Mike's Get-What-You-Get HVAC Van
RIG DETAILS
| USED FOR | HVAC |
| TYPICAL JOBS | residential and commercial service |
| MODEL | 2020 Chevrolet Express |
| BODY | Full-Size Cargo Van, Long Wheelbase |
| DRIVETRAIN | V8 Gas Automatic |
ORGANIZATION
Mike works for an HVAC company in Texas primarily doing residential and commercial service. This van is fairly new to him and he anticipates it'll take some time before it's dialed in.
He's clearly a guy that thinks about his work setup and he's not afraid to make changes that'll make him better at his job. He take care of his vehicles:
The first thing I do when I get a new vehicle is get a set of seat covers.
He's got good ideas on what will make him do his best work and thoughtfully points out a number of things he would change if he could.
See More:
The first thing I do when I get a new vehicle is get a set of seat covers.
Not so Easy Access
The side cargo door is a double door, but he says he would have liked a sliding door because it would be easier to open in parking lots.
A 39" wide x 43" deep Adrian Steel drawer at the door fits some tools and a lot of HVAC service parts.
He says that he'd prefer to have two side-by-side drawers here instead of the single drawer. Particularly with the swing doors on the van, it's a little harder to access the drawer contents.
Once he opens the doors and the drawer, it's easy to see how inconvenient the swing door + wide drawer combo is!
Gauge Rack
Mike set up a simple, low-tech gauge rack on the side door using some copper pipe to hang his analog gauges and wrangle the hoses.
A piece of foam taped to the door keeps the gauges from rattling too much.
Which Extension Cords
Mike says he used to carry a 100' and a 25' extension cord on the door of the van.
But, geeze, every job seemed to need a 35 footer. That meant he was uncoiling his heavy 10 gauge cord at a lot of jobs, which was pretty frustrating.
So:
When he was outfitting this van he bought two 50' 12 gauge cords and mounted them side by side on the rear door. So far, he's only used one of them!
Kits/toolbags
Mike has built a few job kits for doing specific types of work like a motor kit for changing out motors and a sheetmetal bag for ductwork.
On his old setup, PVC fittings were kept in bins that stayed on the van. On this van, he put together a drain building kit that he can grab instantly without trying to guess and pick the correct fittings out of separate bins.
His Veto Pro Pac TP4 is his go-to bag and the one he favors on most jobs. It's located right at the side cargo door.
He's also packed a Veto Tech MC backpack that he keeps at the rear of the van. It's heavy, so he uses it less than the TP4.
Terrible Upfit Mistake
So, of course Mike carries some refrigerant tanks on his truck. There's a tank rack right at the back to contain them. However, when the truck was upfitted, the rack and shelves were installed so that the tank handles protrude into the cargo space.
As Mike points out, this is pretty dumb. It hurts visibility into the van, makes it harder to get in and out, and (probably most importantly) it makes it hard to haul things like condensers for installs.
Since he doesn't do a lot of installs, it's not too important to him, but this is clearly just bad design.
It's probably possible that the upfitters could have installed the rack longways, to preserve the cargo space. Mike isn't using all the space on the shelves, so a shorter shelf would work here.
Some Details
His motors and parts are arranged so that he can always read the labels on parts. Since he carries lots of parts, this organization makes it fast to find something and easy to see if he needs a restock.
Mike sets 3 harbor Freight plastic ammo cans to the floor of the truck between the front seats. They hold "Fat Kid Stuff" (lol), his condiments and plastic utensils, some brass fittings, and batteries.
He's got a 2000W inverter mounted in the cab which he's still integrating into the truck.
See more of his tool and job kits:
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