[dazmond]

Im really getting into wfp now and cleaning between 20%-40% more a day than ladder work.a lot of you guys have advised me to get a tank etc etc but i was thinking it would be difficult with big chunks of very compact work with some parking issues.id just like to share the benefits of a 50L TROLLEY.


1.lower insurance due to no vehicle modifications.

2.cheaper than a van mount

3.can bring the trolley in every night(no freezing issues)

4.excellent with 30m of extension hose and can be used as a mini van mount for stand alone jobs.

5.excellent for big chunks of my compact work and the extra 25L DOES make a big difference to time spent changing barrels etc.

6.less of a trip hazard.

7.i find it impossible to use more than 300L-350L a day so can carry enough barrels in my van.

8.i have a few bigger jobs where its hard to park near the property so the 50L TROLLEY is ideal where a backpack would be too small to get any decent amount of windows cleaned before needing to fill up AGAIN!!

9.at the moment i cant see me changing to a van mount anytime soon and im very happy with my choice of equipment.

what are your thoughts on trolleys or your experience with them compared to van mounts?


best wishes to you all



dazmond

[AuRavelling79]

I might be able to help here Daz.

I started with a twin barrel trolley (2 x 25L) from Peter Fogwill. I used it with 8 barrels in the far back and back seats of a 1991 Honda Accord Estate (somewhere between Escort and Mondeo size.)

Then I put a 175L tank plus 50m of microbore reel in the car plus two barrels and the trolley on the back seat. As you know with this trolley you lift out the frame and then slot one or two barrels, the battery and the pump in place.

Then I bought a backpack. And I modified the trolley (with a car jack!) to let me carry it in one of the barrel slots of the trolley!

So here we are like Fred Carno's Circus with three methods and pole all crammed into a medium/large estate! And it all worked.

I found that more and more I used the reel and hose and where I didn't I used the backpack and the trolley fell almost redundant. (And yet I had a job on a large factory where I did the fronts with the reel but the backs - about 100m away with no vehicle access I wheeled the trolley round. Also a school with a portable classroom across playing fields likewise.)

Then a French lorry driver wrote off the car (it was worth less than a grand) and I had a decision to make - repair it on the cheap or get another vehicle. I was doing well enough for Mrs. Gold to run an even older saloon car for the family and so I bit the bullet and put the insurance money down on a brand new van which I self fitted with what is basically my present system (a 400L plus varistream and 80m of microbore).

I never carried the trolley in the van (the frame and two barrels of which I gave away to someone on this forum - who never even put a thank you note through the door or a bottle of brandy or a cuban cigar or a voucher for a cruise round the med...  )

The backpack died and I never replaced it but last month paid £35 for it to be repaired (duff circuitboard bypassed) and a new switch fitted and now ...

I do take the backpack (15L) and a 25L topping up barrel for jobs at the backs of terraces or up gardens where I used to run the hose through. This increases my overall capacity to 440 litres which gives me enough for a full day where I need it. It gives me the option.

The van ... (Doblo)

Hindsight tells me I could have got a better deal on the van by getting a loan and paying in full but for me the £500 deposit and the £170 a month were affordable and I have not regretted the decision and I have just decided at the end of the lease to pay the peppercorn rental of £170 a year and "keep" the van indefinitely as I've only done 24,000 miles in 4 years.

[Dave Anderson]

Same as Gold's history really...but I now run the van with the trolley and take the trolley out when needed for certain jobs....

So in winter...it's nice and easy...12v bilge pump (good for filling trolley +backpack) in van tank to empty van tank into 2000l holding/storage tank...take out reel and trolley...everything nice a goody. Always hated the thought of paying money to heat my van.

Once backpack dies I will not replace it.

So in essence the trolley is a van mount/pump box, trolley all in one...so with the addition of a bilge pump, small tank and a few and fittings...you could have it all.

Cheers
Dave.

[roundbuilder]

your mad daz. if your round is as compact as you make out surely a vanmount would be much better with a backpack for the odd hard to access houses. the pro's defo outdo the cons...
I too used a 50 litre trolley which was the biggest waste of money and time. My round is prob more compact than yours and after 2 years of lugging about barrels,,stopping and changing more barrels,,airlocks,,mate these trolleys weigh a ton when uging em about all day no way pedro..then my god i had  the hastle of filling them damn  barrels up  each and every day i thought enough was enough so got a vanmount.
Now there is nomore lugging barrels for me and no more stopping and starting and best of all no more filling 12 barrels a day up and having to lift each 1 in and out the van throughout the day which used to realy realy get on my tits..Best thing i did was go over to van mount i just fill my water up each night straight into my tank then out to work and clean without  the hassle or grief  its that great feeling after a big long smelly fart ahhhhhhh bisto.  i reckon this time next year you will be all vanmounted up.

