DANG IT STEVE... I wanna see your truck!

[cajonezzz]

hey man. How about some pics of the expando truck...inside and out.

please?

cz

[cajonezzz]

bumpity bumpity bump!!! (ala T.O.P.)

[Remoteness]

I've been reluctant to post any pics because I don't have any current shots. The pics I have are "kind of" old. We have made much more progress then what the pictures can show...

I do have a ton of old pics. They show the preproduction wiring, cleaning of the interior space of the expando, the installation of the walls and such. Cool stuff but, dated.

I dying to take new shots. I will take more pictures someday soon but I'm not really sure when -- I'm super busy at the moment.

If you want to see some of the old stuff I can post a few low res JPEGs for your review.

[Beech]

Please do when you have time.

Daire

[Remoteness]

Like I said, "I've been reluctant to post any pics because I don't have any current shots."

I rounded up a few "old" pics of the expando. I'm posting the exterior shots first.

The preproduction wiring, cleaning of the interior space of the expando, the installation of the walls and such. As time allows I will post them in sections... They are all cool looking photos but seriously dated, I'm afraid.

This shot in this post shows the difference in size between the Silver straight truck and the Gold expando truck. The Expando is 33' bumper to bumper with a 27' box that 22.5' of it expands to 14' wide. The Straight truck is only 30.5' bumper to bumper with an 18' box and even smaller control cabin.

Your eyes are not deceiving you -- the expando was originally painted blue.

[Remoteness]

Here are some B&W exterior shots of the Expando.

[Remoteness]

Please find two shots of the expando after new paint job...

[Remoteness]

Any thoughts on what I already posted?

I know they aren't much but, hang in there folks. More will follow...

This is it for now. I'll try to make more time and post more stuff.
Who knows, maybe I'll have some current photos to show off.

[Beech]

Looks good from the front. Nice German touch!
What's the overall interior dimension going to be?

[Jules]

Does it need legs to support each side once expanded to protect against rocking side to side in the wind or steady it on an incline?

[cajonezzz]

Originally posted by Remoteness
Any thoughts on what I already posted?

I know they aren't much but, hang in there folks. More will follow...

This is it for now. I'll try to make more time and post more stuff.
Who knows, maybe I'll have some current photos to show off.

Yeah...what's the year, make and milage of that truck? Where did you find her? $$$$? Is this a full custom job? What kinda gasmilage does it get? How about parts availibility?

What's the power set up? are you carrying anything that is installed in the truck on a permanent bassis?

How long did it take , after getting it to build it out?

More Pics!!!!

[Remoteness]

Daire:

The body is 27' long; 8' wide. It's a dual expanding truck body -- 22.5' of the 27' box expands outward about 3' on each side. There is an interior (work space) dimension of approximately 22.5' X 14'. You have 4' X 8' in front of you which house the video wall. Below the video wall is where two AC isolation transformers, UPSs, AC / DC switches and such, meters and interface live.

Jules:

The truck chassis itself has four legs or pods that support the entire truck. The dual expanding sections ride on huge square tubes within tubes. Support of these expanded sections are totally supported by the square tube within tube system.


Craig:

I bought this vehicle used. It's in excellent shape. How I found the vehicle (and what happen after that) is a whole story on it's own my man. A kind of miracle of sorts. Maybe I'll get a chance to tell you about it someday.

A little history about the truck... It was purchased in the USA to keep all the DOT stuff in order. Then, it was shipped to Germany for the expandable body design and fabrication. Once it was built and tested it was sent back to the States and put into use as a demonstration / classroom for a large pneumatic manufacture specializing in industrial automation. It traveled all over the USA.

We completely demo'd the interior when Aura Sonic took possession of the rig. We savaged most of the metalwork and equipment and put it aside. Some of material was reused in the new design, the remaining components were sold, stored or trashed. A huge Onan generator is one of the stored devices. I plan to use it someday... I'm thinking about building a tiny trailer for it or plopping it on a small support truck or something to that effect.

The entire truck and it's power set up was based on my original modular design. I started my preliminary drawings before we took possession of the vehicle. I spend many months (err years) working on this baby. I'm still working on the build out. The problem is -- I'm in no rush...

That concept has changed as of late. I'm pushing to finish this beauty ASAP. The main patchbay for the analog music and broadcast positions has 38 rows with 52 points per row. That's nearly 2000 patch points. We have 30 rows already done and tested. The guest audio patch bay on the other side of the CRM is about 30% done. Power is about 40% done. The digital audio section of the truck that lives in the video and guest audio patch bay area is still in the design stage.

