Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Robin Ray on August 18, 2015, 04:10:11 pm
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Just to start off I am not a truckmount owner ....yet so there is no bias after spending 1000s.
I have just been to Phoenix Truckmounts down in Cornwall and had a go with one of their 570i machines. All I can say is there is absolutely no comparison between a portable and a truckmount. I run a fairly powerful porty which is capable of excellent vacuum and airflow along with high heat however the truckmount has a lot more vacuum airflow heat and flow!! I cleaned there showroom carpet which was black in places with grease from the workshop there was no chemical in rinse water no agitation and only a very small bit of prespray from a hand sprayer and the hot water flow and vacuum took it straight out. In fact it was so effective I would say 80% of my work could be cleaned with just a hot water flush and get the same results I currently get from prespraying, agitating dwell and extraction with my porty. The best thing of all is I turned up totally unannounced and was able to get a full demo which took all morning!
For those who wonder whether the move to a truckmount is worth it the answer is absolutely. And for those who wonder which company to get one off the answer is Phoenix. I have made inquiries with a number of other company's and Phoenix have been the most helpful by far!
All I need to do now is get one....
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Robin
I used a prochem one whilst on a course that was crazy power.
Out of interest what port do you run.
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Hi Robin,
You should try a Titan 875, it is twice as powerful as the 570i. ;D
I'm not surprised in the least that you have had such a good experience down in Cornwall, they are a top company.
So did you order one?
Simon
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Really ?, is it much more powerful than a portable ?.
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Hi Robin
I Have had a TM from the Phoenix company down in Cornwall for 10 + years and and the service has always been great, Martin is always helpful on the phone you could not ask for anything more when running your own business. Some people will say its a long way to travel if needed, but I could not think of a better place to visit than Cornwall.
David
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Really ?, is it much more powerful than a portable ?.
Glyn,
When you get one, son, you'll know ;D
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Simon,
I "was" thinking about one but surely these modern portables would be as good, wouldn't they ?.
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Yeah, Glynn - Honest. ;D
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Hopefully Robin will be back and explain the difference.
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You're just jealous, Glynn. ;D
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Still, it would be nice to know Simon.
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I'll tell you if you like, I Glynn, I've got two, you know. ;D
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truckmounters ::)roll ::)roll
;D
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Robin, how much is 570i?
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truckmounters ::)roll ::)roll
;D
Truckmounters forum doesn't accept rag whirlers ;D
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Good!!!.....
I would find it very hard to think down to that level.... ;D ;D ;D
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Good!!!.....
I would find it very hard to think down to that level.... ;D ;D ;D
You're a muck spreader, so you're already at that level, you numpty :D
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:-* :-* ;D ;D
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I'm going to get a 450i not a 570i I would have liked to try a 450i but they didn't have one built so showed me the 570 which was sitting on a pallet.
Of course I knew there would be some difference but without any experience with TMs it is difficult to know exactly how much until you try it out.
I haven't ordered one yet as I like to try to get in the best financial I can position before getting a largish debt however it is now my priority to get one because it is so fast and easy. Also a new Phoenix 450i direct drive is coming out too.
Robin
I used a prochem one whilst on a course that was crazy power.
Out of interest what port do you run.
I have a Airflex with two HD Electros in it, don't get me wrong its still really good I wont be getting rid of it.
The 570i is £16995 + vat which is more than I want to spend and more than I need as it is a dual wand machine, it is a superb bit of kit.
I think the main difference over a porty is the flow and heat.... heat which is so good it makes the vacuum tube on the wand too hot to touch.
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Each has a place, although since having mine I have only used the porty twice in 6 months.
Both times in areas where I couldnt get my van. My TM is only a small one but it makes the job easier and the results better.
I was getting good results with the porty but better with my TM also faster and easier.
It is a debate which will rage on forever and tbh it is upto you which you want for yourself and your business.
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Why do you need all that power just to clean a carpet ?
I sort of get it on large commercial that you can actually get access to but on bread and butter every day stuff its pure over priced vanity (are carpet cleaners ripped off post alluded to this) that is not needed and how many CC actually have the business to warrant all the cost., how long before you see a ROI because its not just the TM,is it ? its the van it sits in as well.
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As I said I don't have a TM but after using one coming from a fairly powerful porty I can see the cleaning potential therefore the earning potential/ or working less potential is imminence.
