I’ve been struggling with 2 critical problems these past 6 weeks:
- The people we had lined up haven’t gotten the work done that they said they would (our design/ build guy Phil, fabricator, electrician, plumber)
- When we’ve looked for alternates they either don’t want the work at all or want to charge me too much.
The electrical has been one of these areas. Last quote I got was $5,500. And he was going to take 2 weeks to get the work done. 9 different electricians wouldn’t even look at the job. 3 others made estimates varying from $4,900 to $6,500 with estimates of 3-4 weeks.
Then I went home to Western Mass. I talked to Konrad, an electrician and very smart guy who is a parent at my parent’s school. We talked a bit about the truck and he had some great ideas for me. First, he thought I shouldn’t wire up the whole truck with conduit. He thought this might even be a dangerous option: not weatherproof, not vibration stable, and opportunity to short on the aluminum truck body. Instead he suggested buying contractor-grade heavy gauge extension cord. He turned me onto a product that has outlets along the length of the cord. It’s perfect. And these outlets have mounting brackets. Instant wiring. The job went from $5,500 to $150 + some labor. Amazing.