[Richard Neal]

I started wfp just after you Daz with a 25L P/F trolley in my escort van but was always overloaded as their are 2 of us and ladders, ive now got a Movano with a 500L tank which i connect to my trolley and run out a 50m hose, some jobs i can take the trolley out and wheel it round the back or over the main road!
 i like to have both options and know i will stop if i have to brake in a hurry!

[clarkson]

 Hi
 Iam interested in this thread as my friend and i both have decent sized truckmount tanks. We have been discussing the merits of a trolley system in certain situations. I have two back packs but find they drain to quickly.

  could you answer these questions for me. how much work can you do with one fill, iam expecting somethin like 2 standard semis?

  with your filling pumps how long does it take to fill?

  I currently avoid terraces as getting the hose in and out of entries just holds everything up, iam thinking the trolleyman could go down the backs  whilst the van man does the fronts, if the next house is walking distance the van man could drive on and start the next one not have to wait for the man at back and put all the hoses away.

This could save loads of time on a day

john

[dazmond]

your mad daz. if your round is as compact as you make out surely a vanmount would be much better with a backpack for the odd hard to access houses. the pro's defo outdo the cons...
I too used a 50 litre trolley which was the biggest waste of money and time. My round is prob more compact than yours and after 2 years of lugging about barrels,,stopping and changing more barrels,,airlocks,,mate these trolleys weigh a ton when uging em about all day no way pedro..then my god i had  the hastle of filling them damn  barrels up  each and every day i thought enough was enough so got a vanmount.
Now there is nomore lugging barrels for me and no more stopping and starting and best of all no more filling 12 barrels a day up and having to lift each 1 in and out the van throughout the day which used to realy realy get on my tits..Best thing i did was go over to van mount i just fill my water up each night straight into my tank then out to work and clean without  the hassle or grief  its that great feeling after a big long smelly fart ahhhhhhh bisto.  i reckon this time next year you will be all vanmounted up.

ill be going in for THE WORLDS STRONGEST MAN this time next year! ;Di doubt some parts of your round are more compact than mine.i have 150 houses virtually all right next door to each other on one part of my round but parking is a nightmare!

for the extra expense and hassle of buying and fitting a tank plus 100m of hose and higher van insurance/heaters to keep everything from freezing/the hassle of removing system when buying another van etc etc.ill be staying the way i am for now.

it takes me 40-50 mins to fill all barrels  in the evening(DI ONLY/BARRELS LEFT IN VAN) and a couple of mins here and there to change barrels throughout the day.Its the idea of 100 m of hose getting snagged on everything that puts me off as well as the above mentioned things.



dazmond

my earning power has already increased by quite a bit since going wfp 5 months ago

[Wc Solutions]

5 months wfp! dont you think its a bit soon to be saying 50ltr trolley is the bees knees and a van mount seems no good.

if the 50 ltr trolley was sooooooo great then we would all have one!

have you even tried a backpack or van mount??

[roundbuilder]

your mad daz. if your round is as compact as you make out surely a vanmount would be much better with a backpack for the odd hard to access houses. the pro's defo outdo the cons...
I too used a 50 litre trolley which was the biggest waste of money and time. My round is prob more compact than yours and after 2 years of lugging about barrels,,stopping and changing more barrels,,airlocks,,mate these trolleys weigh a ton when uging em about all day no way pedro..then my god i had  the hastle of filling them damn  barrels up  each and every day i thought enough was enough so got a vanmount.
Now there is nomore lugging barrels for me and no more stopping and starting and best of all no more filling 12 barrels a day up and having to lift each 1 in and out the van throughout the day which used to realy realy get on my tits..Best thing i did was go over to van mount i just fill my water up each night straight into my tank then out to work and clean without  the hassle or grief  its that great feeling after a big long smelly fart ahhhhhhh bisto.  i reckon this time next year you will be all vanmounted up.

ill be going in for THE WORLDS STRONGEST MAN this time next year! ;Di doubt some parts of your round are more compact than mine.i have 150 houses virtually all right next door to each other on one part of my round but parking is a nightmare!

for the extra expense and hassle of buying and fitting a tank plus 100m of hose and higher van insurance/heaters to keep everything from freezing/the hassle of removing system when buying another van etc etc.ill be staying the way i am for now.

it takes me 40-50 mins to fill all barrels  in the evening(DI ONLY/BARRELS LEFT IN VAN) and a couple of mins here and there to change barrels throughout the day.Its the idea of 100 m of hose getting snagged on everything that puts me off as well as the above mentioned things.



dazmond

my earning power has already increased by quite a bit since going wfp 5 months ago

daz i grant what your saying but your earning power would be even greater with vanmount. it was for me. I never had anyprobs freezing last year apart from in that snow we had but i wouldnt work in that anyway. mind you im in london so i guess it dont get as cold as you lot up there. haha i knew id hit a nerv saying about compact round lol...honest if you have 150 all next to eachother then you should defo have a vanmount or at least a 150 litre tank in van to do a big long run of houses. im not knocking how you work mate...just saying how it was for me as i thought my trolley was best thing since sliced bread when i got it i ended up earning upto a third more a day when went over to van mount.