I thought it could be the vanity of having a big noisy expensive shiny machine before actually using one, now I see it differently. The only way I can really describe the difference is like changing from a horse to a car. Horses are slower and need a lot of grooming feeding mucking out, you fill a car up once and it goes for miles faster and in comfort. The longer I rely only on my portable the longer I will feel being held up unnecessarily.
Of course this does not mean portable machines are useless. I can get the same result with my machine it just takes longer with more inconvenience to me and the customer. I will not get rid of my portable as I will need it in many situations.
As for having enough work to merit using a TM I would not consider buying one if there was no need. And there are carpet cleaners who have been using TMs for decades that seem to have the work to merit their use.
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Hilton, I mainly clean domestics and I absolutely could not to without a TM. I`m stacked with work and you can just knock each job out so much quicker. I`ve had a problem with my van recently and had to use my porty which does a perfectly good job but just much much slower.
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I've fancied investing in a truck mounted machine for a while now but have always been worried about not being able to park close enough to a job to be able to use it. How far away can you be before it becomes useless????
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I had a truckmount which although old it had 22hp and worked very well but most of my work is Oxford so I made the decision to go down to the Storm which has excellent power(not as much as the truckmount obviously) but there were just too many access issues with my work area sometimes couldn't get parked on the right side of the road so hose lengths/power etc didn't come into play.If your work allows get a truckmount(have little porty for small stuff)......you need to assess your workload places of work etc...............Alan
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Why do you need all that power just to clean a carpet ?
I sort of get it on large commercial that you can actually get access to but on bread and butter every day stuff its pure over priced vanity (are carpet cleaners ripped off post alluded to this) that is not needed and how many CC actually have the business to warrant all the cost., how long before you see a ROI because its not just the TM,is it ? its the van it sits in as well.
Vanity??????
Picking up your first TM and handing over thousands and thousands of pounds, not knowing whether or not you made the right decision has got sweet fa to do with vanity.
And if it was about just vanity, bragging rights, mine's bigger than yours then your moment in the sun is going to be short lived. If all you are bothered about is vanity, why not just photoshop a picture of yourself standing next to a shiny new TM and get the glee without the pay-out? ;)
Simon
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Here’s a TM story for you.
Over thirty years ago just before I got my first Prochem 100A truck mount (16hp Briggs and Stratton, with rope start and diesel burner), we used to clean the carpets in a very busy pub in the centre of town. The area was around 230 sq metres and used to take us 8 hours overnight. We combination cleaned it, rotary scrubbing with Multipro and fibre shampoo and then extracted with twin vac machine.
Then I got the TM and the job time went down to 3 hours 50 minutes, we were still rotary scrubbing. I then got an RX20, the first in the UK, and the job time went down to 2 hours 45 minutes, cleaning non-stop and went from being a night job to a morning job. The quality went up and the job time went down massively AND the area manager was so impressed we ended up doing all of the company’s pubs in the North West. The sales value of that alone paid for the TM many times over.
We got another pub chain by persuading an area manager to let us clean one of his pubs carpets the day after it had been done by their existing contractor.
We filled the recovery tank with clean water and drained it in front of the client before we started so he could see we weren’t playing tricks on him. We then cleaned some areas of his choosing and the result was very much better than the existing guy we then took the area manager out to empty the machine which was tarmac black. Guess who cleaned their carpets after that?
A TM is far more productive and can produce far better results much faster and the ability to do that over a number of markets is what is known as ‘the competitive edge.’ TM’s might look expensive, but they cost peanuts in comparison to their earning power.
And then there is the marketing machine that a TM is……………………….
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such a lot of money, but id love one some day.......... :P
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Simon is talking a load of rubbish as usual
he is a ubfec
:D :D
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Couldn't agree with you more Simon - I bought my first TM used off you that 100A with the paraffin burner - best thing I ever did for my business. I was so impressed going from a portatable to a TM I imported a new twin wand hydramaster machine direct from the states, before John Gott started to import them. John actually came up to see my machine and the rest is history.
I did think you would never leave Prochem and come over to the dark side the amount of flack you gave me when we did the ships together all those many, many moons ago.
Basically semi retired now but would never ever go back to a porty for love nor money if I was full time.