The facility was designed to handle multiple sessions or systems at one time. It can be set up for a variety of different production ventures too...

I promised myself I get it done this year. Let's see what happens...

[cajonezzz]

A little history about the truck... It was purchased in the USA to keep all the DOT stuff in order. Then, it was shipped to Germany for the expandable body design and fabrication. Once it was built and tested it was sent back to the States and put into use as a demonstration / classroom for a large pneumatic manufacture specializing in industrial automation. It traveled all over the USA.

wow. Where the heck to you go to track something like that down???

I'd love to hear more about the truck, and be able to follow the build out in pics. (hint)

BTW, I spent 3 hours at Guy's (le mobile).
what a nice guy, and an amazing experience. I felt like a wannabe kid astronaut getting to step on the Apollo.
He gave me the grand tour,showed me the Neve he is completely re vamping, and allowed me to film it while we did it.
( he gave a nice little rundown of the truck on the vid, and if you'd like a copy I'd be glad to burn you one)
I'm hooked. I want a truck. *sigh*
craig

[Remoteness]

OK, I'll bite...

Here's a picture of the analog audio patch bay jig (for the music and broadcast console positions) we set up in the Flushing shop. We built a wooden version of the rack rails that hold the patch bays and panels. The 2X3s were placed in the exact positioning to each other as two tall racks would be in the expando.
We wired most of the bays and placed them in the wooden test rig at the shop. Once most of the work was completed, we moved the work to the "real thing."

[Remoteness]

Here's a picture of what would be the back of the "Outside Universe" I/O panel, which would be to the right of the music/b'cast bay.

The "Outside Universe" rack or panel includes, (3) 56 channel MASS connectors; (8) 12 channel DT12, that's 48 mic inputs plus 24 line level outs and 24 line level inputs. There are buckets of XLRs, transformer isolated and non isolated tie lines. ELCO/EDAC 90 pins wired as 24 channel connections also are available on the "Outside Universe" panel.

The top of the rack handles the AC power distribution from two of three large UPSs which live in the front of the truck.

[Remoteness]

Here's a front shot of our "Outside Universe" test rig...
The real panel has been updated with tons of extra stuff. It's almost completed.

[Remoteness]

This is what it looked like when we just installed the panels in the rack. Remember these are early photos... Much more work has been completed since then.

The inside of this rack has most of the tie line audio transformers.
The "Outside Universe" panel is acually the back of this rack. The front of this rack has a (2/3 the size of the rack height) glass door on top and a multitrack and SMPTE TC I/O panel just below. There is an audio distribution amp for every aux send and stereo mix for both (music & B'cast) consoles. We also have three rack mounted Marshall LCD video monitors, metering and a Brainstorm SR15+ Distripalyzer in the front part of the rack. They can be found right behind the glass door.

[Beech]

Thanks for taking the time to share these with us Steve!

So what console or consoles will be at your disposal? I seem to recall you mention Yamahas. Anything else? Given that your existing outboard is great, I guess your main concern would be a good flexible mixing console with lots of channels and flexable routing/grouping.

Cheers!

Daire

[Remoteness]

Thanks Daire,

At the moment I'm showing you folks the right side of the control cabin. It's where all analog patching and routing is handled. A variety of analog desks will be available via our (growing) inventory, friends, associates and outside vendors.

On the larger shows, lots of channels with flexible routing and grouping is key! My best senario would be to track with the best analog devices and mix the show digitally.

The photo below shows the analog music mix I/O panel which lives at the front right side of the room. The front left side of the CRM shall house the digital audio interfacing and additional video needs.

The left side of the control cabin's racks shall handle digital audio & video. There's even a "guest" analog audio patch bay that can help augment the video department or be used for a number of other tasks. This is a great idea when you need an audio department working on stuff totally independent of the main show or production that's "on air" at that time. There's many ways to look at this concept... The guest patch bay can also be used for an opening act or house band or an edit bay or DAW rig.

On the digital side of things I'm leaning towards Yamaha. But, the idea IS that whatever the client wants (if available) will be considered. If we don't have it in stock we'll rent it! This concept will keep the rental folks really happy!

[Remoteness]

Here's a current picture of the analog music & broadcast patchbay. The rack just to the right of the bay houses ancillary gear (DAs, routers, line drivers, etc.), AC distribution from two large UPSs for the analog side of the room plus the "Outside Universe" I/O panels which are found on the other side of the rack.

[Remoteness]

Here's another current picture of the digital audio / video racks. These racks shall handle all digital audio and video interfacing. A "Guest" analog audio patchbay shall be available for secondary work or can be combined with the music & broadcast bay. AC distribution for the digital A/V and "Guest" area shall be fed from a completely separate isolation transformer. This AC distro is housed in the rear of the left rack along with the "Other Universe" I/O panels. There's plenty of work to be done to this area of the control cabin.

