Jump to content

Vehicle for the Arizona Heat


Recommended Posts

Okay! I am looking at a vehicle to buy and I really like this 2006 Chevy Box truck that's on CL. The reason I like it is because there is a sliding door/opening between the cab and the box. 

SO, my question is... If I leave the A/C in the cab running all day with the door open, do you guys think it would keep the candy bars cool enough so they don't melt?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is someone here in the forum who designed a cooler for holding candy for vendors. Sells it on ebay and gives discounts to the members here. Haven't used it personally, but have heard good reviews for it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/12/2017 at 11:08 PM, Sgolembiewski0903 said:

Okay! I am looking at a vehicle to buy and I really like this 2006 Chevy Box truck that's on CL. The reason I like it is because there is a sliding door/opening between the cab and the box. 

SO, my question is... If I leave the A/C in the cab running all day with the door open, do you guys think it would keep the candy bars cool enough so they don't melt?

It doesn't get as hot in Ohio as it does in AZ and the AC struggles to keep some cabs cool as it is.  There is absolutely no way that the cab AC could keep an entire box cold, even if you diverted it 100% to the box.  If you want to be cheap, I recommend simply buying some big coolers and only having enough chocolate to sell by late morning/noon time.  The customers get what you have and that's it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love doing bulk, it's what got me started on vending . I've got about 170 locations now. I got about 2/3 through route purchases, the rest I've placed. Have yet to buy a new machine, I've just hunted for really good deals on used machines. I've had quite a bit of luck. I still have more than 100 machines(all in various states of repair) that I need to place.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Sgolembiewski0903 said:

Thanks for all of your great responses. Mostly they are geared towards candy, what do you guys think about soda? I'm guessing an A/C unit would keep it cool enough, if that's true... does anyone have a recommended solution for sodas in a box truck?

Here is information from an old post of mine.  It describes the 14' Isuzu trucks we used in Phoenix where I presume you are. Before that I ran out of a Chevy 3/4 ton cargo van with a false floor.  There was a partition between the mid part of the van and the rear with soda kept in the rear and snacks and ice chests of candy in the middle.  The Isuzu trucks are for when you get serious in vending and have 100 machines per route.   We had to reload the trucks every day but if you had a truck like ours with a smaller route you can do like a lot of guys do here and stock it up once per week.  Heck, Sun Valley Vending still uses 16' box Isuzus though not refrigerated.  I always wanted the best of everything and to have the most professional vehicles, so I ran refers.  Canteen doesn't run refers on snack routes but they do have Omni Cubes or something similar to keep the candy in.  As long as you rotate your soda constantly and have a chilled box you'll never have soda issues.  If you don't chill the box then you will have some cans that will pop the tops on the hottest days, if you're using cans.  It happens to the ones on the bottom of the stack.  Bottles tend to not last long in the heat so I would definitely do refers again if I was doing bottles.

"My boxes were 14' long and we built the shelves 12' long with two 6' sections on each side with three shelves per side.  That left 2' at the end of each side by the back door to stack soda flats (everything was 24 ct cardboard cases back then) and all of our trash.  Everything was screwed together to withstand the vibrations of a moving vehicle.  The safes were bolted through the floor in the front of the box between the shelving units.  Our boxes were refrigerated so we had insulation foamed in the walls and ceilings and under the boxes.   We used commercial Tempcon units on the boxes that ran off of the cab compressors. These kept the boxes cool all day while the diesel engines idled and when the truck got moving again the cabs would cool down.

We ran all cans back then and Pepsi was on the bottom of the right side with Coke on the bottom of the left side, both on slightly angled shelves.  We stacked our wire Hostess pastry racks on the left shelf at the front of the box and put candy boxes out on the shelf behind the pastry.  We stacked our Dolly Madison pastry on the floor in their stackable plastic racks and slid them around as needed.  The right side had all of the chips starting at the front of the box and they stood on their sides with V's cut into the boxes for access.  Next to the chips came the boxed cookies and boxed snacks.  The top shelves held cases of coffee products on one side and extra snack cases on the other.  We also had cases of dry products that we put in our food machines stored on the middle shelves.  We then had one ice chest per cold food machine that would be slid into the truck down the aisle - 2-4 ice chests each day.  Each of the trucks was set up exactly as the others so any driver could use any truck and find all the products easily."

