Have You Downsized Your Chase Rig Over The Last Few Years?

[Tony Laubach]

I was cleaning out my car the other day and got to thinking about how much my interior configuration has changed, namely downsized, particularly over the last couple years. Gone are the days where I had multiple radios, a permanently-mounted laptop setup, and now I could almost pass for a middle-aged man on a Sunday drive during storm days.

Up until my most recent vehicle, one of the first things I did with every new car was to install the laptop desk. I've had various setups with that dating back to JottoDesk, eventually going over to RamMount. However, with technology basically shrinking all the gear, it's significantly decluttered the interior. I still occasionally mount a full-size video camera to the windshield for a dash cam, but I opted to hold off on the laptop desk for this season after I got my new ride back in May to see how it worked and I think I am going to go into 2026 without it.

Here are some points on how my latest setup has differed (shrunk) down...

For the last couple decades, the laptop was the single-most important piece of gear behind the vehicle itself. This was vital for not only getting data on the fly via GRLevel3 and NWS Chat, but so I could quickly edit and turn video for my stations. In addition, any streaming I did do was run through the laptop. Now all that is basically obsolete. With current smart phones having video capabilities and quality similar (if not better) than the Prosumer video cameras, not to mention those same 'cameras' have the ability to edit and send directly to clients. In addition, better, higher quality radar apps (Radar Omega) are available on phones/tablets, eliminating that need for the laptop. Lastly, NWS chat migrated over to Slack, another app available easily on phones.

Basically, anything that required a laptop now can be done on mobile devices. When I switched from AT&T to Verizon over the summer, I was able to keep my old Galaxy phone from AT&T and didn't have to trade it in, so that became an extra phone that I run Radar Omega and occasionally directly stream from. It mounts easily on my dash along side my regular phone and doesn't actually tie up my workhorse phone anymore. I am completing a tablet for a little bigger screen, but I haven't made that move yet, either. That would be the 'upgrade' route I would choose to go over a laptop, and it's mainly for the increased screen size.

Video editing; for my purposes, if I need to quick-turn video, I can shoot/edit/send directly from the phone. There's no time wasted in transferring clips from a camera to a computer, so it's all-in-one and I could do that in mere moments. Bigger editing projects I can still pull out a laptop and do in the car somewhere, or in most cases, just wait til I get in later in the evening and do the heavier edits from there. For the "I need it now" stuff, the phone will do in 95% of cases. The 5% of time I miss having a laptop available to me is for a quick photo edit from a Nikon or I have something on a non-phone video camera I need to pull immediately.

HAM Radio: Honestly this has been the most difficult 'let go'. I very much miss the days of HAM-to-HAM combat, it was one of my favorite aspects of early years chasing. As time has gone on, less and less use it to the point where the HAM radio in my car was basically a glorified Weather Radio. I have yet to install my HAM into the new vehicle and other than having a weather radio, it hasn't taken away from my chasing. No one used it with me for years, and yeah, occasionally I'd get into an area with a Skywarn net or something to that effect, but in terms of me personally communicating out with it, I have no need for it in reality other than the old man in me trying to grip onto some nostalgia. Similar to the scanner, which was heavily used in earlier rigs, but I stopped using years back.

I personally have never had a HUGE interior setup... usually the biggest thing for me was the laptop setup and radios. But with this latest vehicle, neither have been installed. While I'm still going back and forth on the HAM idea (again, hanging on to the past), I am pretty well sold on the idea of NOT putting a permanent laptop setup in the vehicle moving forward (anyone wanna buy a Ram Mount Laptop desk?). The highest 'priority', if you will, for me will be swapping the extra phone for a tablet with a little bigger screen, but I haven't looked into how I wanna mount that yet.

Oddly enough, in the downsizing of my interior setup, I upsized in size of the vehicle as a whole, upgrading from the 2016 Forester to the 2023 Ascent (which drives like a cloud, btw). Where I would normally invest money into the initial setup costs (and I did have an inverter installed), I used that money to Line-X the hood and roof, to alleviate some of the hail impacts to the horizontal surfaces (and at the same time, gave the ride a nice look).

