[john rees]

You could do what I do and employ an assistant, he does all the loading and unloading,not too mention pre-vaccing while I chat and arrange how many sugars we take in our tea!
                             all the best
                                               John

[mark_roberts]

I got a TM because i needed to save time to do more work and i couldnt do that with any portable set-up and believe me I tried.

I think a lot of portable owners cant justify a TM as their business wouldnt support it and therefore praise their suped up portables.  I used to be one of them.

But their comes a time when you need more time to meet the demand for your services.  A TM helps to achieve this.

Theres other benefits as well but for me they are secondary.

Mark

[prodry]

TM is so much easier and my customers are always impressed with the dry times, results, the size and the nice loud noise of the thing, even bring their small children out so that  they can stare at it running. Recomendations have gone up since i had it and my back is a lot straigther and I am home earlier then ever.

Never used a van mounted porty however, but have lugged Extracta Excel and Ninja around before and never again, I have seen the light and been saved, Halleluhah. I however cant see how a van mounted porty can have the same power as a TM and the thought of running electric cables over the ground from customers house would frighten me. How leagl is this anyway, Is this part of the CE testing of the machines, why dont any of the manafactuers (importers) in this country offer an off the shelf set up for this. I wonder?

As regards TM usage in America, i would say almost all the franchises, including Chemdry over there use them, their department stores such as Sears have them to offer their clients. All the adverts on their local TV progrmes go on about them. A common quote used by many of us is 'Shaw industries largest carpet maker recomends that carpets cleaned by HWE etc' most however miss the second sentence, 'using a truck mounted carpets cleaning machine etc'.

With the cost of current entry level machines such as Prowler or Woodbridge machines I cant see how you could justify a van mount porty. Imitatation however is the sincerest form of flatery i supose. We will all have pedal powered TMs soon, we will have to carry a Polish in the back of the van to pedal the thing.

Ed Valentine would probably disagree with my comments, however lets not forget he is the importer of the Solutions UK range of super powered portys and turkeys don't vote for christmas.

[ianharper]

portables do the job and keep overheads down which in turn increases profit. dont knoe about you but thats why i work. for profit.

plus what extra benifits would a TM give my customers?

is this about what benifits a Tm over a portable give us or our customers. if its us it has to be time and profit and with van mounted portables you get lots more at a lower cost.

you have to be carfull that you dont get cought up in the spin that producers of TM give us.

there is one advantage that a Tm has over my setup and thats hard floors. with the amount of tiled floors it a good income flow, but them the gras  is always greener as they say, how mnay TM owners use their Tm for tiles?

My portabe has 500 psi i know you can get them with more but then you have to compermise on vpick up. so there are limits. just as ther are limits to tms. like porability.

Respect

Ian Harper

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

well ive been reading many pages on here about whats best a porty a or tm and i had my eyes on a new tm buy the end of the year but after reading all these posts on here i just havnt got a glue 

[paul wright]

buy a truckmount if u getting 10 calls aday and 5 are com jobs, yes it be better , but if u like 99% of carpet cleaners getting couple jobs a day and 99% domestic   then no way  , on domestic jobs  the time, results etc between a petrol tm and a porty tm is very slim , but u earn more with the porty tm hands down,  how do i now?  cause ive bin there   as has mr harper

[mark_roberts]

The benefit of a TM to the customer is dryer carpet, faster cleaning time, no need to use up their power or hot water and in certain situations cleaner carpet, no need for noisy gear in the house.

Benefit to me is faster job time so more work can be fitted in a day, easier on the back, more money and profit made overall, offers a USP over competition.

You dont need a bigger van SWB would do, in the long run its not that much more expensive than a portable.  In 1.5 years all Ive done is standard servicing around £150.  Using Ninjas Id have gone through two vac motors and maybe a pump which is around £500 in total.

But yes your also right in that if you only do two jobs a day and are home for 2pm then a Tm is not for you but then if you do that then are you really building a business or living a lifestyle??

Mark

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I do 99% domestic work, that's what I market for and I have a TM, at £50 a week to run (yes I'm always busy) it's cheaper than what i was paying staff (£260) per week with an electric machine, and I get the same amount of work done and the TM helps sell my services.

