Hi Lorinda,
Great to hear from you. No, the van had no gear at the time. I was in a breakfast meeting with some clients discussing plans for a project, so luckily I wasn't in the van.. just some folders full of project paperwork that had been tossed around was easy enough to pick up and reorganize.

The only real bummer is that my daughter was an emotional wreck for a while because she was very attached to my van. (thought of it as hers even though she is only 6 years old.)

Plus I really struggled on a couple of shoots to which I wasn't able to carry all my needed gear while driving my wife's car in the interim.

You still driving that sweet Mustang? If so, I'm still planning on taking you up on your offer to take it for a spin next time I'm in Boise. (we're trying to plan a trip for this summer, can't believe it's been almost 3 years already.)

-Jon

You bet I am! Saw another one I really wanted but couldn't stand to part with the old one. So when you come here make time to drive both. :) Love to see you again! Hope your plans work out.

Super versitile car. Love it. You can shoot out of the side doors and out of the back hatchback. Super smootheeee.

a 97 ford ranger with near-on 300,000 miles on it. its extended cab.

The camera and sound equipment goes in the "back seat" (truthfully, you could never fit a grown man back there, but it holds a few pelican cases very nicely.

all the G&E stuff and the gear thats not so temprature-sensitive rides in the bed, which has a lockable cover over it.


When need absolutely be, I hitch a tray to the rear of it, and that gives me some extra space to work with, but I've rarely needed it. Cameras are small these days, and just dont need as many lights as they used to.

During the last long production road trip to Colorado and after driving about 500 miles, we decided we needed to have a photo shoot when the sun came up :D

'09 Malibu actually does a decent job hauling everything around. I can even fit a 10' roll of paper in there thanks to rear fold down seats.

34mpg and the upgraded interior options sure do make my longer production trips enjoyable and cheap to boot.

G'day,

I use a Land Rover Discovery 3. I think they just call them a D3 or LR3 in the US? I chose this vehicle because of its off-road capabilities as well as its cargo carrying capacity.

I have installed a safety barrier just behind the rear seats and store most of my gear behind this in the very rear part of the vehicle. This way, if I ever have to brake hard or am involved in an accident, I'm not going to cop something heavy in the back of my head.

If I do load stuff into the rear passenger area, the seats fold down nice and level, and low. The vehicle is diesel but performs as well as many petrol engines and gives me a reasonable 20.5 mpg (US gallons) or 11.5 litres/100 Kilometres. This is not bad considering that the vehicle weighs about 3000Kg unloaded. It carries 200 litres of fuel, has a steel kangaroo bar and winch on the front and steel rear bar with a rack for two spare tyres - which all contribute to the weight.

The long and short of it is that the vehicle can go anywhere (great for those out-of-the way shots), has a 1600 Kilometre (1000 mile) range and can carry heaps of gear.

Cheers

Russ

Skoda Octavia 2l automatic turbo diesel wagon. Went on a 9 week (cycle racing) road trip with it late last year.

Doing around 7.5l/100km now but 6l/100km was my PB for one particular 700km leg of the trip. The diesel goes very well :-)

MPG tuned 2002 Acura RSX 6 speed manual daily driver (38MPG, 192WHP/152WTQ), 348WHP/305WTQ Lancer Evo 9 when i can pry it out of my girlfriends' hands, MINT 2001 BMW 330Ci 5 speed on nice summer days, and a custom rebuilt 580WHP 1990 Nissan 300ZX (Z32) twin turbo when i feel like being a bad boy (unfinished project car).

Sold the MINI (and a few other goods) and traded up to this baby - 2011 BMW 335d (Yep, diesel, folks!)

265hp, 425 ft/lb torque, and 40mpg highway. A GREAT hauler with wonderful comfort, tech and fuel economy. Definitely does away with all of the American stereotypes of diesels!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9005046/335d/Photo%20Dec%2011%2C%201%2004%2000.jpg

Sold the MINI (and a few other goods) and traded up to this baby - 2011 BMW 335d (Yep, diesel, folks!)

265hp, 425 ft/lb torque, and 40mpg highway. A GREAT hauler with wonderful comfort, tech and fuel economy. Definitely does away with all of the American stereotypes of diesels!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9005046/335d/Photo%20Dec%2011%2C%201%2004%2000.jpg

Beautiful. I love it, Trevor. Next time I'm through Sonoma, I'll look out for you zippin' through town.

