Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Mike Halliday on July 18, 2015, 07:47:54 am
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Well my truckmount engine has finally gone to the that scrapyard in the sky after dying and spilling a gallon of dirty oil over a customers drive :-[ :-[ ...... But that's a problem for another post.
So until I get another engine I'm back to using a portable, although I say a 'portable' it's actually a big 50gl wet vac with 3 vacs motors, it's on a trolley so I will wheel it to the front door and use my truckmount 2 inch hose. I will still use my water tank on the van with the solution line leading from the van into the house. I've got a 1500psi electric pump in the van so I will have a power cord going to the van and hopefully the power lead off the vac will reach to the hallway socket.
Should be quite interesting, if it work well I might rethink buying a new engine and stick to electric......although I've wanted to switch over to using a Diesel engine on the truckmount so might use this opportunity to do that
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Wont it repair mike?
The amount of engines etc. you have I would have thought you could have put one together!!
Cant make this morning Mike , will pick up the Hypo in the morning if that ok.
Geoff
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I've had a machine sat in the unit for 2yrs waiting for this one to pack in, I thought it would be a straight swop, whipped the other one out, put the new one in but what a job I had trying to connect the silencer. The blower specs said it was a 2-1/2inch port but no matter what I tried I could'nt find a fitting (either imperial or metric) in the end I thought stuff it I will use electric until I decide whether to fit a new engine which will cost £1300 for a 25hp (which still will need work as the foot print is different) or go down another route
My broken machine has given me 8yrs of good service but the last year has started to show problems, still running but oil leaks, the heat exchanger was blowing, it would repair but now it times to just retire it and use it for spare parts.
See you in the morning
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Mike
stop winging and buy a storm
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Does it have a 50gl waste tank and 100gl fresh, Work at a 1000psi and heat the water? :D
I have a real portable but hate filling it up , I'd rather use my van water tank.
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You could use something like a Mytee airhog plus or a rotovac cfx along with your van water supply and heat. Then you will have auto dump as well.
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wots wrong wi a ruggy bitch? fck all dis truck mount ish
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How bout four motors in series/parallel mounted in box on top of your bane tank ... like this
(http://i60.tinypic.com/i70hfa.jpg)
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Great minds think alike :D :D
Been thinking along the same lines but mounting them directly onto the waste tank lid with filters
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1437247134_image.jpg)
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1437247257_image.jpg)
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1437247270_image.jpg)
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Sounds good if its a more convenient way for you to mount them ,and they are shielded from the water coming in the port , might also be worth checking if that particular filter impedes air flow much or not .
The defunct velocity tech etm , had its motors tank mounted , filters on the ball cutoff and a tray filter on the water coming in i think .
http://www.steam-brite.com/velocity-technologies-hurricane-electric-carpet-cleaning-truckmount-hybrid-truckmount-p-11694.html
There is some good prices on motors here ... not sure if they suit your filter plan .
could be adapted in some way ...
http://www.carpetcleanersstore.co.uk/category/motors
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If someone made one of these. What sort of pump would you use for pumping out the dirty water from the waste tank.
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Gave it a go today and it worked surprisingly well, having an onboard water tank a live hose reel meant I just pulled the solution line into the house and connected the tool then pulled the vac to the patio doors
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1437406877_image.jpg)
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1437406901_image.jpg)
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Does it have a 50gl waste tank and 100gl fresh, Work at a 1000psi and heat the water? :D
I have a real portable but hate filling it up , I'd rather use my van water tank.
my one has 400l fresh water tank and 250l dirty water tank, 1000-1200psi pump can be fitted if needed, hot water is also not a problem. :) But I am sure you can afford new truckmount instead of any porty or repairing the old truckmount that only can make another problems.
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How did you find the performance of tour wet vac Mike?
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Cleaning the suite was no different.
I use a CFR wonderwand which is used with single 3 stage vac CFR portables so I knew I would'nt have a problem with the suction, I could feel & hear a difference from the truck-mount but I compared it with a 2x3 stage portable I have and it was more than equal.
I was only using 50ft of 2 inch hose don't know what it would be like with 75 or 100ft
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Hi Mike
With all your money why don't you buy a new engine and then you can spend your time cleaning rather than being a mechanic.
Cheers
Doug
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Doug if I could have bought an exact replacement I would have ordered it right then, but they don't makes this model any more and it's replacement would need new bolt holes drilling and slightly raising. Plus it has a larger shaft (mine is 1 inch) so I would need a new flexible coupling.
I would rather fit the one I have in the unit and get an engineer to thread me a section of tubing to fit the port..... It would be cheaper.
But I enjoy the mechanical aspect of carpet cleaning, so like to 'think out of the box' and come up with new ways to clean.
This set up I'm using with the wet vac is working really well
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What sort of time difference percentage wise is there between your wet vac set up and your TM Mike?
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5 minutes on set up and put away, maybe not even that the only added step is wheeling the vac to the front door and plugging up it into the hallway socket, all the rest if the set up is the Same as using the TM.
on a couple of big jobs I've had to stop and empty it which is real easy, I I just take of the lid and tip it over into a drain.
its the onboard tanks & pump that makes the job easier than using a real portable
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Mike
Why don't you just buy a proper truckmount ?.
