What ratio do ya’ll use your hf acid at? Also what is the best soap to use on # 2 step. Thanks
Don’t you go through alot of soap though? Ive had a hotsy hot water downstream since April. Also been one stepping the whole time. I’ve went through countless different soaps. The best was omega. But very expensive. Especially the shipping. I found a local guy with a good brown soap at $260 a barrel. I was hoping to two step to save a lot of time. Plus my brown soap leaves the aluminum stained if you leave it on to long. I have heard you’re upstream method is very effective and uses less caustic soaps
Upstream and down stream is two different animals I hear.
I two step but I don’t use HF just because if you do some research you’ll find that almost deaths and serious injuries in the truck washing industry are due to HF. I get by just fine with a phosphoric acid so I don’t see any reason to run the risk of using HF. I get my chems from Hydro-chem. I’ve always got a guy helping me. We brush mirrors, windshields and any areas with heavy bugs. I’m sure with a hot enough mix you’d be able to go completely brushless and maybe at some point I’ll switch to that but for now I’m ok with having to brush a little bit. Definitely wouldn’t want to be brushing if I didn’t have a helper so it’s always a two-person job for me.
As far as upsteaming goes you’re running the soap through your pump and burner (I think, never done it) and I don’t care what anyone claims but that can’t be good for your equipment.
As far as soap use I found that once I got my process streamlined and you’re not wasting a whole lot, my soap usage went way down. I use maybe 1/3 to 1/2 gallon of each soap per truck. While not a negligible expense, I calculate my soap expense at around $2 a truck which still leaves me with a whole lot of room for profit.
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Dude that’s cheap!!! My soap runs me 4.70 a gallon it comes in a 55 gallon drum mixed. Run it through my machine at 17:1 takes about a gallon a truck and an hr and a half for a 379 Pete with a 48 foot conistoga trailer. We also brightner the tanks n rims in that hour n a half. Are you using pink thunder? Also you using a lot of heat. Thank you for you help by the way…
No Pink Thunder here and 165 on the soap and 145 on the rinse. Any more heat and this soap will come apart
So your using a pH acid. Aka (safety bright )? I’m using a HF now. And yeah it’s dangerous. Cough n gag alot when using it. I want to downstream the safety acid then apply soap to neutralize the acid right? All the time not damaging glass ?
I’m at around 140 with soap called hawg wild. Only thing I want to escape from is holding the wand 12 inches or closer with a white tip on the entire tractor trailer. Two stepping from what I’ve heard is apply twice and just plain ole rinse? Might be a unicorn or fairytale. But I hear guys doing a 53 ft trailer in under 10 minutes
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I use m37 presoak and Film Fighter from Hydro-chem. All soaps should be fine on glass so long as you rinse before they dry.
You guys are awesome by the way. Thanks for your advice n help. We live in rural Arkansas. So not many people truck wash here. So I never get to see anyone’s rig or get advice
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I two step and I think a true brushless wash is a bit more of a sales pitch than an achievable reality. I’m sure it’s possible but I don’t see how you’re going to get a strong enough soap downstreamed to get heavy bugs to just melt away or carbon stack stains to dissolve. It takes a couple of seconds to brush a mirror so I don’t see any reason to change.
I hate 53’ white box trailers but with a helper I can still clear them in about 10-12 minutes brushing the whole thing.
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I get that. We apply soap,Then let it sit a lil. It dissolves most bugs. I wand off the truck and my wife’s behind me brushing all the shiny stuff. Were never gonna get away from a lil brushing. We don’t mind that.Just was hoping the two step was a lil more easier and faster is all
We do them conastoga( vinyl sides) trailers 48 foot long. 53 foot flat beds. And 45 foot gravel dumps. And 48 foot rice haulers with belly dumps. I’ve heard that the safety bright ph is also safe on polished aluminum?
Do you use your ph acid on the entire truck and trailer then apply you’re soap and then rince
Are you in Michigan? I go to Hydro chem for my soaps as well. Great company! There film fighter I use on bare wood decks (high caustic)
I use three power solve on stained decks… there blue fusion to neutralize and brighten decks.
I’ve used there film fighter and citric pre soak to fix odiziation on vinyl siding.
Couldn’t say enough good things about Hydro chem.
Although I think they miss out on a large part of our industry because of there niche with garbage can cleaners (still don’t know how people make $$ doing that)
Never mind, see that your out of state. I live 30 minutes from Hydro chem.
Yeah I’m in the Ozark mountains in the middle of nowhere Arkansas my lil towns population is around 72. Thanks anyways
72 
must be slim pickings come date night.
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Yeah I’m in Mississippi. I just found them from doing research on truck washing on YouTube. I’ve tried other soaps (pink thunder, and some local stuff) but they don’t seem to work as good so I’ve stayed with them even though it is a bit of a pain to have to pay for shipping and wait over a week for it to get here.
We’re bouts In Mississippi ? My old soap guy told me about some dudes down in Jonesboro Louisiana that make awesome soap’s…$275 a drum for brightner and $275 for there soap called( pro panel) they make a ton of different products.Gonna go see
them as well.
