Switching a floor cleaning rig into a pressure washing rig. How hard.

Roy Sanders

New member
I have a 24 liquid cooled vtwin kohler that drives a 4gpm @2500 psi cat pump and a #36 roots blower for recovery. I use this now for my floor cleaning business. My questions are how hard would it be to upgrade the pump to atleast a 5.5 gpm if not to an 8gpm pump. How hard would it be to convert this machine so I could start doing fleet washing with it. In the pics everything is pretty compact and it would be nice to leave it that way if possible to eliminate having equipment everywhere. Is this possible to make it a pressure washing rig.

I would want to set it up as a two step system and put everything in a box truck. Is it possible to just upgrade the pump and still be able to use it if I wanted to keep doing the floor business? I would like to be able to still do my floor business until I see if the fleet washing will take off. If all this is possible how much do you think I would have to invest into this to make it all happen. I would have to get a fresh water tank, chem tanks and a recovery/reclaim tank too. I don't think the tanks will be much of an issue to obtain though. Let me know what you think. Here are some pics of my current machine.
 

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Would 8gpm be sufficient for fleet washing or go 10gpm. With companies like Bioclean isn't there pumps on the lower side of 8gpm's? Looking into pricing now on cat pumps. Is there any other pumps that you would recomment looking into.
 
You don't need more than 8gpm to wash trucks, a lot of guys do truck washing with 4, 5 and 5.5gpm machines.

Most of the Bioclean guys I know use 8gpm machines, using 10gpm or more will just wear you out before the day is over.

I would go with UDOR or General Pump as the CAT pumps are almost as expensive to replace as they are to repair.

You need to find out how many hp's your vacuum blower needs to run so you can figure out how much larger of a pressure washer pump you can put on there, otherwise you will probably not have enough vacuum to do your regular job.
 
You don't need more than 8gpm to wash trucks, a lot of guys do truck washing with 4, 5 and 5.5gpm machines.

Most of the Bioclean guys I know use 8gpm machines, using 10gpm or more will just wear you out before the day is over.

I would go with UDOR or General Pump as the CAT pumps are almost as expensive to replace as they are to repair.

You need to find out how many hp's your vacuum blower needs to run so you can figure out how much larger of a pressure washer pump you can put on there, otherwise you will probably not have enough vacuum to do your regular job.

Thanks Chris, I wasn't even thinking about how much the blower would take. If it wasn't for reclaim I wouldn't even worry about it although it is much needed for my floor care biz. If I can get into the fleet washing and do well then I might dump the floor biz. Thanks again I am glad you posted that.
 
I'd be a little concerned about heat transfer to get 8 gpm up to temperature. You could go 5.5 and still get decent heat for truck washing. Only problem I see is getting 2 belts on your pump. One belt, to me, is not sufficient for even 4 @ 2500.
 
I'd be a little concerned about heat transfer to get 8 gpm up to temperature. You could go 5.5 and still get decent heat for truck washing. Only problem I see is getting 2 belts on your pump. One belt, to me, is not sufficient for even 4 @ 2500.

It's stuff like that I need to look into and I appreciate you putting that info out there. This is all kind of new to me so I have some research to do. You are right about the heat. Right now it has three heat exchangers on it and it does have a hard time keeping up with the heat when you are running high psi.

I just found out that depending on how much lift I want to obtain with my blower it is going to take anywhere from a 10-15 horse to run the pump. Right now when cleaning floors if I put my hand over the hose it pulls between 11.5-13hg. I really don't think I would have to pull that much just for reclaim on fleet washing. The only reason it is set up this way now is to be able to pull as much water out of carpet as it can. I think I could get by with alot les lift. Are any of you guys running blowers and if so do you know how much lift you are pulling.

Another thing that I have been wondering about is this. If you don't need the blower on a job is there any clutch systems out there were you can disengage the blower and then engage when you need it?
 
There are electric clutches out there but with the tight room you have, they might not fit. Call Russ J. about it.

Are you new to fleet washing, been fleet washing or looking into starting fleet washing?

If it was me, I would put a little larger pump on there like 5 or 5.5gpm so you will still have hot water when needed but then if you are doing carpet you might flood the area now and with less vacuum, a lot longer to pickup the water out of the carpet so you might want to think about this for a while and see if you really want to do this with that machine. Also, if there is any warranty on it, changing stuff around will probably void the warranty.

You might want to look at buying a different machine or look at the used machines out there in ebay and craigslist, usually you can get a good deal on them.

I would really call Russ about this to see if it is really something you want to do as it will affect your carpet cleaning ability.

How long have you been washing trucks?
 
Roy what is the wrap thats on the muffler?

You could have a bigger pump and keep the same tips on the carpet equipment so you're still running 4 @ 2500, with a pressure trap unloader.
 
Carpet cleaners are set up with regulators and small tips. 4 gpm is fine for tile and grout cleaning, but would flood a living room in a heartbeat.
The muffler wrap is part of the heat exchanger system. They're set up to capture and use the heat generated by not only the engine, but the blower too.

Roy, if room allows in the van, we could set up a small propane water heater to boost the heat you're already scavenging.
 
There are electric clutches out there but with the tight room you have, they might not fit. Call Russ J. about it.

Are you new to fleet washing, been fleet washing or looking into starting fleet washing?

If it was me, I would put a little larger pump on there like 5 or 5.5gpm so you will still have hot water when needed but then if you are doing carpet you might flood the area now and with less vacuum, a lot longer to pickup the water out of the carpet so you might want to think about this for a while and see if you really want to do this with that machine. Also, if there is any warranty on it, changing stuff around will probably void the warranty.

You might want to look at buying a different machine or look at the used machines out there in ebay and craigslist, usually you can get a good deal on them.

I would really call Russ about this to see if it is really something you want to do as it will affect your carpet cleaning ability.

How long have you been washing trucks?

I have not started washing any trucks yet. This is something I am really interested in doing and might be going down south to a guy who is doing them so I can see what it is all about and get a little time doing it. I do a little pressure washing now but it is minimal and it is doing house washes and decks. I do clean tile, concrete, etc. but that is with a surface cleaner. One reason I am looking into fleets since it is more year round work and my floor care pretty much is dead for 3-4 months except for my quarterly accounts. From everything I am reading this seems to be a better route for steady income. If I do this and it takes off then I will probably sell my floor care biz. If I can get the accounts then I can make alot more money doing fleets than I can doing floors.

Roy what is the wrap thats on the muffler?

You could have a bigger pump and keep the same tips on the carpet equipment so you're still running 4 @ 2500, with a pressure trap unloader.

That is what I call thermal header wrap. You see alot of guys run that on their street rods and anything else that the exhaust puts out alot of heat. It is helping hold the heat so the heat exchangers can pull as put heat as they possibly can.

Carpet cleaners are set up with regulators and small tips. 4 gpm is fine for tile and grout cleaning, but would flood a living room in a heartbeat.
The muffler wrap is part of the heat exchanger system. They're set up to capture and use the heat generated by not only the engine, but the blower too.

Roy, if room allows in the van, we could set up a small propane water heater to boost the heat you're already scavenging.

Going this route may not be feasible for me and I might have to look into a different route. I was just going to try to use some of what I already have and if it could dual purpose then that was a plus.
 
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