 

 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here is information from an old post of mine.  It describes the 14' Isuzu trucks we used in Phoenix where I presume you are. Before that I ran out of a Chevy 3/4 ton cargo van with a false floor.  There was a partition between the mid part of the van and the rear with soda kept in the rear and snacks and ice chests of candy in the middle.  The Isuzu trucks are for when you get serious in vending and have 100 machines per route.   We had to reload the trucks every day but if you had a truck like ours with a smaller route you can do like a lot of guys do here and stock it up once per week.  Heck, Sun Valley Vending still uses 16' box Isuzus though not refrigerated.  I always wanted the best of everything and to have the most professional vehicles, so I ran refers.  Canteen doesn't run refers on snack routes but they do have Omni Cubes or something similar to keep the candy in.  As long as you rotate your soda constantly and have a chilled box you'll never have soda issues.  If you don't chill the box then you will have some cans that will pop the tops on the hottest days, if you're using cans.  It happens to the ones on the bottom of the stack.  Bottles tend to not last long in the heat so I would definitely do refers again if I was doing bottles.

"My boxes were 14' long and we built the shelves 12' long with two 6' sections on each side with three shelves per side.  That left 2' at the end of each side by the back door to stack soda flats (everything was 24 ct cardboard cases back then) and all of our trash.  Everything was screwed together to withstand the vibrations of a moving vehicle.  The safes were bolted through the floor in the front of the box between the shelving units.  Our boxes were refrigerated so we had insulation foamed in the walls and ceilings and under the boxes.   We used commercial Tempcon units on the boxes that ran off of the cab compressors. These kept the boxes cool all day while the diesel engines idled and when the truck got moving again the cabs would cool down.

We ran all cans back then and Pepsi was on the bottom of the right side with Coke on the bottom of the left side, both on slightly angled shelves.  We stacked our wire Hostess pastry racks on the left shelf at the front of the box and put candy boxes out on the shelf behind the pastry.  We stacked our Dolly Madison pastry on the floor in their stackable plastic racks and slid them around as needed.  The right side had all of the chips starting at the front of the box and they stood on their sides with V's cut into the boxes for access.  Next to the chips came the boxed cookies and boxed snacks.  The top shelves held cases of coffee products on one side and extra snack cases on the other.  We also had cases of dry products that we put in our food machines stored on the middle shelves.  We then had one ice chest per cold food machine that would be slid into the truck down the aisle - 2-4 ice chests each day.  Each of the trucks was set up exactly as the others so any driver could use any truck and find all the products easily."

 

 

Any reason why you stopped vending.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, putrevus said:


Any reason why you stopped vending.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A few questions to clear things up:

Is a TempCon unit a type of Reefer? I'm on a budget and I know Reefer's are expensive, I am going to get some ice chests for the candy. I'm wondering about the sodas though. Did you say above that Sun Valley doesn't use any cooling for their trucks - just something for their candy?

Do you know a good place for me to go to get the box cooled (or possibly even refrigerated... though doubtful at first!)

 

Also, do you know a good place for me to go get a omni cooler, or something like it?

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I left vending because after 16 years of running routes and doing all the legwork and background work to keep three routes running it just became too much of a job and not enough fun any longer.  I sold the company and switched to vending repair. Vending repair in Arizona is dead now and I wonder how I would have faired if I had kept the vending company instead.  Sun Valley doesn't cool their boxes but they use some kind of cold plate technology for their candy and pastry.  They park their trucks outside all the time so they just deal with warm cans/bottles while stocking machines.  It can make for a real mess when they leak or break.

TempCon is now out of business but that's not a bad thing because as you'll see in this next quote that I posted in the past;  there is a better unit out there.

"We used actual reefers on our box trucks that ran off the cab air conditioning compressor.  The diesel trucks ran all day long so the boxes stayed cool, though we had to turn off the cab A/C when idling so the box would stay cold.  The diesels hardly use any fuel when idling so the only thing you put on the engines is hours.  Two of our trucks had Tempcon units but my favorite was the one ATC reefer we had.  Tempcon might not exist anymore and ATC units are built in Canada but still sold around the US.

