Dump Trucks

[johnny]

How many of you fleetwashers get into polished aluminum tank trucks ? We have an account with half a fleet of painted red
bob-tails and the rest of the trucks are red cabs with polished aluminum tank tractor trailers. You can't use caustic on the polished aluminum or it turns white - so we have a special set of non-caustic soap brushes for the aluminum tanks (so you can see your face in it) and we often times towel wipe the red day cabs. You haven't lived until you've brushed 6 - 40 foot tankers all 4 sides. Talk about work! After a citizen called, the EPA came down on us for washing the trucks in place - so now we have to drive them to a wash pit sump area on the gravel yard to wash them and put them back in their spot. The best part is I'm getting pretty good at running and backing up those trailers, maybe someday I'll get a CDL when I get older (LOL).


Johnny

 

[Larry L.]

WELCOME Chrisecs



I will never give up a truely weekly account no matter how dirty they get,its the weekly part I want.My job is to clean no matter what it may bring,its my job to clean.

I usually get 30 on the tri- but would think about the 20 if they had 10 or more.

Yel I got away from caustic too for a long time and agree with the danger you said.

They aren't many soaps I haven't tried,I've used yours before and a few of the others Zep soaps,I love the smell of their red soap and they'll clean as you say.

 

[Larry L.]

Welcome to the thread Johnny

yel thats the bad part about fleetwashing you want to be a truck driver.

I like moving this type around when fully loaded,bet superman couldn't even hold them back in 1st grear,lol.

 

[ron]

hey johny

if i had to brush that much it would be cheaper for that CO. to buy a new tankers when they got dirty. Did you up the price when you started to have to move them?
how much you gettin to do all that arm work?
did you tell your ins. co you were moving trucks? be carefull!
you see them pics bigboy been postin no brush, no more then 30 min each, no matter
if polish,stainless,painted,or kriptonite.

 

[ron]

bigboy

way back when we talked about polishers, That high speed is for washin not polishin.
www.topoftheline.com CYCLO POLISHER best damn polisher i ever used
power good speed bad dont set the polisher on the ground i grain of sand will mess-up your whole day

 

[johnny]

Bigboy it's like being up on top of the world in one of those tractors. You're right, first and reverse are as far I go, not much of a trucker am I (LOL) kinda like under the road. We charge $45.00 for each and since we hustle, we do the shorty one's in 15 mins the big ones in 35. This is every week. Since the insides of the cabs get so dirty where they go out in the construction fields we have the option (if it fits our schedule) to vacuum and wipe down the cab interiors for another extra $45.00 ea. That's a 45 minute job. Before we took this on, Ron, I checked with my insurance comp for coverage to move trucks on property, $2Mil per occurance I was assured. Good point !

 

[Scott Stone]

Okay, all you wannabe truck drivers. Either put up or shut up. I got my CDL. Renewed the physical last month for my b-day. I got over the thrill of moving most trucks around. there is one transfer truck and trailer though that I would not mind driving. A transfer truck looks like a regular dump truck that is pulling a trailer, except the box of the trailer slides into the truck so that it can be dumped. Never have figured out how to back that one yet. It backs like doubles so you always have to stay about ten turns ahead of where you are backing it into.
As for washing dump trucks, I have done a few, literally 2500 over the past year. The trailers do not usually need to be brushed. You do need to use a good soap on them though. If they are a transfer truck the drivers are a bit more pickey about them because the trucka nd traielr are color matched, etc. so it looks really bad to have one cleaner than the other. The biggest hassle is the back of the cabs. There is a lot of grease that gets flung up there if the trucks are maintained properly. It seems worse on end dumps and Belly dumps than on regular trucks. A good soap and heat is almost a requirement. As for price, If the fleet is big, 30 or more trucks a week, it is $25 a week. if it is smaller, or they come begging $30 a week. If it is less than 5, $40 a week.
How is that? someone finally got pricing out of me.

Scott

 

[johnny]

Hi Scott,
I've thought about getting a CDL but been scared off by the testing. A trucker buddy said with a CDL you'll never be without a job opportunity. My problem is I don't like to stray too far away from mama and the chicks, I miss them too much. Did you go to one of the schools to get your CDL ? We have some national trucking accounts we handle regionally and talking to some of the drivers - they're all mad about this or that with the company. They envy my situation. So I guess it's the green grass thing with me and driving OTR. It's surprising the number of older drivers anymore and couples. One of our accounts has a driver who is 85, still OTR. He drives dedicated from Minnesota to Chicago R/T, everyday. It's not uncommon to see a 70 year old driver. The funny thing is they look so much younger than their retiree friends.
Gotta go, works calling me.
Johnny

 

[Richard R.]

Well, it finally happened.
Rick with ProWash set me up with a RK-21. Didn't think I'd ever beat him out of one of those rigs. It's hard to believe how much difference it makes until you get one. After using those little direct drives for so long, I named this my "My Hog." There's got to be something this thing can do in the Olympics.
Don't know a whole lot about it yet, but it sure does a lot better job cleaning than anything I would have imagined.
Now if I can only get some fleets.
I appreciate all the insights and advise.

