What Makes Deep Trekker Pipe Crawlers Unique?

Cody Warner | June 7th, 2019

Deep Trekker’s crawlers are unique in the market and push the boundaries of innovation on what traditional pipe inspection tools have been designed to do.

Below are just a few things that make Deep Trekker crawlers competitive in the market:

Lithium Ion Batteries

A battery powered crawler allow you to be truly portable. There is no need for a dedicated vehicle or a generator at the manhole. You can move your crawler from your vacuum truck to your jetter, from a pickup truck to an ATV – all with just one or two carrying cases.

The batteries are what make this possible. Using durable and long lasting Lithium Ion for our batteries, the units can operate for 6-8 hours after a 90-minute charge time. The best part – no need to worry about swapping batteries out all the time, they are rated for 1000 charge cycles. We actually have some vehicles with over 6000 hours on the same set!

Patent Pending Active Freewheel!

active-pipe-crawler-freewheel-deep-trekker-1

Whether you use our new powered reel or our simple, light-weight counter reel, we offer you the added capability of our Active Freewheel mode. In simple terms, it is a power assist for retrieving your crawler once it completes its inspection.

Typically crawlers only use a neutral gear, which means you or the reel have to pull the weight of the crawler with no additional assistance. The Active Freewheel mode on Deep Trekker crawlers sends power to the tires in reverse at 150% of the forward speed.

Magnetically Coupled Drives

Traditional crawlers need to be pressurized using gas to remain waterproof. We have taken our innovative magnetic coupling from our ROVs and applied it to our DT340 crawler. The DT340 wheels have a magnetic hub that attaches to the wheel hub, making a water tight connection that doesn’t wear down over time, doesn’t need to be oiled or greased and eliminates the crawler’s need for gas.

Quick Screw-on Add Ons

By using common Phillips and Allen screws on our vehicles, you are able to quickly add and subtract the various wheel kits and add ons for different scenarios. You can start with a simpler system and add modules as budget becomes available and build the system as you build your pipe inspection program.

Since the parts are standardized, you can purchase replacements locally. Some crawlers feature a tool-less attachment system, which is great when they are brand new and clean but are increasingly ineffective as the crawler gets dirty. If there’s one thing we know, your crawler is going to get dirty in a sewer, so purchase the crawler that is built to get dirty!

Durable Materials

Making vehicles that are meant to take a beating is what we do. Our vehicles are durable and long lasting, thanks to innovative design and choosing the right materials for the job. Gears inside the camera head are heavy duty heat treated steel alloy. The camera lens cover is sapphire for scratch and fog resistance, the body is anodized aluminum and the fixtures are stainless steel.

HD Camera

DT340L-16-edit-752x500 (1)

Using a high resolution 700 TVL camera that is rated for low light scenarios, we are able to obtain a crisp image for easy defect detection. Combining this with super bright LED floodlights you are able to get a truly remarkable picture from a Deep Trekker crawler.