You can also get an Omni Cooler from Equipment Innovators in Georgia that has a cold plate in it.  You plug it in overnight to freeze the cold plate and then it will keep the chest cold during the day.  They also have a smaller one that you can swap freezer packs into each day. "

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Sgolembiewski0903,

   As QuikVend mentioned a few days ago, the coolers that we have designed have met with great success for year round use to protect your candy in heat and cold and are very convenient for stacking and transporting in and out of businesses  (reference posted feedback in this thread http://vendiscuss.net/index.php?/topic/28208-tired-of-lugging-in-and-out-100-lbs-of-chocolate/#comment-239770 )

   For more information too check out the e-bay listing, though the pricing for forum members is special at $99 + SH. 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Candy-Cooler-Vendor-Ice-Chest-/282427094171?hash=item41c1f7749b:g:N3wAAOSwFV9XyZ~-

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They have these big 7 and 9 qt ice freezers in sams. I bought a few for frozen food at 139 each. What i wanna do is put one in the box truck as.its very light, plug it in all day then when they run the route unplug it and im sure w the insulation and ice build up things should stay cold throughout the day even tho we hit 110 and up all the time.... i wanted an rv ac but u need a generator and thats annoying.... reefers id think theyd b to costly. Maybe modify a rear ac like the passenger vans have?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, TKK said:

They have these big 7 and 9 qt ice freezers in sams. I bought a few for frozen food at 139 each. What i wanna do is put one in the box truck as.its very light, plug it in all day then when they run the route unplug it and im sure w the insulation and ice build up things should stay cold throughout the day even tho we hit 110 and up all the time.... i wanted an rv ac but u need a generator and thats annoying.... reefers id think theyd b to costly. Maybe modify a rear ac like the passenger vans have?

This won't work for cold food. We have a inverter and extra batteries to run an actual chest freezer. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/15/2017 at 11:10 PM, AZVendor said:

I left vending because after 16 years of running routes and doing all the legwork and background work to keep three routes running it just became too much of a job and not enough fun any longer.  I sold the company and switched to vending repair. Vending repair in Arizona is dead now and I wonder how I would have faired if I had kept the vending company instead.  Sun Valley doesn't cool their boxes but they use some kind of cold plate technology for their candy and pastry.  They park their trucks outside all the time so they just deal with warm cans/bottles while stocking machines.  It can make for a real mess when they leak or break.

TempCon is now out of business but that's not a bad thing because as you'll see in this next quote that I posted in the past;  there is a better unit out there.

"We used actual reefers on our box trucks that ran off the cab air conditioning compressor.  The diesel trucks ran all day long so the boxes stayed cool, though we had to turn off the cab A/C when idling so the box would stay cold.  The diesels hardly use any fuel when idling so the only thing you put on the engines is hours.  Two of our trucks had Tempcon units but my favorite was the one ATC reefer we had.  Tempcon might not exist anymore and ATC units are built in Canada but still sold around the US.

You can also get an Omni Cooler from Equipment Innovators in Georgia that has a cold plate in it.  You plug it in overnight to freeze the cold plate and then it will keep the chest cold during the day.  They also have a smaller one that you can swap freezer packs into each day. "

Sun valley also still refuses to use modern equipment and has fallen behind in the AZ market in my opinion. Not to mention I see their box trucks are dinosaurs lol. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw a ford box truck with inverters the other day. I dont think these new chest freezers take up alot of electricity so may work. I only have 1 cold.food acct so i know they can deliver the cold food early in the day and still be frozen. The chocolates and pastries would be left in the cooler

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/16/2017 at 8:37 PM, SaveYourYum said:

@Sgolembiewski0903,

   As QuikVend mentioned a few days ago, the coolers that we have designed have met with great success for year round use to protect your candy in heat and cold and are very convenient for stacking and transporting in and out of businesses  (reference posted feedback in this thread http://vendiscuss.net/index.php?/topic/28208-tired-of-lugging-in-and-out-100-lbs-of-chocolate/#comment-239770 )

   For more information too check out the e-bay listing, though the pricing for forum members is special at $99 + SH. 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Candy-Cooler-Vendor-Ice-Chest-/282427094171?hash=item41c1f7749b:g:N3wAAOSwFV9XyZ~-

Thank you very much for taking the time to quote me and show this to me. Before I saw this I went and bought a large Igloo "7 day" cooler at Costco but WILL DEFINITELY keep you guys in mind as I grow!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks again for all the posts. This has become a popular thread, and love reading all your posts! Keep em coming as they are helpful as heck!

I needed to do something and quick to support the route I just bought. So here's what I did:

I bought a 14' Box Chevy 3500 (260k miles...), built two 6 foot shelves with 3 tiers , and an Igloo "7-day" cooler from Costco. The shelves are strapped into the box so I can move them as needed. 

Considering I only have 10 accounts I consider this a good start! I'm sure I'll learn how to better configure my box as I go on!

I'm real excited and will be going out tomorrow morning for my first day of servicing the machines! 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...