Ideas for a small demo water tank?

Dave B

Dave B

New member
Still a little guy. Don't even have a trailer yet. I'm operating out of the bed of my truck while I save.

I want to start doing some demos. I want to be able to grab the wand, fire up the unit and demo without hooking up to a water supply. For that, I need a water tank. Since space (and bed capacity) is limited and I don't plan on using it other than for demos, it needs to be small. I think 50 gal would be the absolute max.

Any thoughts on what I might need and where to find one? I don't think I need a float since it won't stay connected to a water supply. Do I need a pump to feed the water from the tank to my unit? (4 gpm)

Thanks for the help. Just looking for an intermediate solution as I grow.
 
65 gallon from tractor supply! Then when you get a trailer it can then be your chem tank.


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Benjamin brought up a god point. If i was doing it i would still hook up a float valve just to make it more conveniet to fill, also bypass the pump. The water with tank will be about 420 lbs full plus pressure washer, surface cleaner, chems and tools. I've wanted to do this and it seems feasible, but with commercial work i feel the client may get the impression that they may be able to do it in house with just a pressure washer.
 
Yeah, I was thinking a 50 gal from tractor supply or northern tool. I can then add a 5.5 gmp pump.

I wouldnt need more than 10 to 15 min anyhow. Who them what I can do in a small area. If I'm cleaning more than that, I had better already have the job and hooked up.

Anything Im missing?
 
Juan Juarez said:
Benjamin brought up a god point. If i was doing it i would still hook up a float valve just to make it more conveniet to fill, also bypass the pump. The water with tank will be about 420 lbs full plus pressure washer, surface cleaner, chems and tools. I've wanted to do this and it seems feasible, but with commercial work i feel the client may get the impression that they may be able to do it in house with just a pressure washer.
Click to expand...

Bypass the pump??? I assumed I would need it.
 
First you need to know if your pressure washer will pull from a tank, most of the direct drive pressure washers will not pull from tanks but some will but the gear drive and belt drive will.

Your gallons per minute x how long your demo will be will tell you how big of a tank you will need, example 5.5gpm x15 minute demo will need about 82.5gallons but you will need a little bit bigger so you don't suck air into your pump and you don't want to run your tank empty and cavitate the pump wearing out your packings so for that I would say about 100 gallon tank with the bulkhead fitting at the bottom. There will be water at the very bottom that will not come out, not much you can do about that but one good thing is that bottom also holds dirt and other trash that will not usually make it to the pump.

If your demo's are shorter then you can go with a smaller tank but I would not go smaller than 65 or 50 gallon tank because if you lose track of time and you start cavitating your pump, just a matter of time before you pay to have it re-packed or re-pack it yourself.

Good luck.
 
Thanks Christopher. Yeah, I'm walking a fine line with the tank size. At 100 gal, I'd be well over 800 lbs with just water in the bed of my truck. There again, too small a tank and not enough water for a demo.

And yes, it's direct drive, hence why I need a pump.

I'm thinking 50 - 65 gal with a 5.5 gpm pump with auto shutoff into my 4 gpm washer.
 
So I added my demo supply tank and pump, and I have to say I couldn't be happier. Works flawlessly! I did a "mock demo" in an empty parking lot. Cleaned half a parking spot, including removing several pieces of gum, with about half a tank.

I decided to only get a 35 gal tank to save space and weight. I figured if it didn't work, I'd get something bigger.

I got a pump used on agricultural sprayers. It puts out 5.5 gpm, and has an auto shutoff if the pressure builds too high. It runs off a small 12v battery. I mounted the pump to the inside wall of my truck box. Bore holes in the side of the box and ran the hoses to it. I added a switch so I can turn the pump on/off from outside the box (you can see the switch in the bottom right corner of the picture). I also added ball shut off valves both upstream and downstream to the pump, just in case.

Like I said, it works perfectly for my needs, and makes demonstrations a snap. From the time I got out of my truck to the time I was cleaning was less than 30 seconds.

Thanks to everyone who replied to this thread with help and advice. If any other newbies want to try a small setup like this and need some help, let me know.
 

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Couldn't tell if it was hooked up from the picture, but that battery needs to be consistently charged by something. If it runs low that pump may not put out the full 5.5 gpm and will burn up your pressure pump. Also, don't forget to pick up some rubber grommets to shield your hoses from the sharp edges of the holes in the tool box. If you're going to run this way I'd pick up a spare 12v pump so you don't look like a fool when that pump burns up in the middle of a demo. Being prepared for something like that could leave a good impression and land the job.


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