I see a lot of vans and trucks going down the road with a long pipe mounted on the top. The pipe is about the length of the van and about four inches in diameter. It looks like the ends screw off easily. The trucks with this thing on the top obviously are involved in some sort of construction or maintenance work.
So what the heck is that thing? A plumber’s snake? What?
I’m not sure that it is just one thing. I have known plumbers who carried lengths pf copper, PVC, and CPVC pipe in them. I knew one carpenter who carried quarter-round and similar trim in them.
Basically, it is a handy way to carry ten- or twelve-foot lengths of any long, slender object that would get crushed or splintered if wedged at some odd angle into a van or waving around in the breeze or the weather from the bed of a pickup.
(I doubt that it would be a snake, as most of the snakes and cable pullers with which I am acquainted coil up when not in use.)
It is also really cheap, requiring nothing more than a section of 4" PVC and two end plugs from any building supply outfit and a couple of brackets to mount it to the roof (or, more frequently, the square tubing bolted to the vehicle to hold those objects and others).
That’s exactly what it is for. Copper and PVC take up alot of room inside, plus, there is no really good way to keep it up and out of your way.
". . . plus, there is no really good way to keep it up and out of your way . . . "
Off the topic, but well said . . .
Gairloch
blush
we also used to keep wooden beading in it when i fitted windows - the upvc stuff we could bend into the back of the van, the wooden stuff was too thick.
…And surf-casting rods. Lotsa fishermen my way…
Electricians use it for their conduit as well.
I asked, and you all have fought my ignorance. Thank ye.
Yes, those pipe tubes on the roof are a wondrous thing for tradesmen and women.
One more item I see in the storage tubes is a surveyor’s rod. It’s that long, skinny, extendable black-and-white striped stick with a sort of sliding bulls-eye that the guy with the transit can aim for. They’re still used even now that laser transits are so common and so inexpensive, as compared to an optical transit.
I work for a two-way radio shop, and the pipes are used to store the aluminum “masts”, which we mount the antennas on.
Best way to transport masts to a job site we’ve found. They rattle around too much inside of a van.