Mobile office!

[kc2006]

Well I finally started to get the stuff for my "mobile office"! I'm setting my truck up so I can do anything from it. I bought a mobile printer, I already have a power inverter, have a laptop, just need a laptop mount. The printer will be mounted behind the passenger seat, and I'm building a sheetmetal shoot out of polished aluminum so the paper will slide and stop right at the front of the seat so I can get to it easily. The inverter will be mounted on the back wall of the cab so I can easily plug and unplug everything, then the mount for the laptop will go right infront of the center seat. I'll get pics of the whole install, just kinda excited that I'm finally getting to it!

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Originally Posted by [b Quote[/b] (kc2006 @ Feb. 18 2008,5:41)]Well I finally started to get the stuff for my "mobile office"! I'm setting my truck up so I can do anything from it. *I bought a mobile printer, I already have a power inverter, have a laptop, just need a laptop mount. The printer will be mounted behind the passenger seat, and I'm building a sheetmetal shoot out of polished aluminum so the paper will slide and stop right at the front of the seat so I can get to it easily. The inverter will be mounted on the back wall of the cab so I can easily plug and unplug everything, then the mount for the laptop will go right infront of the center seat. I'll get pics of the whole install, just kinda excited that I'm finally getting to it! Don't know if your making your own or what, but i used to do this with my lawn co and pressure washing biz. Nice for fast estimates, customers loved it. I used these... http://www.jottodesk.com (a lot of truck drivers use them too, and they hold up very well) Good Luck!

[Steve]

Oh how cool!

Can you take some pictures of the process of making it and installing it?

I can't wait to see it all!

[kc2006]

Yea I'll get a bunch of pics.

I'm going to just buy a laptop mount, I'll check that site out, I'm looking at some on ebay too.

First step is cleaning the garage so I can get the truck in there. I hate working out in the cold.

[kc2006]

Sorry it's taking so long to get pics, I'm slow lol!

It seems that whenever I want to do something, I get swamped! First, we got a bunch of snow events so I had been plowing alot. Then a friends plow broke the other day so we rebuilt it in my garage since I have all the tools and heat. Just finally got his plow done today. I was able to clean up the garage some while he was working on the plow so that worked out good.

Got the ink cartridges filled for the printer, still need to get a laptop stand though. I ended up going with just steel for the little paper shoot. I couldn't see paying $50 for a small piece of aluminum, so I went with the $4 piece of mild steel. I'm headed out to make the paper shoot now since it's in the mid 50's I can work with the garage open.

Just finished up printing invoices for plowing and printed up contracts for this year. Amazing how some nice weather gets you really motivated.

[Steve]

This sounds great!

I am very interested to see the finished product.

[kc2006]

Well got the paper tray almost done. It couldn't of been simple. At first I made just a simple 9" wide tray with 1" tall sides, it fits great under the middle seat. BUT! The fabric on the back of the seat wraps down under the seat so it was blocking the passage way of the paper. So I had to notch the tray, bend it down about half an inch, then build almost like a mouth for the paper to go in between.

So just need to finish the mouth part of it, sandblast and paint her up. I might even put a piece of vinyl on it to make it slippery because the printer doesn't discharge the paper very hard.

I'll get finished pics tonight. I have to go do bids on banks here, got a bid packet for 20 banks and the snow finally melted off so I can see what needs done. So I'll be working on the tray tonight.

[kc2006]

Forgot to mention, I can't find a laptop mount I like so I'm going to make one. The nice laptop mounts are like 100-150 bucks and still not exactly as I want.

I'm making one with a quick disconnect at the bottom so I can take it off, fold it up and slide it under the seat when not in use.

The woman likes to sit in the middle of the truck and I have 2 people in the truck alot of times so it's a must have.

The whole mobile office idea sounds like a pretty efficient one. I'll definitely have to consider getting one started up before the season starts for me.