Logistical Question

H

Hampton Wash

Guest
Hello All,

This question is for those that use a hard mounted PW either on a trailer, truck or in a trailer. By "hard mounted " I am referring to a set up that would have your PW mounted and that when you are at a jobsite it does not move from the trailer but instead you use a hose & reel set up .

OK - with that in mind how do you get to a location that you can't reach? Do you have a 2nd PW that you bring w/ you ? The reason I ask is that I have recently done 2 commercial jobs at buildings in my local area where I cleaned the employee smoking areas and outdoor lunch areas. The way the lawn and building were set up I could not get a truck and trailer w/i at least 300 feet of them. I luckily have a PW I mounted on a Tractor Supply landscaping cart that I can tote along w/ me.

I am looking to set up my new trailer and can not decide if I want to bolt my PW down to it and use a reel set up or not. Pro's con's from those that are experienced with this would be greatly appreciated. btw - I am PT , but not a lowballing homeowner w/ a junk set up and no morals. I learn before I work and then treat my customers as if the job were my own house or driveway. I've not had an unhappy customer yet.

thank you again for the wealth of info that this board has given me...

Benjamin
 

onecallpowerw

New Member
Depending on the Pressure washer and its output, you should be able to add additional hose. We have 200' on our hose reels and then we carry an additional 100' of hose for those types of situations. Just keep in mind that if your washer is not pushing at the very least 5.5 gpm you will still have problems. The only other way to curtail this would be to carry a small unit on wheels with at the very least 3.5 gpm. Hope this helps but sounds like you already knew this....
 

alvaro

New Member
God point. What if you have a “hard mountedâ€￾ set up, and you want to wash an exhaust system inside a hotel or restaurant?
 

onecallpowerw

New Member
Cant help ya there, We dont do Kitchen Hoods/Exhaust systems. I would think though, you would need to purchase a wheeled unit in your situation. Check with some on this board that do this type of cleaning. They probably have run into this quite often.
 

Dave Olson

New Member
Hello Benjamin,

We have run 700' of hose off of our truck mounted pump. Had to park a long way from the building and also went up 5 stories. We do have a large bodied pump that puts out almost 10 gpm. My guys didn't notice any change in pressure.

For kitchen exhaust systems that we can not use our truck mounted equipment we use a 110 volt 2 gpm 1500 psi unit and tap into the kitchens hot water. It has a Cat pump rated for 190 degrees. Sometimes you can run the hose down the stack if you can't go through the building, so you can use your truck/trailer mounted equipment.

Dave Olson
 

Aplus

New Member
Deciding on hard mounted or portable really depends upon what type of work you will be doing.

If you're doing mostly wood decks, then portable cold water works well. If you'll be washing concrete, trucks, equipment, then a hard mounted hot water setup works well.

The only problem I have with running extended amounts of hose, is that I worry about liability of someone tripping over it, and I don't like it to be run over by vehicles. Plus, when you run extended lengths, you need to carry alot of spare hoses incase one should fail.

I carry a portable unit as well with my mounted hot water, just in case I need it.

Hope this helps.
 

Michael T

New Member
Benjamin, We do exactly as you suggest. When we need to, we take a portable unit (3000/4) with a hot box(110v) thru the building to the roof. These jobs usually have a service elevator which goes to the roof. Then we let the hose down the duct into the kitchen. But we do mostly KEV cleaning.
 

h2obouy

New Member
My main rig has two cold water washers (on hose reels) and a Hot water Landa. I run two guys on this and both cold water washers have the wheels still on it. You just need to fasten the machine to the deck of your trailer. I have never had to remove either machine but if I had to it will roll by the Hot water machine.


-Jeremy
 

Mike Gwas

New Member
You can run a ton of hose and it will still work... However if you downstream chems you will lose that ability when you lenghten your runs......
 
H

Hampton Wash

Guest
I would like to thank everyone who posted their responses to this thread. Although reasons and answers varied it was very helpful to me in my decision making process !!!

I think I am going to set my new trailer (5x8@3500#) as follows.....cold water PW on wheels but anchored to the decking and connected to my hotbox w/ 200' of hose. This will make it "semi-permanent" yet still have the ability to be removed if need be. I am now looking at a poly tank set up and chemical draw tanks. I will post pics once it is assembled and ready to go "officially"

THANK YOU AGAIN !!!

Benjamin
Hampton Wash
 

Don.EMS

New Member
Just a word to the wise Benjamin, if you can get a larger trailer now ( if your finances allow it ) do it. You will out grow that 5x8 before the season ends, and also #3500 lbs is not that much, go for at least #9000. I understand if you can't, but if you can go bigger or else you'll be finding yourself changeing trailers every year. Also try to get a hotwater unit. Not trying to tell you what to do but looking ahead is easer then looking behind. Good luck
 
H

Hampton Wash

Guest
Don -

I very much appreciate your advice and actually wish I could get a larger trailer. My issues are as follows though: I have to park this in a small 1 car garage because of my homeowner (Neo-Nazi) association, 5x8 was the largest I could comfortable fit in there with everything else. My current truck can only handle 5000#. As for the PW unit I had to try to get as much as I could with only a few grand in tax refund $$$. The most bang for the buck came from a cold PW 4/4000 (Honda/Cat) plumbed into a Northern Tool (Northstar) hot box which I bought new for $969 and the new trailer (5x8@3500#)......this is actually a big improvement for me since last year I was using a 2.5/2700 PW w/ a 4x6 trailer rated at 1800# !!!!

Next house, next truck.....bigger and better again !!!

thank you again

Benjamin
 

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