New to Wash Systems

Balda

New Member
I am with a Heavy Duty truck repair company. We are putting up a new building and looking at having 1 bay dedicated to a self service vehicle wash system. There will be a wide variety of trucks going through here.... Over the Road Tractors, Dump Trucks, Medium Duty vans, and so on. I foud this forum while doing some searches and would like some of your opinions out there on what works and what doesnt.
Thanks in advance for any help!
 
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Ed@PreClean

Guest
Coming from a long back ground in the trucking business, I can tell you, "your gonna get what you pay for", doesn't apply here! You MIGHT get 3 out of 10 drivers to actually "Wash" their truck! Some care what the truck they drive looks like, others could care less. Then there's the guy who cares but WILL NOT wash his truck because thats not what he's paid to do. Futhermore, who's gonna train all your drivers on how to do it properly (chems etc...)? Now if a guy was getting paid to do the job as folks are here then they might care what kind of job they did. Then theres the aspect of someone purposefully damageing your equipment to get out of work. Happens ALL the time! Automated truck washers are VERY expensive and near all of them only wash the exterior and not under the hood or under-carriage and require someone to operate them.

My best advice is to hire a good fleet washer and take care of him because he'll take better care of you AND your trucks than any driver ever will. I'm not just saying that to get your business because I have no idea where you are, just telling you from experience. I just sold my own trucking company 3 months ago and my Dad has been in the trucking business for 48 years, so I grew up around it as well.
 

Balda

New Member
What we are looking to do is make it more of a Self Service kind of deal. We wont have anyone dedicated to that bay besides maybe one of our mechanics if someone needs help which will be the next bay over. I was looking at some of the self service car wash system. Where i can have some type of a rail on the cieling to walk around the truck with a pressure washer. Then have the control panel where you can switch between chemicals flowing through the wash. 90% of our customers going through the wash will be owner operators. Most of the fleets we service wash there own, but who knows what will happen once it is up. We also debated a Gentry Rollover system as well in this bay. Im just trying to open up all my options.
 

Larry B

New Member
I would recommend visiting other trucking companies and seeing their setup and get some feedback from them. If a company has put in a nice system they are usually happy to show it off. You could also look at the truck stops, although most of them a have a rollover system. I get business because these rollovers don't do a very good job and cost alot to use.
Are you trying to make money with the wash rack? The main goal is to make it efficient and easy to use so the drivers will use it. Look at a good 2 step system and decide if you want to go with hot water or not.
I was wondering what type of budget you had in mind for the setup as well.
 

Balda

New Member
Next week i plan to visit a few different systems. Ill be visiting a Brush Roll-Over, Touchless Roll Over and a self serv power wash bay setup. My budget is $200,000. If it goes over well the same system will be added to our other 3 locations. As for making money, thats always something any business is looking to do. But the added benifits for us is attracting new off the road customers with it to out parts and service departments.

I hear good and bad things about the rollovers everytime i talk to someone different. So until i see it first hand its hard to know what to believe.
 

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