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I used my enforcer today for the first time in two months, it's great but compared to my blazer gt there's no comparison
In every way
Gary Bristowclean
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Robin I've got a Phoenix 450i and a 570i and before you dismiss buying the bigger tm I would think a little further ahead. The 570 you can LPG and the savings in fuel made up the difference in cost between the 2 machines within 1 year for us. I would also say the 570 Is way easier to work on and much more reliable
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Here’s a TM story for you.
Over thirty years ago just before I got my first Prochem 100A truck mount (16hp Briggs and Stratton, with rope start and diesel burner), we used to clean the carpets in a very busy pub in the centre of town. The area was around 230 sq metres and used to take us 8 hours overnight. We combination cleaned it, rotary scrubbing with Multipro and fibre shampoo and then extracted with twin vac machine.
Then I got the TM and the job time went down to 3 hours 50 minutes, we were still rotary scrubbing. I then got an RX20, the first in the UK, and the job time went down to 2 hours 45 minutes, cleaning non-stop and went from being a night job to a morning job. The quality went up and the job time went down massively AND the area manager was so impressed we ended up doing all of the company’s pubs in the North West. The sales value of that alone paid for the TM many times over.
We got another pub chain by persuading an area manager to let us clean one of his pubs carpets the day after it had been done by their existing contractor.
We filled the recovery tank with clean water and drained it in front of the client before we started so he could see we weren’t playing tricks on him. We then cleaned some areas of his choosing and the result was very much better than the existing guy we then took the area manager out to empty the machine which was tarmac black. Guess who cleaned their carpets after that?
A TM is far more productive and can produce far better results much faster and the ability to do that over a number of markets is what is known as ‘the competitive edge.’ TM’s might look expensive, but they cost peanuts in comparison to their earning power.
And then there is the marketing machine that a TM is……………………….
Like I said pure vanity, I could have done all that with a Stimvak Junior in half the time. ;D
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; :D :D :
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I'm fitting a new TM into the van this afternoon, been using a portable for 3 weeks, at first I though I would just stick to using it as I had the propane burner to heat the water (so had one aspect of using a truck-mount.... very hot solution)
It was nice to wheel the portie to the door and only have to use 50ft of hose on most jobs and with 2 of us it was no hassle. but even using a 10 inch wand it was still leaving the carpets a little too wet ( they were taking 5 minutes to dry instead of my usual 2mins with the TM ;) )
And It was nice having the extra space in the van with no TM
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Which new Truckmount did you get Mike ?.
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An XR3 Cosworth biggibarstarder...... Are you familiar with them? ;)
Seriously It's a little knocked up unit from some spare parts I had in my unit, 36hp engine to a 47 blower.
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i have been trying to register for the truckmounters for for ages but have never been able to, i dont know what ive done to upset whoever runs it but despite sending emails have NEVER had a reply.
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Colin,
Email me your details and I'll get Glyn to sort it. You need a passport type picture too.
simon@gerrardscarpetcleaners.co.uk
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thanks simon
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Hi Guys
It is so much easier to get a good job with a truck mount and parking isn't much of an issue.
As you get older it's an even bigger advantage, there is no way I could have done the amount of work I have this week with a porty
I keep a porty on board but only use occasionally, usually in sheltered accommodation.
As for cost just finance it, the extra work will pay for it.
From our customers perspectives having a TM puts you in a much smaller pool of competitors, it's hard to sell one electric machine as being any better that another but a TM is so obviously a much bigger beast.
Go for it, you wont regret it.
Cheers
Doug
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i have been trying to register for the truckmounters for for ages but have never been able to, i dont know what ive done to upset whoever runs it but despite sending emails have NEVER had a reply.
I'll give you referral Colin, even if nobody else will! ;D
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Hurray , after 12 years on this forum a proper discussion on truckmounts with out a slanging party v trucks match. :D
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"Slanging party", that sounds fun!!
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Yesterday cleaned the top 3 levels of a 5 storey building.
Took 4 hours.............
Would have been twice that long with my porty. No lift lots of stairs.....
Still have the porty and do use now and then but wouldn't be without my TM even though it is only a prochem blazer plus.
Fuel costs the TM is peanuts the van on the other hand....
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Jonathan
You ever though of joining truck mounters ?
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Hi Glynn hadn't thought about it to be honest.
Is it the same as truckmount forum? I did join that but was all American.
Thanks
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Hi Glynn sent an email, thanks for the tip ;)