Shaun

[Len Gribble]

Think all but one TMers started with porty, how many up and coming cc buy a porty and fall at the first hurdle, yes some TMers have but cc was not the core business.

Doing some home improvements got an old Stanley plain, went out and brought an electrical one must have knocked of seconds.

Think TM’s in South East London/North Kent area are a total waist of time and money, as you can’t park anywhere! 

Ian

Did you get the electrics sorted out or are you still running a gas-guzzler, don’t get many calls for tiles.


Len

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Hows Len?

Going to the show in Birmingham this year?

Shaun

[john rees]

I've only taken 4 bookings today for my T/M 1 new customer from the yellow pages wanting her lounge doing, the other 3 all previous customers, a large bridal shop,solicitors offices,and a 94 bedroom nursing home with 6 very large lounges and 3 dining rooms along with 6 300x8  foot corridors, I really wouldnt want to do the nursing home using anything other than a dual wanding T/M. connect the hosepipe to the machine, auto dump to the sewer, set metering and away to go! until the fuel runs out!

                all the best
                                  John

[Len Gribble]

Very well thanks Shaun not sure about nec wife wants to fly south to her mates to get warm, cant understand why! Sue has every comfort Vito van with frost control, all sue has to do is turn it up or put another blanket over the machine.

Are you going to the SDO

Len

[Shaun_Ashmore]

May be. Frost control? give her a slap that'll keep her warm

Shaun

[Kinver_Clean]

I'm a porty man, but if I had loads of offices and NursingHomes that size there would be no question which machine I would run. Trouble is round here in the Black Country there are loads of estates built in the 60s that have 'walks' with the parking 200 yds away. Its a pain with a porty dragging it to the job but out of reach to a TM.
Trevor

[john rees]

In 5 years I've only ever not done 2 jobs with the T/M's  using 300ft of hose,and having the option to carry more if needed. 1 was a 12x12 office in a prison,(where I told them I would do it with a portable if they couldn't get anyone else) the other was a fourth floor flat where the woman decided not to do the whole flat as arranged but only the hallway as she thought the rest of it wasn't too bad after all!  ( I wasn't going to bother taking a portable just for that) as there was not even a lift! Even when I used portables I always parked as close as possible to where we were working for security reasons, so parking the T/M outside the property is not at all differerent to when I used portables.
                         All the best
                                           John

[carpetguy]

The arguments will never go away and recently, the arguments have been more friendly and comstructive, but there will always be some, who will opt for T/M's expecting to increase business, simply through ownership

What's been mentioned above, is the assertion, that no portable machine comes close to T/M 's drying times and that is nonesense.

Someone comments about running cables even questioning the legalityand safety of doing so and scaremainering.

As you are well aware, cables are frequently run across pavements and roads, protected, of course and have been for years, eg, the Bane Clene system.

A powerful twin vac machine with up to 1000 psi will clean and leave carpets as dry as a T/M and just as clean.

Anyway, when did you last use, even 50% of the power available .

As always................it's the person and the products that matter, most.

[prodry]

CarpetGuy

A portable electric unit with two vacs running 150 foot of hose does not compete with the postive vac power of any petrol or diesel t/mount.

Baneclean elec TMs machines also were purpose designed for van mount usage and therefore must have been CE approved for that purpose. They use HD wires, ampmeters on the unit to check the draw, RCDs, waterproof plugs and a different type of vacuum to usual portables.

I was just asking the question how legal it was to run an elec portable as a van mount against what it was designed for. Maybe Mr Valentine or the other Sol. Uk crowd who post on here could answer this question as none have so far, although they seem to jump to defending this setup every time it is mentioned.

[mark_roberts]

Ive owned 5 different portables and a Bane machine over the years and nothing comes close on drying compared to a TM.  Oh and Ive even had a Savage and Solutions boosters.

There is and always will be a difference in power between an electric machine and a petrol machine.

The difference is speed and drying.

Mark

[*paul_moss]

Same as Mark
I have just done my first full week with a TM and it is a worl of diffrence in trms of power,speed,heat,drying times.
Really enjoyed my porty days but I wont be going back.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

It still can't clean leather though!

Shaun