brushless soap?

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Pressure Washing Sidewalks

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Iam new to pressure washing and just purchased a 5 gpm 3500 machine hot water.I also purchased a touch free car & truck soap from the same dealer he has the soap made for him and has his label on it . The directions on the label state to apply the soap to a dry vehicle with high pressure high temp let sit then rinse. I did this and it left small streaks in the paint on my truck. It did not sit to long and the surface was cool. It also left alot of dirt on the truck. I then cleaned another truck with it but this time i wet the truck down first. I had better results no streaks but still alot of dirt on truck at the end. Are These so called brushless soaps really brushless?I mean this was only road film.On my truck those streaks actually etched the paint! I may be new to this PW stuff but after spending 10 years in the collision bussiness i am not new to washing cars or to what a properly washed vehicle should look like.I have a chance at getting a trial run at the local trucking company but the results i had today would not be acceptable.Is it the operator or the soap? What soaps and application procedures are you guys using? NEED HELP !
 
Hello Jeff,

I think I am one of the few that continues to brush vehicles. We apply detergent using an hose-end sprayer. The product tends to stay on the surface of the vehicle rather than falling to the ground. Most often we use ambient temperature water for applying and rinseing. We apply at a 1-10 ratio stronger on very soiled areas. Yesterday we used about 12 gallons of detergent on about 60 vehicles, 7 different locations. Crew of 5, traveled about 80 miles and was gone 7-1/2 hours including breaks, travel time, and lunch.

Most of our fleets are tractors and straight trucks, a few cars and vans. A couple of weeks ago we tried doing a new/used car lot. Even tho we were doing one per minute at the rate they wanted to pay we would have had to do them even faster to equal the rate of our other fleets!

Dave Olson
 
There is no such thing as a purely brushless soap. Event he manufaturers will admit to that. There are somethings that can help you cheat from time to time.
First, presoak with the soap, really lightly. Then go back and spray it again. You will be amazed at the difference a little presoak can make.
Second, sometimes you will have to brush. It is inevitable.
Third, Brushless stuff works much better on white, than any other color. The darker the color, the worse it gets.
Fourth. Experiment. Find out the proper dilution ratio for you soap. It will make your life much easier. I would bet that you put the soap on your personal vehicle way to strong.

Ask Questions.

Scott Stone
 
I like that word "purely" Scott but dat other word "inevitable" gave me a cold chile.

Jeff it sounds as tho you had some kick butt stuff and just had it mixed to strong,,was it blue in color and smelled like or has a fish-e smell,cost 30 dallors a gal........I have 3 gal. still in the shop of that stuff..never did learn how to use it,of the 2 gal. I used I kept making it weaker and weaker but it still would burn alum..I'll get the nerve up to try it again but not anyway soon.

The reason for not doing it on the second truck was b/c you weaken it down by spraying water on the truck first which made your mix weaker than in the chemical tank,in other words you added more water to the mix.

Road film is one of the hardest to remove if its been on there for awhile,if washed every week the brushless work fairly will on road film but the cost kills me at the amount it takes.I do use a brushless on a few trucks but I use it as a presoak before I wash it the usuall way and thats 2-stepping.I have a few trucks I haven't burrr brushed in a few years but "inevit-e I'll have brrrrr brush them.
 
the mixing ratio on the soap is between 75-1 and 35-1 for my test i mixed it 50-1 .That comes out to 2.56oz per gallon. The next time i use it i will increase the ratio of water.Maybe the next time i will try the soap as a presoak first then apply something different.I have ordered some r-109 from delco i will give that a wirl. I think in this bussiness you just have to find what works for you i guess i just have to find it.Thanks for the reply scott and bigboy i am sure i will have more questions later SEEYA!:)
 
Brushless Soap

I pretty much agree with Scott.. After washing trucks for over 20 years it became my goal awhile back to burn all of my brushes, so I started using a 2 step process (acid followed by alkaline, then rinse). If you've got a fully charges 50,000 grain water softener and trucks that you wash on a pretty regular basis this works pretty good. But beware, if you see any polished aluminum you're gonna etch the hell out of it with the acid, and we all know that if your alkaline ph is to strong you'll turn it brown. Acid also will etch the valves in a Cat Pump so have spares handy. Bottom line for me was I still had to brush, but not as much. So I'm glad I didn't toss those brushes..lol
Chuck
 
Jeff, We mix a very small amount of our own brand wax with the truck wash chemicals and it does wonders. This also helps the soap stay on the surface better. We only use 2 oz. of wax to 30 gallons of premixed soap and spray through a Sureflo pump.
 
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