That was my second yanmar,my first was a two cylinder I had a 4’ bush hog and it did a great job -my last one was a three cylinder with 55 hours on it,and old man owned it and it was not used for years,not a speck of dirt or grease anywhere - I just didn’t need it and made a little money on it ,I hate I sold it 
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What does fully plumbed mean?
His wasnt setup for a pro, it had the stock builtin unloader which is small.
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I have so much to learn. 
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When he said “fully plumbed” I don’t think he had a buffer tank at the time either.
Just do a search for “trailer build” and you’ll see how some have their equipment setup. That will also lead you to other terms you’ll want to search. A lot of guys just run out of the back of a truck but the basics are all the same when it comes to plumbing the machine.
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Luckily your at the right place. This forum has everything you need to learn and more. Use the search function as much as possible and you’ll learn a ton with time. What @dcbrock was referring to was the pump on his machine had a built in unloader so he didn’t have a way to setup a bypass back to his buffer tank. Do what @marinegrunt said and you’ll see what he means. If you still don’t understand just search the terms unloader and bypass.
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So I need to upgrade majorly. I’m doing this part-time and have been for a long time, primarily cleaning and staining decks. But I really enjoy cleaning houses and concrete. Definitely more than staining.
Currently, I rent a surface cleaner when I need one. And my gpm is 3 on my pressure washer. From reading on this forum I realize I need 5.5 gpm or more.
So now it’s time for the stupid question of the year.
If the water coming out of the spigot is only 4 gpm, how do you get to 5.5 gpm or even 8 gpm? I currently use the customer’s faucet to connect to (this is probably a crime to some–does anyone ever connect to a customer’s spigot?) but that’s how I was trained and how my boss did it (I realize that doesn’t mean it’s good or right).
So to use a 5.5 gpm or more, do you have to have a set-up where you have your own tank? Trying to do this right, ya’ll. But even after 10+ hours of reading on here, I’m still hitting some road bumps.
Most spigots won’t supply a 5.5. Definitely not a 8gpm. If someone in the house even turns the water on you’ll feel it in your gun. Most on here run a buffer tank. I have a 350 gallon to run 2 machines at the same time. We all use a spigot or hydrants, we just supply our buffer tank with it via a Hudson valve. I used to only run off a spigot only, with no buffer in the very beginning. But when I finally found out that some spigots, city or well couldn’t handle a 4gpm, so I went to a buffer. Now I’m forced to a buffer like most on here because I run 2 machines at 11gpm, most run 1 machine at 8gpm. So I fill up to 150 gallons and then get to washing and the spigot will mostly keep up,mostly. Get a buffer tank and run your bypass line from your unloader back to your buffer,cap the pump. This will allow you to stay off the trigger as long as you wish with no fear of burning your pump down. It creates constant circulation of fresh cold water back to your pump. @qons.if the customer doesn’t want or can’t supply water, there is usually a $75 or higher charge for us to haul it.
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@Hotshot Wow, I just learned a lot in that paragraph. Thank you!
Would you ruin a 5.5 gpm machine running it off a spigot that can’t supply 5.5 gpm?
Yes…
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@qons here you go 5.5 set with 100 gallon buffer and two reels one for supply one for pressure. Simple and easy
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@Firefighter4hire That looks doable.
What would something like that cost? And what kind of work would it allow me to do? Clean houses and do residential concrete (with a surface cleaner added of course)?
You can clean anything you want too. You can get into a complete set for around 10k
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You can a 5.5 PP for around $5500. Hotsy for $ 8500, Landa for around 10k, Hydrotek,Alkota for $7500, dbl axle trailer $1700, add around 2k for all the other crap.
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If you mainly plan on doing residential you don’t have to have a hot water washer. It’s really only needed for commercial concrete with grease or oil. If you think you might want to get into restaurants you might as well go for a hot water unit. If you plan on mainly residential don’t worry about getting one.
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You can get a good setup for about 10k. I suggest since you’re getting started be prepared do drop some coin on advertising, signs, signs for trailer and pamphlets or door hanger or whatever other printed marketing you’re into. Plan on about 1-2k for that stuff.
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@Firefighter4hire @Hotshot @marinegrunt Thank you all! My challenge is that I just do this on the side. Right now I’m doing one job a week at most. Ideally, I’d like to get to 3-4/week. So it would take me years to recoup a $10k set up.
It is very important for me to do a great job. But it seems if buying a trailer set-up and water tank isn’t realistic for me, then I’m really stuck in the 4gpm area and nothing higher. If that’s accurate, then which direction do I go? (And please don’t say get a new part-time job! 
)
Get a new part time job.
Edit: Sorry, I had to. It’s sort of my job. (See title under name)
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I can’t imagine having to keep the gun squeezed the whole time. You don’t know what you’re missing without a buffer tank for bypass. You don’t even need a trailer if you have a truck. If you don’t have a truck you could start off with a small trailer. Someone on here has a trailer that’s like 4’ x 6’ or something. Even if you stick with the 4 gpm I would still figure out a way for a small truck bed or trailer setup with a buffer tank. You can then slowly add other options as you grow like a 12 volt system. If I were you I would just get a 12’ single axle trailer for now. You can find one used for like $600.
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