[drive surgeon]

do you guys leave your pressure washer on board your vans or do you leave them on. what about the fumes?   how do you guys go about it. do you just unload all the gear if you have a 1000ltr tank in the van?

[Seers]

Hi,

Most of the time we run the pw out of the van using a water butt, if we are gonna use the pw running from the van we just leave the back doors open, never had a problem with fumes. Although we did burn a hole in the door trimmings from the pw exhaust once!

Cheers,

Huw.

[drive surgeon]

is the water butt on the van or do you fill the water butt from a customers supply?

[Seers]

We always carry a full tank of water on our vans, between 400-650ltrs, but when running on most pressure washing jobs we use a bin constantly filled by clients water supply.

A typical sized water tank may give you an hour or two water supply tops, for big jobs when you're working 8 to 10 hours you got no practical choice but to use customers water supply, unless you have access to a standpipe nearby.

Cheers,

Huw

[steve doyle]

100ltr tank, suction hose in through the top, back door open (up and over) and customer hose in through top as well. Small length of drain pipe for getting rid of water when valve open.

only take my pw out if i cant get close enough to the job with my hoses, then i just set up with the water butt.

so much easier than taking machine in and out all the time, only downsides are the security of van being open and making sure no body parks up behind and gets their paint melted!

[drive surgeon]

thanks steve,    think im getting a big van soon, been struggling with a small kangoo van getting all my gear into it including a wheelie bin for my water,   thinking of getting a 1000ltr baffled tank and doing what you said.

[steve doyle]

your welcome ds 

dont know what van your thinking of but I have a vito, fits everything in comfortably so i suppose anything transit sized should do you, Lift up tail is definatly an advantage when its raining!Just check out weight restrictions to see if it there is any difference, but I only really keep 200-300 litres in as a reserve unless i know water pressure will be low when i put extra in (not often).

It seems to work well for me, and i would definatly say you will save 30 mins- 1 hour a day just on setting up and packing up.

what can i say, im just lazy!

[rob fryer]

I keep my washer in the back of the van, just put a new 400 lt upright tank in middle of the van. had a frame to keep it upright and fitted a ballcock with a hose coupling to fill the tank up.
the van i have is a vw lt even when full it does not look full from the outside and i carry alot of weight when fully loaded

[drive surgeon]

i see everybody has there own ways of sorting the water supply out in the van, but who's method is the best??/ ,   i thought 1000ltr tank would be best but would that leave me not much room for my other gear?

[rob fryer]

Trouble with carrying 1000 lts is the weight ,your water plus equipment and your looking to be over weight on a 3500 weight van big fine not to mention fuel cost of draging that about.

[drive surgeon]

so dp people recommend 600 ltr tanks instead?  how long will that last? you see i was hoping to do one of my customers shp fronts and it takes an hour to do, at the mo i have to run hose pipes from his batroom sink taps and thru shop which is a nightmare, a 1000ltr tank full would just about dothe job without need ing anyone elses supply. his shop is only 5 mins from mine so itsa not far to carry a tank full, would only do local jobs with full tank and farther jobs maybe go withit half full, does this make sense to you guys or not??  im only learning myself.

[Roger Oakley]

so dp people recommend 600 ltr tanks instead?  how long will that last? you see i was hoping to do one of my customers shp fronts and it takes an hour to do, at the mo i have to run hose pipes from his batroom sink taps and thru shop which is a nightmare, a 1000ltr tank full would just about dothe job without need ing anyone elses supply. his shop is only 5 mins from mine so itsa not far to carry a tank full, would only do local jobs with full tank and farther jobs maybe go withit half full, does this make sense to you guys or not??  im only learning myself.

The only way you can work this out is, how many litres per minute is your machine to the water you might need? Do the maths, and add at least 10% as a stand-by.

[drive surgeon]

tech clean 250, 15 litres a min powering a whirlaway
. same machine as you rog.  i know i can work it out but just after views on it, what others do i suppose.  cheers again rog.    by the way i got the oil out of that black limestone flags using turps as well as degreaser, the turps seemed to shift it better, did not need ot8 or tech clean but will get some. cheers.

[steve doyle]

so dp people recommend 600 ltr tanks instead?  how long will that last? you see i was hoping to do one of my customers shp fronts and it takes an hour to do, at the mo i have to run hose pipes from his batroom sink taps and thru shop which is a nightmare, a 1000ltr tank full would just about dothe job without need ing anyone elses supply. his shop is only 5 mins from mine so itsa not far to carry a tank full, would only do local jobs with full tank and farther jobs maybe go withit half full, does this make sense to you guys or not??  im only learning myself.

thats pretty much how i use my 1000ltr tank, keep a reserve and fill if needed for close to home stuff or you have the option to use a nearby standpipe (should you be able), you will get an hour+ from 1000ltr tank , pick the right van and you might be ok for weight try this site for usefull info (gives payloads). I didnt see the point in having a smaller tank and being short on bigger jobs when i can just keep less in a bigger tank cos i have the space for it,  if you know what i mean.

probably dont matter which way you go unless you ever need 601 ltrs or more in a 600ltr tank!

[drive surgeon]

cheers guys. hope to get it sorted soon.