[dazmond]

clarkson(john) i can clean 4 sometimes 5 smallish 3 bedders without needing to fill up with a 50L TROLLEY.so roughly 2 mins every hour to swap 2 barrels.

it works for me!and its works VERY WELL!!

BY THE WAY MY FLOWCONTROLLER IS SET ON 60 WITH 5 MM EXTENSION HOSE.


DAZMOND

[dazmond]

5 months wfp! dont you think its a bit soon to be saying 50ltr trolley is the bees knees and a van mount seems no good.

if the 50 ltr trolley was sooooooo great then we would all have one!

have you even tried a backpack or van mount??

i didnt say that backpacks and van mounts are no good  just that im happy with my trolley!im just interested in guys who ve had both and their experiences with them.


dazmond

[roundbuilder]

clarkson(john) i can clean 4 sometimes 5 smallish 3 bedders without needing to fill up with a 50L TROLLEY.so roughly 2 mins every hour to swap 2 barrels.

it works for me!and its works VERY WELL!!

BY THE WAY MY FLOWCONTROLLER IS SET ON 60 WITH 5 MM EXTENSION HOSE.


DAZMOND

it takes longer than 2 mins to take trolley back to van,set new barrels up then back to the houses you were working on plus its all the hastle with the lifting etc weather you are strong or not ate oit is grief. you will learn boyo..you will learn i did. i still have a bad back from lifting those devils all the time and dragging my trolley..

[windiewasher]

In 6 months time he will say how great the van system is when he gets one and how useless trolleys are.
He's just trying to justify his purchase.
Trolleys are ok but I prefer a van system and backpack.

5 months wfp! dont you think its a bit soon to be saying 50ltr trolley is the bees knees and a van mount seems no good.

if the 50 ltr trolley was sooooooo great then we would all have one!

have you even tried a backpack or van mount??

[brianbarber]

Trolleys IMO are only a stop gap,
Get a van mount, you will see a huge improvement,
Plus when you hurt you back and can't work for a week due to over reaching or the like with heavy barrels,
That's the wake up call

Mr B

[Wc Solutions]

In 6 months time he will say how great the van system is when he gets one and how useless trolleys are.
He's just trying to justify his purchase.
Trolleys are ok but I prefer a van system and backpack.

5 months wfp! dont you think its a bit soon to be saying 50ltr trolley is the bees knees and a van mount seems no good.

if the 50 ltr trolley was sooooooo great then we would all have one!

have you even tried a backpack or van mount??

yeah and prob said a while ago trad was best no way going wfp ... problem is the only thing to compare to his ladder work and not comparing wfp systems

[windiewasher]

thats right mate,if he had a tank full of water and a van system he would improve his cleaning times by another 25% easy.

In 6 months time he will say how great the van system is when he gets one and how useless trolleys are.
He's just trying to justify his purchase.
Trolleys are ok but I prefer a van system and backpack.

5 months wfp! dont you think its a bit soon to be saying 50ltr trolley is the bees knees and a van mount seems no good.

if the 50 ltr trolley was sooooooo great then we would all have one!

have you even tried a backpack or van mount??

yeah and prob said a while ago trad was best no way going wfp ... problem is the only thing to compare to his ladder work and not comparing wfp systems

[Wc Solutions]

end of the day i suppose it doesnt matter, windows are cleaned well, customer happy, wc gets paid...

[Mike55]

Hi Daz,
 
I have recently implemented wfp into my round and initially went for a 25L PF trolley.

I would say from the sound of your work that you are suited to a trolley as, like you say, you can run it from the van as a mini van mount as you have 30m of extension hose.  This gives you the best of both worlds.

I have since bought a bigger van and fitted a van tank.  In terms of not having to refill barrels, lugging trolley on/off the van it's great as you simply plug the pole in and off you go....

However having the van mount aswell as the trolley is really useful but probably not necessary... I managed to get all my van rig for a good price otherwise I would be running the same way as you, with extension hose running from the trolley equating to a mini van mount.

The other time saver ofcourse is being able to fill the van tank without having to swap the hose over on each barrel when filling up.

Mike

[♠Winp®oClean♠]

How much was your trolly?

I reckon a van mount would be cheaper, you only need a tank, reel & pump box as you needed the DI's anyway.

[dazmond]

trolley was £550.i only need a tank/frame/sub pump if a want to go van mount with the trolley used for the odd job here and there.im certainly not putting a tank in my kangoo.if i do get a tank itll be when i get a bigger van(say a doblo/dispatch/scudo).


dazmond