Now that we are in the aerial business, I am building a desk in the van to secure our Cinestars and have been thinking about how to dampen the vibrations that occur while driving. Being a half ton truck, it has a pretty stiff suspension back there. I tried using bungee cords to strap it down and had wedge some foam pads between the landing gear and desk but the thing started oscillating up and down like crazy. Yikes! I need to damping the forces so it doesn't self destruct like Gallopin' Gertie. I am currently at Home Depot looking for ideas. Some sort of very short dampening material/shock absorbers we could install under the shelf would allow us to create a platform to secure the birds/batteries/radios and not have to worry about them getting shaken to hell. Does anybody have an idea or simple solution? Tearing down the bird between and storing it in a pelican case between each shoot is not going to work. Thanks.
I'd be more worried about the bouncing allowing the Cinestar to hit something and cause damage to it or the object hit -- are you concerned that the actual bouncing motion is going to cause damage to sensors? For example, if you were use webbing rather than bungee cords so you could hold it down securely, it would still suffer the motion of the Sprinter bouncing, but at least it wouldn't doing the Galloping Gertie. Andy.
Morgan, We built a big styrofoam box for it to store in the studio an transport it locally. I'll takeaway picture when I get back in the office next week if you want to see it. Bob
I found some large brackets at Home Depot and wrapped them in foam to dampen the hard shock and vibrations. Our business model requires a high volume of short jobs so being able to deploy and stow away quickly is important. Having it ceiling mounted also keeps it out of the way while working in the truck which is primarily used for small business IT consulting. If the model works then we will buy another truck as it is getting a little crowded. Sorry for the blurry images. They were taken with my phone.
Hi Morgan: Well, that's one way to hold up the roof of your Stryker.... (and, going back to an earlier posting, yeah, that would isolate it from vibrations as well as keeping out of the way). Actually it looks like you've done a nice "office conversion." When you got the vehicle was the back basically empty? Andy.
It was a Cargo II package which basically means it had a floor and wall panels. Converting it to a mobile office/lab took about a month; a week of which was spent outside a Marine supply store doing the electrical. The diesel furnace is the most treasured feature. It is really miserable to work without heat!
Was the electrical work so you could run on AC "shore power" (from running an extension cord over to a building) or so you could run on a generator? Andy.
The electrical work became pretty complex as it "evolved." Here is the skinny.... 440 Amp hr. of 12Volt contained in 4 6Volt 220 Amp hr. wired in series parallel. These are Lifeline AGM sealed marine batteries. 1000W Xantrax Prosine Inverter with 50Amp charger. - The AC shorepower plug on back of van chargers batteries and provides AC for van while connected which allows me to run a electric heater. (Got to keep it warm at night!) I also connected the alternator to the house batteries with a isolator so I can charge while I drive. Everything is fused on both ends and I monitor with the Xantrax LCD panel and a BEP battery monitor which gives me total in/out of dc amperage. There is a AC and DC fuse panels that everything connects to. For LIPO charging, I have two Duo i730s connected with 8AWG directly to the AGMs with a battery switch. I should mention that I had a certified marine electrician basically redo all my handy electrical work and since then it has been flawless. The batteries are over 5 years old and they are starting to show their age. Pretty amazing considering we run them down to 12.2ish volts and charge them up at least 5 times a week.
I'm impressed! Do you take commissions? I've been wondering how to convert a van to make it a mobile copter hangar/workshop, but I don't have the time to do the work! Andy.
I am trying to stay out of the Truck conversion business. It does take a lot of time and with three small kids that is one luxury I do not have. Since I was designing as I built (always a bad idea) it probably took 3 times longer then it should have. Still, if you ever want any tips, I could write the whole thing up. Hmmm.... "A Rather Good Guide to buildout a Sprinter Copter Van"
"A Rather Good Guide to buildout a Sprinter Copter Van" Ha! I like it. I called the van a Stryker....not sure where that name from -- sorry. But I hear you with the "lack of time" issue. We have a notional concept in my office: "Copious free time." Never had it yet. Andy.