We're gonna hit this section after we finish the analog and AC/DC areas.

[Remoteness]

Dang Craig -- what do you think?

[cajonezzz]

Originally Posted by Remoteness

Dang Craig -- what do you think?

I think it's pretty dang cool. I am lusting after a truck of my own. After seeing Guy's Le mobile in person though... I know anything I do will just be "fischer price" in comparison.

I hope I can see your rig at some point in person!

Did you have someone looking out for that particular type of truck? I'd love to find something similar... I've been pricing these "toy boxes" ( Rv/desert haulers that could make a fine start on a truck) but they are WAY out of my league price wise.

Any other suggestions as to what to look for in used truck that could be modded?

craig

[Remoteness]

Craig: Let me get back to you on those thoughts. Checkout my comp of these three photos:

[Remoteness]

Here are some close ups of the dry run equipment set-up we did a while ago...

I wanted to get a feel of how things sized up with the racks still in their roadcases.

I plan to install the racks without roadcases most of the time but, anything is possible. The roadcases shalll be included with racks when the gear has to be shipped FOB the expando (to another location) after the gig. Wow, what a rig!

[Remoteness]

Here's an oldie but goodie...

This picture shows the final clean up after we totally demolished the original truck body interior design. It's bare to the bone -- Just the raw aluminum framing and sheeting.

I plan to install bi-folding "glass" doors where the rear doors are in this picture.
When applicable, you'll be able to park the vehicle for maximum visual connection to your subjects. Or maybe point the rear of the truck towards an ocean or other lovely view. When you want the privacy, curtains can be drawn.

[7rojo7]

I have to show these to my wife because she thinks I'm a total loon. I can show her how bad it can get. I love seeing stuff like this. What are your rates? small sports arena live recording, hand the files over for mixing.
I like the road cases, it looks like my studio. tube traps as speaker stands, I love that too, done it before, forgot about it. I'm about to rearrange my CR to move the console in an unconventional way so I can have a better listening area, I don't need to look at the console that much anyway (it's really just a big mouse). love it. Tube Traps could make some great speaker stands even for remoteing.
I have to take more pictures of my racks now that they're loaded up a bit, but I have some stuff at the shop. those damned 8 channel preamps, 1 goes bad and you have to send in the whole unit.

[Beech]

Fantastic Steve! It looks like its really coming together! So you plan to have an "observation window" at the rear ... how cool! Overall width also looks very impressive.

What monitor system did you choose for the 5.1 test?

A big hi to John Duva.



Daire

[djui5]

Looks great Steve!

You gearslut you...

[Remoteness]

Thanks folks,

Like I said before, I was reluctant to show any pictures of the expando due to the fact that the truck is not complete. I don't have a lot of sweet looking shots but, in an effort to do the right thing for the Gearslutz Remote Possibilities community, I complied. And I'm happy I did.

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Craig,

I lust for my expando (and my newest "killer" idea for a mobile unit) every time I walk into ELROY or search my thoughts. Believe it or not, I don't have to get psyc'd looking at any other remote truck. I come up with an idea and that is what fuels me into a world of "remote possibilities."

Oh, and one more thing -- IMO, there is nothing wrong with "Fischer Price." You have to start somewhere. Think about it for a second -- Fischer Price does better numbers than all of the remotesters in the world. So, in an economic comparison we cannot even compete. Plastic is here to stay.

If you're ever in the NYC area or if we're in your town, come see the rig.

Finding ELROY is a hard to believe long arse story. Let me see if I can keep it under thousand words.

Back in the summer of 1998 I was hanging in my living room with a friend and he asked me if I built another truck what would it look like. I said, I would never build another truck with my money. At that time I was done with building trucks. He said, what if you built it for someone else -- what would it look like? Well, I grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled down a drawing of a dual sided expando body on a straight truck. It's interior setup up completely differently than the expando is today but, the outside idea and concept was exactly like ELROY today. *Note: I had to adapt my original interior design to fit with the expando I purchased used.

