Sucks about your hard water. I can pretty much leave a black car to air dry here most of the year with no issues. I looked at the Transits as well but up here we are looking at $26k to get into one. And they only have the gas motor here so far. Whats the point?
Being mobile. I wonde about not having water and power if your doing a car at an office building and the like? I guess you could turn down that type of work? but I'm sure we have all been detailing a car someone sees you, and wants you to do their car! This is why I love this board you get great imput and things you may have never thought of, thanks guys!! :applause:
so far. everything fits into my honda accord trunk ) but i dont do mobile detailing, just go to my friends house and he has everything thats needed i would have a van for that stuff, you can lock it, advertisement space and looks more professional then trailer, i think (of couse depends what kinda triler). plus easier to drive around
This is what you need to think about Bob. I used to go into Vancouver and work in underground parking lots etc so had to have my own water. These days I just work in my neighborhood and out of my shop so I don't really need a tank. Water tanks are very inexpensive so its not a large cash outlay. Also, to save on space, I put all my polishes, sealants etc in 4oz bottles and cleaners in 16oz bottles. I carry gallon jugs of APC and wheel cleaner in case I need more. You'd be surprised at how little of each product you actually need to carry. Keep in mind, I seldom go out and do 4 carwashes. Mainly its one detail a day so I don't need to carry a lot.
Ken, Great points, this thread has been a great help getting others slant to it!. Now I work out of a Silverado long bed exteneded cab, I went to Home Depot today and noted how hard it would be if I had a trailer! I would have had to do what a semi does, park in left out!
Something that I have considered in regard to hooking up to a customer's water/electricity is the fact that every other type of service professional (i.e. house cleaning, plumbers, contractors, etc.) would not have their own water supply or electrical supply. It would simply be expected that they would need those things in order to do the work required, so why would a customer expect a detailer to be any different? I actually looked up the cost of water in my area Virginia Beach, and its $4.10 per 1000 gallons. So the cost to the customer is really insignificant.
Hi, Yea thats a good point. That would work if you did the detailing at a customers house, which isn't always the case. Sometimes your at a clients place of work , and the acess to water and power isn't avalible. I think I like the autonomy of being self-contained, I can go anywhere and detail a car?
If you are certain that you want to be self contained, then your pressure washer becomes a very important issue. The amount of water your pressure washer uses will determine the size of the tank you need. The pwasher I had flowed 4 gpm so I had to have at least 100 gallons on board in case I got a dirty vehicle. W have a lot of 4x4s and SUVs where I live. A decent pwasher will flow at least 1.8 - 2.2 gpm. ( gallons per minute.) I personally wouldn't go less than 2gpm. With a 50 gallon tank, you will have around 30 minutes of run time which, for most cars will be adequate. A gas pwasher will also allow you to regulate the flow so if the car you are working on is very clean, you can turn down the flow a bit to conserve water. You will also need a bypass system to allow your pwasher to idle withour boiling off the water in the pump and prematurely killing your pump. I'll post a pic of my set up later. Gotta go!
You guys who have been self contained - what do you do for electricity? Gas generator? I've wondered if I could get away running the buffer off the truck. It costs very little to idle a diesel, and it's got two batteries and a high capacity alternator in it.
Yes Karl, a generator. I had a $400 Home Depot bought Briggs and Stratton that worked fine but was a bit loud. I got a Honda EU2000i and its dead quiet. Well worth the $1000! If you have a diesel, look into an inverter. They are fairly inexpensive and can easily be hard wired into your truck.
Oh man, I forgot about those Honda generators. They're the bees knees - amazingly quiet! To go self contained, what does one need to do to provide water pressure to the power washer? Will a 12V pump for an RV water supply suffice? Regarding the inverter: that's kind of what I was thinking. The idea was one of the things that drove me towards buying a diesel. And since it's next to impossible to find diesel powered vans, I bought the F250. Is there any advantage to buying a "nice" inverter? I notice that there are lots of different inverters, some cheap, some a lot more expensive. The water reclamation laws that are starting to show up here for mobile detailers...that's probably another thread altogether.
My plan is too get an electric Cam Spray and a generator... that way if I can hook up to the owners electricity I won't have to start up anything at all... I've seen tons of diesel vans... kind of tempted...
Where are you finding them? Not that I need one anymore, I'm just curious. I found one occasionally on Craigslist, but they were universally beat to heck and ratty looking, and had over 200K miles on them. Which might be fine, but I bought the F250 with 94K on it. (I was only looking for Fords, as I've owned a Ford Super Duty before, and really like them. Didn't bother to go looking for Chevys and Dodges.) I subscribed to this thread, BTW. This is a particularly good one.
Actually, if you build your tank up on a rack (see my pics at the beginning of this thread) you won't need a pump. As long as the outlet on your water tank is at least 8" above the inlet on your pwasher, you're golden. I've had all three of my vans set up like this and never had an issue. Even when the tank was near empty, it was still feeding the pwasher fine. I really don't know what the difference between a good or bad inverter would be. Thats what Google is for! LOL Not so quick there big guy! A pressure washer like the Cam Spray will probably need a dedicated circuit. Electric motors draw a lot of power on start up. If there is anything else on the circuit you have it plugged into, you could pop the breaker. Unless you get a generator to power your Pwasher, I would go with a gas unit. Having said that, I am having an electric one built for my next van that will flow around 2 gpm but I will be able to run off my little Honda generator. The nice thing about a gas pwasher is that you can adjust the flow down to do doorjambs and then dial it back up for doing the car itself.
I use gas generator and gas power washer, power washer has pump that feeds back into the water tank when idling. they're loud, but hey they're gas!
You should check out the honda Eu series. My neighbour has a 3000watt Eu series and unless you are standing right over it, you can't tell its running. My 2000 is easily 30db lower than my Briggs and Stratton. They aren't cheap, but are soooooo worth it. You are right, if you have a gas pwasher and tank, the bypass is a must.
