Newbie and need help

Hello to all! I am a newbie on here and have a question. I am building my own small mobile pressure washing trailer.

I bought a NorthStar 4000psi belt driven washer yesterday.
I also bought a 150gal tank that I mounted on a trailer as well.

I filled the tank up with the hopes of it supplying my pressure washer and for some reason it is not. The washer works great with faucet water but there must not be enough pressure from the tank to even prime the washer.

I bought a small 12volt pump which I haven't hooked up yet. My question is: Should I need a pump or should gravity push it? The tank is level with the washer and I even took the washer off of the trailer and sat it on the ground which is about 18" lower. When I open the valve on the water tank it appears to have good pressure but still will not prime.

Please help!

Welcome. I've got two units in my truck, one won't run off the water tank with out a pump and the other one doesn't care most of the time. if the tank gets below 1/2 then they both need a pump. Check your hoses and make sure they are tight so you aren't sucking any air. But I feel it's better to run the water pump then wreck your equipment.

Run a direct line from a fire hydrant to the pump but only turn it on a little bit. I had to do this with 1 new pump that I spent over an hour trying to get it to prime. After that you should be ok.

Guys, a lot of contractors are out working so a lot of times you will not see responses quickly.

Do a search, this topic has been discussed many times before and you will find some great info that will help you.

tcr1977 said:

Hello to all! I am a newbie on here and have a question. I am building my own small mobile pressure washing trailer.

I bought a NorthStar 4000psi belt driven washer yesterday.
I also bought a 150gal tank that I mounted on a trailer as well.

I filled the tank up with the hopes of it supplying my pressure washer and for some reason it is not. The washer works great with faucet water but there must not be enough pressure from the tank to even prime the washer.

I bought a small 12volt pump which I haven't hooked up yet. My question is: Should I need a pump or should gravity push it? The tank is level with the washer and I even took the washer off of the trailer and sat it on the ground which is about 18" lower. When I open the valve on the water tank it appears to have good pressure but still will not prime.

Please help!

Click to expand...

Try these steps.

1) Make sure the water level in the tank is above the machine.
2) Do not use any kind of shut off valve on your water supply hose going from tank to the machine. And make sure it is as short as poosible.
3) Don't hook a Presure Hose or gun up and start the machine and see if the pump will pump water. If so then shut off machine and...
4) Hook your pressure hose up, but no gun, and get the water pumping through the hose. Once water is pumping through hose, shut machine off and....
5) Add gun and wand to hose and fire machine up and start pulling trigger gun a few times to prime and get water going and you should be good to go.

IMO You should not need a pump, gravity should push it. Not sure what type of valve you are talking about that you are opening, but you may need to eliminate that. If you have any other questions feel free to call me.

Thanks for the replies. I did hook up the pump but it was only a 1.8 gal/min and my washer is a 3.8 gal/min. I took it back and got a 12V 4 gal/min and it works great.

I also bought a 24 telescoping wand and it is a killer. I didn't get the belt but believe that I will.

The guttering attachment is pretty cool but has a lot of nozzle reaction pressure that I wasn't expecting.

i don't think you read enough...

tcr1977 said:

Thanks for the replies. I did hook up the pump but it was only a 1.8 gal/min and my washer is a 3.8 gal/min. I took it back and got a 12V 4 gal/min and it works great.

I also bought a 24 telescoping wand and it is a killer. I didn't get the belt but believe that I will.

The guttering attachment is pretty cool but has a lot of nozzle reaction pressure that I wasn't expecting.

Click to expand...

first off don't buy the belt. the reason i'm saying that is because you need to take the wand back and get a refund. buy a shooter tip for a fraction of the cost and get better results at a faster pace. do a search for "yellow noodle" and you'll see what i'm talking about. you should not need a pump to feed your pressure washer so i think there is still an issue there that needs to be resolved. the pump is probably working fine now but when it runs constantly it will overheat and shut itself down leaving you with no water to wash with. read up on the gutter attachment as i have heard a couple of horror stories on that thing too. i know you are probably getting tired of people telling you to read but you'll find out soon enough that it is the best advice out there and the best thing about it is that it is free.

good luck,

rando

Ditto to all Rando said. I had a yellow telecoping pole and used it once. I then found the best use for it was a home for dirt dobbers.

TCR,

You may want to go over to East TN Chemical in Jonesborough. They are the local Hotsy dealer and the foremost experts on PW in this area. I think they can solve all of your problems for you, not to mention that they are the carrier all of the chemicals, parts, etc. for your PW needs. If you have any other questions feel free to give me a call, I left you a private message with my contact info just a few mintues ago.

We run a 8gpm 3000psi off a gravity feed 150gal buffer tank with a 5' section of 1' Boston hose going from tank to the Unit. I don't believe the pump is necessary. We are a brand new company and we also bypassed the telescoping wand and went with a shooter tip and telescoping pole with brush for scrubbing "really bad" black stains off the gutters. It works well!