-Jon

Range Rover, Corvette.

Sometimes you need to get there with a lot of stuff. Sometimes you just need to be there quickly. :)

Silver 2006 Pontiac GTO 6-speed. nothing like 400 horses to get me to the photo shoots!

Small world I use a GTO as well though mine is a 2004.

2001 Nissan Frontier 4x4 crew cab. Snow will not stop me from getting to a paying gig!

2000 Honda CR-V. Had a 1995, but it got totalled in an accident about a year ago, so I replaced it with another.

Old thread. My 2000 Honda CR-V didn't have AWD, and it was a little dicey going around the snow-covered mountain roads, so I traded it in for a 2007 model with AWD. A comfortable driver that can fit down most of the narrower roads. I always load it to the gills when going on a "serious" shoot. Here's a clip of my gear load-out for a drift car event. I only used a fraction of the gear. Usually I set up a camcorder on a tripod and leave it unmanned with a huge battery and memory card. I then tote a tripod-mounted camera and another camcorder to get the reverse angle(s). I can lock down the tripod camera to shoot wide and in normal speed, and use the other camera to shoot high frame rate video hand-held. Slow-mo being more forgiving of the jiggles. Anyhoot, it was one of my last drift shoots and now I've moved back stateside and hardly have time to pick up a camera. Glad I filled 48 hard drives while in Asia for 13 years.

Mark

Drift Video Shoot Gear Packup on Vimeo

Well my own wheels is a 05 Opel Zafira (98-05 desgin). I like it alot as I can fit loads in to it. The zafira is a 1.6 and get good km/l. I know me and a friend have worked out that I am getting about 38 miles to the gallon (uk) thats is.

I also have use of a vw transporter van LWB and its a 2.5 as I also do sound and lighing for gigs. I have ever work its km/l out as it dose not bother me as it does not cost me in fuel.

I have been looking at a vw Transporter van that has a crew cab section and I liked it but the miles to the gallon has put me off for now.

Just bought myself a 2005 Merc c180 Kompressor. And the ruddy heater will not heat. Just my luck this time of year.

Just bought myself a 2005 Merc c180 Kompressor. And the ruddy heater will not heat. Just my luck this time of year.

Just set your camera on the passenger seat and turn on the seat warmer :).

I've used youtube videos to augment the shop manuals lately for three repairs I made, might want to do a google/youtube search for the heater problem in case someone posted about it.

Sooooo... does *your* car end up on camera as much as Chas Papert's does?

CRV Reel on Vimeo

2010 Jaguar XF 3.00Litre, which I love for it's estate style fold down seats and it's 40mpg average.
2003 Mercedes SLK230 Kompressor two seater, great for Summer with the top down and just enough room for cams.
VW T4 Autosleeper motorhome for overnight filming and holidays. LPG so very economical.

Roger

For myself. Let see. Commute car a Honda Fit 2007 Salvage that i just paid 3500 for and fix up the engine and now a good running car. For Family long trip vehicle Honda Odyssey 2016 with only 12,000 miles only. Been driving that Honda Fit a lot for work. Honda Odyssey has a lot of space to put stuff in and the cargo area is decent. Sold Tacoma 06 and bought the Honda Odyssey in 2016.

'09 Jetta 2.5L. Probably going to dump it and get a Prius; something with a hatchback and great gas mileage.

Can’t remember if I posted this before, but I bought an old police Tahoe SUV for a production vehicle. Great no-frills interior and everybody moves out of the left lane for us on the freeway! Took out 2/3 of the back seat and built a storage shelf for the back. We like it a lot, much more comfortable for long trips than the Transit van we had prior.

2010 Civic Coupe. Bought it new and I hope to get at least another five years out of it.

Looks nice, Ed, but how do you put gear in a coupe? The trunk?

Looks nice, Ed, but how do you put gear in a coupe? The trunk?

The back seat folds down to extend the trunk.

Several years ago my wife found a very nice little VW Jetta (yes it was a Diesel) and my first thought was "how much gear could I fit in this thing," and then I folded the rear seat down to extend the trunk, and thought "quite a bit, actually."

Yeah, it’s surprising. With the backseat of my Civic Coupe down, I was able to stuff in an ENG camera in the case, tripod, three light LED kit with stands, audio gear and mic stands.