Thanks
Richard R.
HP Mobile Wash

 

[Scott Stone]

I feel so stupid. I didn't see this post when you first posted it, and just noticed it. It is because Richard made his post.
Anyway, I did it the old fashioned way. I am what is called a cpompany raised driver. I learned at the company, by loading and moving trucks in the yard, and graduated to driving outside of the yard. I missed the cutoff of being grandfathered for the CDL by about two months.
There is one thing about the driver thing, they always have something to complain about, and they will always complain about other companies they worked for.
And juest for teh record, I fI had a company, I would hire the old time drivers 10:1 over teh new crop of CDL certified drivers. They take care of their trucks better, and are more into the art of driving. Most of the newer drivers beat their equipment like a bad dog.

Scott

 

[fishguy]

I wash a fleet of 20 fuel trucks (ones that fuel the gas stations) once a week ,they are approximatly 80 feet long. these trucks run almost 24 hours a day and go over the mountain pass 2 to 4 times a day and in the winter they get pretty trashed the the deicer they put on the roads. so I have 2 diffrent pricing plans one for summer and one for winter. In the winter I charge 60 bucks a unit and it takes me 30 to 50 minutes depending on how bad they are and in the summer I get 40 and I can knock them out in as little as ten to fifteen minutes. I do it all with a 6 foot single lance through a high presure aplication 2 step presure washing system that I built. 2 steping is the only way to go if your going to be a fleet washer.

 

[Richard R.]

Two Steppin,

I can two step, three step and even do the cotton-eye-joe, but I think I'm gonna stick to doing it on the dance floor.

Could someone explain the two step wash in plain simple english so a simple minded Texas can understand the method?

I think I know what it means, but I'm not real sure.

Thanks

Richard R
HP Mobile

 

[fishguy]

Hey there Richard, I'm gonna try to explain this but I'm sure there is some that can do it better.2 stepping is where a acidic (acid) solution is aplied to the vehical then and alkiline solution (soap) is aplied to the vehical then the rinse. when the acid and alkline meet they break the static bond that is holding the road film and dirt to the vehical. it works great ! Trust Me! Ask any two stepper!

 

[johnny]

Hi Fishguy,

Are you using acid on polished aluminum tankers. I know that acid works fine on stainless steels but it and caustic soaps will turn polish aluminum from shiny to white. Tell me if I'm wrong!

Johnny

 

[ron]

hey johnny

HF is what your thinking of yes it turns it white hydrofloric acid
PH wont if used right [look on the side of your coke can and see whats in it]
phospheric acid give you that nice burnning feeling in the back of your mouth
at coke they use coke syrup to clean the motors in the shop.
put a iron nail in a glass of coke and leave it sit for 3 days then go and look at it.
yummy ill have a ginger ale thanks or a coors light if im done for the day

 

[fishguy]

ron is correct about the acids and as for the caustic soaps in my experince they can either streak or turn the aluminum brown (Icalling it burning the aluminum) if left on to long or used too strong so I try to stay away from it with polished tanks. As for the one I'm washing there all painted or the aluminum is already white.

 

[Larry L.]

Your wrong Johnny,acids and caustic can be used on polished,I do it altime.

My goal is to wash polished rigs only and without a brush,I'm getting there slowly.I can go now 4 to 5 months before I have to brush the polished truck,most every three months,can go a month or two on all.

Alumu. is easy cleaned and it too you can use caustic and acids.....I got away from caustic long time ago but have found that was one of my biggest mistakes,it has it purpose too in fleetwashing wheather alumu.,stainless steel,polished and ect. it can be used................you have to learn how to use any chemical,just like gas and diesel cars,a wittlebit want hurt either,depends.

 

[johnny]

Hi BigBoy and everyone else,
Thanks for your replies.
Let me get this straight! You are using acid and caustics on shiny bright aluminum tankers? These are not stainless steel- they are aluminum with bright shines. I see tankers that have been washed with caustics and acids that have turned grey.One company here had to pay to have some Sunoco tankers buffed out because of they tuned white. The dump trucks you pictured Bigboy are stainless I'm sure! I've got the acid but I hesitate to use it on these trucks-so we've been brushing lightly and using a strong non caustic detergent that does the trick. People squirting acids around trucks scares the workers-comp out of me! But we'll give it a try next week!

Johnny

 

[ron]

johnny

PH acid used the right way[proper dulition] are pretty safe never use HF or SF ACID
SF when it hits the aluminum makes HF acid
PH acid[like i said] is in coke pepsi you drink this stuff [much smaller amounts]
and any soap or acid will wear the shine off alum. after a while.
aluminum is pouris it starts to tarnish the very instant air gets to it
so when the polish wears a little the air gets to it
PH is the safest ACID and your soap[non caustic] is the BASE
when a acid hits a base it causes a chem. pop that releases the dirt.
you should try mixing some PH acid in your soap when you wash.
also hand polishing is way diffrent then machine polishing hand polish has wax in it
and your soap and/or acid will/can strip the wax off and make it white.
use the search button and look at all of bigboys pics hes got some polished rigs somewhere on this site

 

[fishguy]

ron dosent mixing the acid and the soap together neutrilize each other .... basicly making just sudsy water that dosent do much ???