heavy machinery

[dannyh]

Has anyone ever cleaned heavy machinery such as bulldozers, very large dumptucks, grators. This is equipment that is being used in coal mines here in east Texas. All they want is the grease cleaned from them. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[JeffW]

Very dirty work.If you're washing other things such as houses,decks etc...it would be ideal to have two separate rigs because the grease and dirt on these is unbelievable and will make a mess of your equipment and you do not want to drag this kind of grime onto residential jobs.And cleaning it every time is a pain.Also find out what the water recovery requirements are.Also the more GPM the better.Use a good degreaser and hot water.I did some of this when I first started ten years ago because I was looking for work but I do not do it anymore ,just does'nt seem worth it to me.But to someone else it may be there prefered job.I also use to wipe baby oil on my face so the grease would'nt stick so bad.Good luck!

 

[R L S]

Hot Hot water, good degreaser and lots of water availible.Put water hauling in your bid or have them supply water via hydrant or water buffalo. Yes will get filthy. I learned to park my rig about 50' away to keep it from getting slimed. After a good day of washing heavy equipment it takes about 3hours to clean all my stuff when I get home. I enjoy washing equipment and the right people pay good as well. HAVE FUN!!!

 

[dannyh]

thanks for the info. I told them $50.00 an hour but from the sound of things that may not be enough.

 

[Dave Olson]

Hello Dannyh,

We clean a local coal mines surface equipment several times per year. We pre-wash using just water with turbo tips. Sometimes we can do the pre-wash with cold water. We pretreat the oily spots with degreaser before the prewash.

Here are a couple pic's of one of there haulers. One man can spend 3 hours cleaning this machine. We run at least a 2 man crew at the coal mine. We run two wands at 5 gpm, 3000 psi, and can heat over 200 degrees when needed.

Dave Olson

 

[north coast]

We do a lot of earth moving equipment and steel plant machines. Depends on what is on them like slag from steel mills we use a concrete acid on them but earth moving equipment is just degreasing soap & hot water 12 gpm @ 3000psi usually cuts through it quickly. Every thing is priced by the hour. They may want a complete degrease for mechanic to work on or just a wash to keep up on it but go by the hour so you do not loose out. Have a minimum, we use 4 hours no matter how long we are there and we include our drive time in that and then add on from there. Good luck there are a lot off potential customers with this area.

 

[Scrappy]

I have done several loaders golf carts and fork lifts at the local steel plant . . . it's very dirty but pays very well!!!!!!!!!!!!! i made $1,600 for cleaning two fork lifts 3 golf carts and washing the slag of one of the company trucks. Cost: $10 in gas about 30 or 40 dollars in muriatic acid and a couple dollars to fill my 350 gl water tank. started at 8 oclock and was done before lunch. not sure who you will be working for but NAS the steel plant here locally pays very well as long as you do a good job! just be prepared to get dirty lol !!!! good luck and if you have any questions feel free to give me a call!

 

[Fox-Ind]

I used to work for a Large Equipment Rental house... We would charge any where from $60 - to $80/hr for the machines to be cleaned. Average time would take our guy about 3-4 hrs. We used a 12gpm 3000 psi unit. Very dirty job, well worth the mess though.

 

[DAFF]

Baby Wipes

Try baby wipes to remove grease from your body. Give it a try next time you come home with grease splotches all over your face and arms, they work great!!!