Utility locators, Ridgid, Vivax etc.

[JPSouth]

I had 3 bad locates this year, 2 from the PoCo, 1 from a private service. Gas line traced/flagged, when actually the nearest one was over 50' away, another gas line, no trace, I got lucky and spent a little more shovel time on a hunch, there it was. A fiber optic where there was none whatsoever marked. Anywhere. Saw it between the hoe teeth on a slow pull squaring the last of a trench. Nearly soiled me pantaloons. On another job, I talked with the locate service who painted the lot, and wanted to know the approximate depth of the fiber optic feeder lines going into several of the apartment buildings. I was told 18" minimum, and informed the sprinkler guys of that; they were working in front of me. They hit one at 2", and another on the other side about the same. $3200 repair, they did not pothole. When the fiber repair guys showed up the next day, I asked WTH, wasn't me, but 2"?!? They just shrugged. They were only there an hour with a small toolbox, I'm guessing those days are very profitable ones for the telecom repair company.

At any rate, I'm thinking after the first of the year I may invest in a utility locator and probably a magnetic locator as I'm doing more septic work all the time, and also needing to find property pins now and then for lot work. I always 811, but want to double check and verify what they find, and being able to depth check really saves time. I do quite a bit of rural work, stock waterers, hydrants, irrigation line etc., a locator would help narrow where I have to find tie-ins to water lines, and also search for private electrical lines and other long-forgotten stuff. I really don't need the best of the best, but would like something with a reasonably tough build, decent accuracy (with an experienced user, practice, etc.), and preferably with a good kit box to protect from weather and transport.

I have researched some, and wondered if there is much difference between the mid-range locator tools other than higher-end options and perhaps a bit better build on the more expensive. The Ridgid SR-20 setup looks like a pretty nice outfit, but is priced a bit high for my business budget just now. The ViVax-Metrotech VLocPro2 kit is about $1000 cheaper, but is not carried by near as many suppliers, which may be a hint. It does come with a 10 watt transmitter, which is considerable extra on most of the other brands, and would be a plus as I'm often pushing distance. Anybody with some time on these tools (or other comparable) have any advice? Thanks -

 

[Ronsii]

The only experience I have with the ridgid is a private company we've hired a few times..... I was not impressed(they were using a sewer cam with sonde)

I personally use an old telco dynatel 2273 set with the regular tx box and some inductive coils... I find gas easy and can pinpoint depth to 1"... most of the time... sometimes the services tee and don't have tracer wires bonded! which can lead to a false sense of security... so it goes with saying that one needs to use some common sense when trying to locate things... and a little potholing can prevent a lot of headaches later on.

Have also hooked the tx to my sewer cam without a sonde and traces it just fine while the other guys were futzing around 30 feet sideways from my locate and trying to tell me theirs was the 'right' locate....