That $300 'professional' ground penetrating radar rental was a total bust

I paid $300 to rent a GPR unit from a shop in Denver last month for a 2 acre survey. The calibration took me 3 hours because the manual was wrong about the settings. I got home and the data files were corrupted on the SD card, lost everything I scanned. Has anyone else gotten burned by rental gear with garbage instructions?

3 comments

3 Comments

blake_bell291mo ago

Man that "manual was from a different model year" thing hits way too close to home. I rented a GPR from a place in Phoenix that shall remain nameless and the instructions literally had a diagram showing controls that didnt exist on the unit I got. Spent two hours thinking I was an idiot before I called them and they were like oh yeah that manual is for the Mk.II version you have the Mk.I. Lost a whole afternoon of scanning time because I was chasing phantom settings. The calibration screwup you mentioned with the gain setting is exactly the kind of thing that makes you want to throw the whole unit in a dumpster.

the_anthony22d ago

Read a survey once. Said 40% of rental GPR units had mismatched manuals. Not surprised after hearing this. Rented a SIR-3000 in Denver two years back. The manual showed a touchscreen interface. Unit had physical buttons only. Lost half a day.

walker.max1mo ago

Used to think professional rental gear was always better than buying consumer stuff but this experience changed my mind. Got a GPR unit from a local supplier in Austin last summer for a small utility locate job. The calibration process took over an hour because the instructions had a typo on the gain setting that threw everything off. Ended up having to call their tech support who told me the manual was from a different model year. The data files saved fine but half the scans were useless because of the wrong calibration. Your mileage may vary but I'd rather rent from a smaller shop that actually knows their equipment than a big place with outdated paperwork.