For me, I love the simplicity... although I do miss the annual vehicle shakedown and installation that always greeted a new season. Now, technology, and a lot of the unmentioned wanting to simplify things, have eliminated the need for so much of it. It's also nice when I am using my car for personal, NON-chase stuff, that I don't feel like I am inhibiting passengers from a comfortable ride. I think that plays a bigger role than perhaps I've mentioned; in my 'off time', I want this to be a normal car; comfortable on the inside and not cluttered with gear and mounts. The laptop desk could be removed, but the pole was a permanent feature that made the passenger a bit cramped at the legs.

So yeah, who else has downsized and why? How do you chase now compared to your early years?



2002-2005 Setup


2011-2016 Setup


2016-2018 Setup


2018-2025 Setup


Current Setup

 

[Dan Robinson]

I'm in the opposite boat, my setup has continually increased in hardware over the years. The only items I've removed were the scanner and CB radio (and antennas) many, many years ago. Most everything else I'm still hanging onto and even adding to, including the laptop and Jotto Desk. A few years ago, I added a passenger seat shelf that extends forward over the footwell to give me extra space for cameras and eliminate the risk of things falling onto the floor. Attached to that base is a piece of vertical shelving that carries the power strip, battery chargers and most of the electrical connections. Those two parts aren't permanently attached and can be removed for a front-seat passenger. In 2019 I added a twin mattress (a real one, not a camping pad) on an elevated platform that my tripods and tools go underneath. A couple of years later, I built a small cabinet attached to the bed platform on the side for more storage.

My car serves as an office and hotel room on chase/weather trips, so I've kept pretty much all of the essentials in it so that I have most anything I'd need. My laptop is still a central piece of gear, serving as the main radar display and video/photo editing platform. My last 2 vehicles' built-in mapping has been good enough to use for navigation, but I'm still using a GPS puck for the radar apps on the laptop.

 

[Brett Roberts]

My major downsizing happened about a decade ago: I moved from a laptop to a tablet, and also gave up on any kind of external antenna/amplifier setup for wireless connectivity around the same time. I also didn't bother to wire up an inverter to my battery starting with a new vehicle I got several years ago, since tablets are easy to power. Thinking back, I sure don't miss the days circa 2010 when all this additional cumbersome gear was rattling around on every chase... sometimes causing issues at the worst possible time.

The only thing that's changed recently is that I finally switched from a Windows tablet (Surface Pro series), which I used to run GR2/GR3 from 2015-2023, to a Samsung Galaxy Tab. I decided that performance was sufficient, and RadarScope had matured enough, to rely on it full time and reap the benefits of a much smaller and lighter tablet. I have to confess I'm still frustrated by a few quirks/bugs and really wish I could run GR3 on an Android or iOS tablet, though. But having quick access to radar, Google Maps (with offline backups of all chase areas), integrated GPS with no puck or bluetooth required, and a touchscreen-optimized browsing experience is really tough to beat.

 

[Todd Lemery]

The only real change for me is not using a laptop anymore and just using iPads. The laptop still sits there mounted, but it hasn’t been used in two years. The real downsizing might be coming in the form of the chase vehicle. I chase in a Suburban because I chase with 2-5 people, but the times when all five make at the same time are few enough where getting a smaller vehicle may make sense and when all five chase just piggyback with another vehicle. It doesn’t make much sense to use it when there’s only two people chasing.

 

[Sean Ramsey]

As late as last year I was down to a cell phone and that was it (other than my camera bag). I ran radar and GPS mapping through the phone.

I've started live streaming again and that has required the equipment list to grow once again. Laptop and Ram Mount, dash camera, cell booster, Starlink, GPS puck, etc. Still as minimal as I can keep it though.

 

[Drew Terril]

As I get older, the less information I want to cram onto the smallest screen possible. As a result, the laptop has remained, even after I experimented with a tablet. The smaller screen just did not lend itself to my propensity for only taking quick glances. It's also why I haven't seen the point of opting for the tier of Radarscope where you can get surface obs. On that small of a screen, it's just too much for me to take in at a glance. It's not that my vision has gone downhill (although that's probably not that far in the future for me, but for the meantime I'm still doing long range marksmanship without the expensive 25-30x range optics), it's just me not wanting to have to stare at such a small screen to process all the information available. That said, I'm also holding on to a now 12 year old laptop because I do not want to have to migrate to Windows 11. Everything I run at home is either Mac or Linux, but GRL3, my radio programming software, and the software I use to model out potential handholds only works on Windows.

As far as Ham radio, chasing is a VERY limited part of my involvement with that hobby. The vast majority of what I do mobile with ham radio has absolutely nothing to do with chasing. That said, I still make 99% of my reports via ham radio. If the net controller has APRS capability, I always keep my beacon running and can reference that if he or she needs an exact position for me.

