Steve,

How do you deal with mounting and maintaining the gear on the truck? Since we all know that electronics are usually pretty fragile things and don't like to get bounced around I'd imagine that being on a truck is pretty strenuous on things like tube gear and especially the console. What kind of PM do you have to do and what kinds of problems have creeped up?

Jay,

Equipment mounting:
Since electronics are usually pretty fragile, the standard equipment available in the truck includes gear that can handle the road. See the truck's equipment list by clicking here.

The truck has an air ride suspension so the control cabin basically rides on air. Additionally the two main ceiling racks and console are mounted via rubber mounts that can handle the load. The racks and console are totally isolated from the body of the truck. They just look like they're connected to the walls and ceiling. The patch bay, interface panels and similar equipment are mounted to one wall to prevent warping of the equipment racks. Additional gear from our portable equipment list or guest gear is installed as per the client's request. It's mounted via ratchet buckles and load bars. Everything works out well because the really fragile equipment is already in proper containers to begin with.

PM:
We check each and every piece of gear we're gonna use on location before we leave the shop, so we know everything is everything. Mission critical equipment has a back up and if applicable, a back up to the back up. We also have certain parts, manuals and tool on board to help us if sh*t hits the fan.

So how are the racks connected or floated? I figured they were built and mounted right to the walls and ceiling.

As you already know, the truck rides on two air suspension bags, but the two main ceiling racks and console are mounted via rubber mounts, that basically float on (console) or off (ceiling racks) the rubber.

Imagine a metal bolt imbedded into a piece of rubber surrounded by a steel housing that gets mounted on the floor or walls, then attached to the console and racks. The ceiling racks just look like they're connected to the walls and ceiling. If you look closely, you will see, the racks are not attached to the walls or ceiling at all. Well, except for the rubber isolation mounts. I designed two steel rack frames that we welded together ourselves. They included steel plates that were used to attach the bolts from the rubber mounts. The rubber mounts were then bolted to the walls. Four mounts per rack were used The Teak wood is screwed to the metal rack frame and looks just like it was a complete wooden rack attached to the ceiling and walls.

I forgot to mention, the floor also is floating via many rubber pucks.

Sounds like there's a lot of rubber in there. Bouncy bouncy!


Did you learn how to do all that the hardway? I'd imagine that some stuff just bounced apart in the early days.

Steve, you should design Bob Buontempo a bed - he mentioned building a bachelor's lair that needed an isolated bed with alot of rubber...

Jay,

I guess I should explain this better. There's not a lot of rubber in there. The rubber is inside the mounts. A bolt screws into the mount, which is hard rubber, surrounded by this steel cup with mounting holes. Not too much bouncy, bouncy here. Just a firm isolated rack.

Keep in mind, I started my company and built my first truck when I was 19 years old, so I learned how to do things on my own for the most part. At times, calling it "the hard way" was an understatement back then. There wasn't a "how to build a recording truck" book out back then.

In the late 70's, there were not a lot of remote recording facilities around. On the East coast, you had, Remote Recording Services, Record Plant, Fedco and a couple of others. That was it.

My first truck, after the second redesign and construction, worked very well from 1977 to 1984. In 1984, we had some problems with the second trucks wooden racks, since they were tied to the walls and ceiling. Truck body's need to flex a bit. The equipment racks don't. Need I say more? The steel rack frame with isolation mounts was designed to take care of this problem. This design is used in my third truck (the one you saw) today. The third truck was commisioned in 1987.