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They're over priced for what they are.
I prefer to build exactly what I want, plus I enjoy the inventing aspect of building my own, it's a bit like a guy driving an old car he has restored, he could buy a new car but it's about the build
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What is the TM you have?
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How can you say they are over priced ?, I have 2 large TM's and they have paid for themselves within a month .
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I think we need a picture of this beast, Mike.
Simon
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It's in bits in the unit now, I will try and find an old photo.
Basically a 18hp engine, 45 blower, 1500psi pump, propane burner (or heat exchanger with the water preheated by the van engine) same performance as a boxxer or other mid range machine but at a quarter of the price and twice as reliable. The best bit was no waste tank as I filtered the dirty water and expelled it through the blower ( like the prowler) which made the footprint on the machine a lot Smaller especially as I mounted my hose reel on top of the freshwater tank.
I can understand why people like the ease and convenience of purchasing a ready made truckmount but I have the knowledge to make a extremely customised machine, like using a massive truck silencer which makes it very quite and cuts down on restricting the blower or using a propane heater which is'nt available in the UK. I use a flexible coupling that can be changed on the job in 15 minutes but will never need changing as its rated to 130hp which is 5 times higher than it needs to be.
I have another machine that uses a Kevlar drive belt which is rated 4 times higher than it needs to be but will last forever, a machine manufacture would never fit such redundancy into their machine as its too expensive to do.
Making your own gives an amount of flexibility that is impossible with ready made.
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I wish I had the know how to make a hybrid like Mike , I have a bane in working order , I am sure this could be adapted into a beast of a machine relatively simply .
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Mike,
So where does all the dirty water go, onto the road?
Is there a silencer on the blower as well as the engine?
Simon
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If I'm parked on the road then it just expels into the roadside gutter, if I'm on someones drive I fit a piece of 3inch lay flat hose and run it whereever is most convenient.
It has a heat exchanger on the engine so no engine silencer and the blower uses a truck silencer
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Hi Guys
I suppose it's a bit like me making up my own formulations, it makes the job more interesting!
Cheers
Doug
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If you expel the waste water through the blower and the blower has a truck silencer does the waste water get blown through the silencer?
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Yes. You need to change it every few years as very small fibres get past the filter and accumulate in the small holes within the silencer.
But it's quite an easy test to know when it need changing, you just loosen the clamp attatching the joining pipe if the holes within the silencer are starting to get blocked the back pressure created by the blower pushes the silencer off
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Hi Mike, I'm interested in the flexible drive coupling you mentioned. My Chemtex 27 hp TM eats through the couplings I use, just wondered if the ones you use would be suitable for mine? If so, where can I get them from? Thanks Pete.
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(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1437899914_image.jpg)
http://www.fptgroup.com/fenner.asp?title=HRC-Couplings&pageid=2673.
Geoff also has changed his coupling to this type on his TM. buy the biggest that will fit, I buy mine from a local industrial transmission shop, just tell the your shaft size and measure the shaft clearance from the floor to see how big you can buy, I think mine is 8 inches which is massive overkill
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Here's the coupling I had fitted to a machine I made, (ignore its rough looking appearance it was a work in progress ;). )
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1437900982_image.jpg)
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Not had a problem with mine in a long time ( touch wood ) Mike
The guy who services my t/m did dedicate some time getting alignment right and a couple of other tweaks to ensure smooth running .
Geoff
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I used to go through coupling Pete it's a chemtex thing a lot of the US cleaners say the same, I used to import them it was cheaper and had a few in stock I got quite good at changing them over.
One thing I would suggest Mike although I know you will have made up your mind, compared to my chemtex and other similar TMs my new bigger TM does clean faster I can't work out why but even on a smaller job I'm faster.
Shaun
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This job is not like a 9 to 5 where we can switch of from it. It becomes more of a hobby.
I have taken my TM apart a few times to replace bits like HX or the engine etc.
I have always enjoyed it working out how to solve a problem.
Had to replace the engine in our transit this year a bit of stress but I enjoy tinkering with anything mechanical.
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I used to go through coupling Pete it's a chemtex thing a lot of the US cleaners say the same, I used to import them it was cheaper and had a few in stock I got quite good at changing them over.
One thing I would suggest Mike although I know you will have made up your mind, compared to my chemtex and other similar TMs my new bigger TM does clean faster I can't work out why but even on a smaller job I'm faster.
Shaun
One small problem with getting through the work faster Shaun, ok problem probably not the correct terminology ::)roll is I often find myself justifying the price for the little time I have taken, quite often I will get a comment like "you have finished already" although they are happy with the results.
Just a thought!!!!
geoff
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I've gone passed that Geoff although it can leave time for kitchen sink marketing without the need for the kitchen sink.
Shaun
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I've been intrigued by the idea of getting a largish diesel car engine to build a tm. My theory is that it could run on idle and still have plenty of power and hardly use any fuel. Maybe it would last longer as well.