Aside from a VHF radio and my laptop, very little in my pickup has anything to do with chasing. Most of it is geared towards overlanding and farming/ranching (although I am running up against the capability limits of my truck for the latter task and may have to upgrade to a 3/4 ton or 1 ton). I just am too cheap to buy a vehicle to set up primarily for chasing and have just adapted what I already have for that purpose. Everything else I have in there basically just goes along for the ride when I'm chasing.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

I figured I was in the minority still hanging onto the laptop. Think this kinda proves it. I don't know how people chase with tablets or phones as we age. Perhaps the eyesight for me has degraded more than others and even with glasses I still have trouble reading information and looking at maps on a tiny screen. What's even harder is switching between radar, satellite (Vis and IR), and mapping. With the loss of Microsoft Maps in July I'm not sure what to do about mapping. I bought a Samsung android tablet to use for mapping, but its too big and spins around too easily while trying to look at it. My vehicle has a navigation in the screen in it, but that's 10 years out of date and zoom in/out buttons disappear after a time and are like 3 screen taps to get where I need to.

If someone rides with me nowadays they always ride uber style because I want the space in the front for my equipment. I use the passenger seat for my cameras. Hadn't considered making a shelf or box to cover the area for feet, but that isn't a bad idea considering a quick stop or a large pothole can throw cameras on the floor. I also haven't had anyone ride with me in years that I trusted to navigate for me. '

Ah well more signs the main 'hobby' is passing me by. I slowly am starting to understand why the veterans hated us when we showed up on scene with our technology lol

 

[Tony Laubach]

Ah well more signs the main 'hobby' is passing me by. I slowly am starting to understand why the veterans hated us when we showed up on scene with our technology lol

Hahaha RIGHT!! I totally get it now; a true sign we're getting older...

The eyesight thing has been a thing using my previous phone for radar; it's a small screen and has limited visual of the map as a whole, so I have to be in pretty tight. That's where I am contemplating the tablet idea; I don't need service with it (I may consider it, but I can run it from Wifi), but I suppose I can see what Black Friday offers up for those.

I think where I am coming from, since I never really had the laptop terribly close (I used a USB trackball, so I could play with that in my lap and keep the laptop more toward the passenger side, which was far enough where I tablet mounted in front of the center console, I'd probably have a similar view, just minus having a whole laptop setup there.

My Mercury Tracer, the first picture, I actually REMOVED the front passenger seat to make room for all the gear. Once I got into more spacious vehicles, I could work better with the passenger side space.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I started using a mouse last year when my laptop's touchpad started failing, and I wish I'd done it sooner. Much easier and quicker than the touchpad for basically everything. I keep it stashed on the right side of the driver's seat.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

Yeah I am using a bluetooth mouse. The only real problem with that over wired is that if it falls into the front passenger area its a pain. Plus I'm -1 cupholder up front all day but the center console and ones leg make excellent mouse pads.

 

[Randy Jennings]

Most of the time, I still chase with a JotoDesk and a laptop running GR. I like the bigger screen for my aging eyes and the ability to integrate a lot of things from observations, to reports, to detailed road maps (although outside of the roadmaps shapefiles, I have most of it turned off to reduce clutter - but I can turn it on briefly to look at something). I also rum IEMBot Monitor to get simple alerts and summaries of new NWS products.

I have ditched the external cell antennas and my Verizon JetPack. Verizon coverage has gotten worse (at least on my old 4G JetPack) and my T-Mobile and A&T phones typically both have a signal without external antennas unless I am in a very remote area - and then I just wind it - I don't have to have internet 100% of the time.

I still have a VHF/UHF ham radio in my chase vehicle, but usually only turn it on locally in NWS FWD's area or if other ham chasers (like Daniel Shaw) are around me. I typically will not take the time to look up frequencies and set my radio outside of FWD's area (despite having a placefile for that).

 

[Warren Faidley]

Every time I downsize, some new, fun technology pops-up and negates the process. For example, my Garmin GPS satellite receiver was replaced by a Starlink Mini. The biggest gain has been in hurricane chasing. I can now use a pair of iPhone 16 Pros for both live coverage and footage / stills. There is plenty of memory, 4k quality, stabilization and power. No more heavy 35mm cameras in dive cases on tripods.