About a week or so later I got a call from my buddy saying, he saw my truck in Hauppauge, NY. I looked out the window and saw that my one and only truck (at the time) was parked comfortably in my driveway. I said to him, What are you talking about? My truck is in my driveway. He said, No, the expando truck, the one you showed me at your place -- it's for sale on Cassell Motor's truck lot in Long Island. I said, Really... He said, It's looks just like the one you showed me. I headed down to the place like a bat out of hell. I walked into the sales office and spoke to the guy there. He told me that they were trying to sell this truck for quite sometime but, no one wanted it because of the expanding body. Everyone wanted the truck chassis without the body. The company that owned the vehicle originally wanted a lot of bread for it and did not want to sell the truck piece meal so, they ended up just paid rent and kept it on that lot. I told the guy I was interested in buying the rig but, he said, he was not selling it anymore and if I was interested I should call the company that owned it directly. I call the company and got on the phone with their CPA. We haggled back and forth and came up with an amazing number. I gave him a deposit and was waiting to find out when I can pay the balance and pick up the truck.

Well, a few days later I got a call from the guy and he said, he had bad news for me. He stated that their CEO was in town from Germany and told him, if we have to sell this truck to an outsider for that kind of money (I got it for a steal) we should offer it to our companies in Canada and Mexico first. If they don't go for it, we'll sell it to this guy.

Man, I was devastated. Two weeks before all this I wouldn't build another truck again and now, I'm going nuts because I potentially lost the truck of my dreams. The CPA did say, It's your truck if the other companies don't want it. I promise I will call you when it's the right time. Damn, we all heard that one before... I didn't know what to do, I though of suing but what would that yield me. I looked around locally and all over the Net for another truck like this. The closest I got was having someone build me one for $300,000.00. And that was just for the body. Well, needless I say, that wasn't going to happen. Based on the budget I originally had for that expando the only thing I could come up with was to build a new facility based around a racing car trailer. Remember, I wasn't gonna build another rig and now I'm going nuts trying to make it so.

For about nine months straight I called, faxed and email this guy trying to find more news about the truck. He did get back to me to say, Canada past but Mexico was showing signs of interest. After about nine months of constant communication my interest finally started to fade out. It was like loosing something or someone you really loved. It was tough and very difficult for me to deal with but, I got over it. I really wanted that truck but, it was over in my mind and I was good about it. It didn't hurt anymore.

Believe it or not, about fourteen or so months from the time I first saw the truck I had a meeting to discuss working on a bunch of gigs for Good Morning America at their new television studios in Times Square. While prepping for the meeting I pulled out my GMA file I noticed the expando truck file. The company's name started with an "F" and it was right next to my GMA file. I smiled and took out that file, placed it on my desk and said to myself, Self, just for the f*uck of it, call these folks when you get back from the GMA meeting. Here's the spooky part of this story. After I finished the meeting I asked Jeff at the studio if I could use his phone to check my answering machine. He said, OK so I dialed in. One of the messages on the machine was from Mike, the CPA guy, he stated, I don't know if you remember me but, you had interest in our expando truck sometime ago and I was wondering if you still wanted it for the same amount of money? Mexico past on the deal because it was going to cost more to ship it to them than they were going to pay for it. About $5,000.00 US more... Man, I went nuts -- I called the dude, then raced back to my office to cut a check in full so I can overnight it to them. The following month I had it in my possession and started the work.

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7rojo7,

Have you shown the pictures to your wife yet? Did she throw you out of the house?

Because of the "a la carte" concept our rates vary quite a bit. It's all relative to what you need to accomplish. The trucks can go out from $2000.00 to $10,000.00 per day depending on crew, type of gear and their function. Furthermore, a client or outside engineer can install their own gear or completely outfit it with equipment from a rental house. It can setup any which way you want.

Don't let these photos fool you. An engineer or client can design the interior setup any way they want. Want to use Tube Traps as speaker stands and surround the rest of the place with them, go for it. Want to fill the control cabin with walls of gear, it up to you, we have the interface and plenty of patchbay to handle it. Want to turn the place into a lounge with a killer surround theater system, give us the heads up. We had a four piece band with PA in there last year. I have a client that wants to use the facility as a mobile "home base," a mobile interview booth of sorts. The sky is the limit with this baby.

I hope you post more pictures of your racks. Take some pictures of them my man!
Come see the "love and light" in the expando control cabin when you're in town. Just give us a call!

---------------------------------------------------------------

Daire,

Hey, I'm really motivated to get this done for the summer.

Observation could be done through the clear "glass" bi-folding studio doors I plan to install at the rear of the control cabin. It's gonna be awesome!

I know what you mean, D'Uva and I were talking about that... We filled the room with gear, chairs and traps and we still had room to play around in.

We setup our Blue Sky 5.1 system for the 5.1 mix session. We also, setup our Genelec 1031As for the down mix pair. This was not only a beta test, we mixed for an iNDEMAND iNHD PPV music concert... I really liked how the system sounds. I don't really hear the room and I haven't finished the room treatment yet.