You Can Take It With You

As a one-man shop, Ron Keuschel Plumbing Inc. needs to operate at maximum efficiency during the day to complete as many service calls as possible. Owner and sole-operator Ron Keuschel excels at this by carrying all his tools and equipment with him to each job. He gets a little help from his 2005 GMC 4500 with a Trademaster® body by Utilimaster.

The truck itself has a 12,000-pound winch on the front, an air compressor and a 1,200-watt generator built into the box at the rear. The six sliding fittings drawers on the side are behind the cab doors, allowing most of his tools to be accessible from the outside of the truck.

“This truck works great for me with plenty of power to pull anything I put behind it,” Keuschel tells us. And he has plenty to pull. From a flatbed trailer with a Bob Cat or his mini excavator on it to his job trailer, a 22-foot V-nose that acts as his rolling workshop and supply house.

“My goal is to leave my shop in the morning and do all my calls with no trips back to the shop during the day,” he says. The V-nose makes this possible. It has approximately 150 bins for parts and room on the ceiling for 20-foot lengths of pipe. It features a workbench with a vice, and wiring for lights and other electrical equipment (basically a circuit breaker box and conduit for the 110-volt wiring, and a land line cord to run to the truck or a building power source).

What makes his job trailer really stand out are all the comforts of home: a microwave, a stereo and a 1,500-watt electric wall heater, all contained in a small insulated “room” in the V-nose.

“This way, I can warm up lunch, relax, make a few notes, and continue the rest of my day,” Keuschel says. Though it took him many hours to build the truck and trailer the way he wanted, it makes his job much easier and his customers much happier - they don’t have to watch their technician leave the job to run for parts.

“Not a day goes by that I don’t get a compliment on my truck.”

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