I have a extended flat bed F350 dually. Been pressurewashing agricultural buildings (hog confinements, inside of grain bins, grain dryers, hard surface cattle barns/lots). Just started branching out into residential and commercial as I get calls every year after winter about it and the nearest competitor is 65 miles away. I started washing houses recently using my enclosed trailer setup but it is a PIA due to how big it is.(I was running a bored out turboed 6.354 perkins diesel setup into 4- 10gpm @ 3000psi with a 1000 gal water tank.which is a overkill for residential) Recently pulled the perkins out as it needs a overhaul done to it as well as cleared out the whole trailer. Bought 2 Alkota 8gpm @3500 on wheels and switching to two separate 500 gal tanks for them.
Anyhow for residential & commercial I am thinking of turning my flatbed into a all in one. Would it be overkill to put a softwash unit on it and a high pressure hotwash unit as well?
Here is what I am thinking
For the high pressure-
Softwash
Hose reel wise, I have 2 old 12v automatic firehose reels that I was thinking of converting.
Storage tank wise-
300-500g for water. I currently use the Xjet for my agricultural washing for disenfectant and was going to do the same for res/com cleaning. Or is downsgreaming the way to go? With the Xjet we use 5 gal sealed jugs(pretty much like the ones they sell) with a shoulder sling that is carried on the opposite side of the high pressure gun & hose.
Any advice would be great. Looking to spend around max $15,000 and probably will end up using it for agri as well (We do a lot of small nurseries so the burner would speed those up)
Down streaming is definitely the way to go that way your house wash mix stays at the truck and you’re not hauling a buckets of chem around. Look into a High Draw injector.
You don’t have to haul water to residential jobs. We hook into the customer’s hose spigot. We have a buffer tank that fills up onsite but that’s so we don’t have to worry about not having enough water for the pump and so we can bypass water to it. That keeps us from having to squeeze the trigger every 30 seconds to keep the pump from overheating.
A lot of us have 12v systems and pressure washers. The 12v allows us to wash things that require a stronger mix than what we can down stream. Roofs, stucco, pre and post treating concrete, etc.
Check into a Hydro Max hot water pressure washer. I personally don’t have one yet but not for too much longer. Another member on here purchased one and loves it. He has owned others too including the one you linked above.
The link below is with a 12v burner but, if you go to the main page, they have other configurations.
I’ll probably still do a larger tank, mainly because I’m sure I’ll end up doing it on agri buildings too(just not inside confinements. Dont need everything smelling like ■■■■) and because a lot of the calls I’ve gotten are less city more rural and their water pressure from wells is way lower than the city water. The house I washed yesterday I threw one of my alkotas on my lift gate truck and figured I’d just hook up to the house spigot. It definitely didn’t have enough gpm for my washer as i could feel the difference with the xjet(it vibrated alot and low volume) didn’t have my QC pressure guage with me but I would assume their bladder in their pressure tank that sits in the well pit was shot.
Probably should have noted it, I don’t typically haul with water in the tanks, if I do its around 50-100 gallons. Its less of a need to bring water, more of a need to ensure proper gpm to wash unit.
Also with the soft wash, is there a recommended manifold/blender/proportioner for downstreaming? They don’t look hard to make, main issue i see from a DIY is getting proportions marked out properly for each valve/solution.
Also Now that I am think about it and looking into the DS vs US, I am thinking of doing 3 tanks. Water tank-150-250gal(baffled), 55 gal SH(baffled), soap tank undecided. Only reason for the 55 is so I can calculate mixture/usage easier, most of the jobs are 30-50 miles away in larger cities(currently been turning them down and doing the closer ones until i get my flatbed setup) and I’ll be ordering 55 gal drums of SH. We’ve got extra surge baffles in the shop although they are meant for the large IBC tanks that farmers use.
A lot of guys have switched to the GP stainless/kynar proportioning injectors. They can be finicky with o-rings blowing out, but using a proportioning tip in the injector is probably the simplest, most reliable way to dilute your downstream mix.
You can read all about them here:
Other options would be a pentair proportioning valve on your soap line, or a set of proportioning tips meant to fit in end of your draw tube (inside your chem tank == harder/messier to swap out)
