Two Pressure Washers on One Trailer, or two one man crews

Hello all, I am new to the community.

I am buying another pressure washing trailer off craigslist, so I will have two of them.
Not sure wether I should keep them separate, or add all the equipment to one trailer and run a two man crew.

I would like the opinion of people who have tried both ways:

Option one- have one trailer with two machines, two man crew

Option two- two trailers with two one man crews.

Which has worked best for you guys scheduling wise, and profit wise?

I should also mention that I only have one truck capable of towing these trailer, so to run two separate one man crews, I would have to buy another truck(could probably buy one around $4k used).

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You’ll be more profitable having 2 crews if you’re just doing house washes.

we do some house washes, mixed with driveways and patios, the normal stuff

KEC cleaning is nice to have 2 guys, commercial flatwork is nice for 2, maybe roofs 2.

Thanks for your input, Jordie. I will put more thought into it. we dont do KEC as of now, but do get some commercial flat work and roofs.

You’re welcome. I recently did a 7 unit condo association. 2 buildings. It would have been nice to have a helper bag and tape everything, as well as turn on/off DS and mix new batches. Probably would’ve shaved 1.5 hours.

It’s also nice to have a helper when running a heater, just to keep an eye on things and help with hose management.

It’s all well and good until one or more of your people call out or quit unexpectedly. Having two man crews, for me at least, is like carrying insurance for unexpected employee issues. If someone is out the other team member can pick up some of the slack and the day(s) are not a complete disaster. In theory they also keep each other accountable and insure work quality is up to par.

Do the math real quick. All expenses included (pay, insurance, taxes, etc.) it should cost less than an additional $100-$200 per day to have a 2 man crew instead of 1. If they cant do at least $200 more work in a day with a second person you need new people.

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You ever thought about one truck and one trailer, with a set up on each ? Drop the trailer on one job with a guy or 2. Then go to the next with your truck. I don’t know what you pw on a daily. Just a thought.

That is a thought for bigger jobs that may work. Thanks for the idea.

Thank you, I appreciate your opinion. That is a great point- about having insurance when they don’t show up. I’ve decided to just go ahead and do a two man rig for now to see how that works. Thank you.