Chris Tharpe
New member
Will a 5.5 run the Big guy well enough to be efficient or would you be able to clean faster with the classic
Big Guy & 5.5 GPm
- Thread starter Chris Tharpe
- Start date
Russ Spence
Commercial Pressure Wash Expert
Big guy ! If you are cleaning a driveway the classic is a good choice but if you are cleaning for multiple hours at a time the Big Guy is the caddy lak
Terry Campbell
Member
BIG GUYS Rock, they saved me so much time it is crazy. I'm really Glad I got the Big Guy and it will pay for it self in no time.
IndyExterior
New member
I think the question is WILL a 5.5 run a big guy with the right nozzles? I'm curious too.
jlpressure
JL Pressure Washing
Yes works very well
MMI Enterprises
New member
What ya got to worry about in running a 28" with 5.5, 5, or even less gpm is tip angle, tip height, AND possably brand and type of rotary union/bar. I mention as when I replaced all my guts in my diy surfacer it did not run at all the same. I was replacing a Deublin and adjustable diy bar setup that ruled with a fixed tip angle bar and had to raise the whole assembly to get tips back up past where I had been. TOO low and the results were striping and tips hitting water puddle. If tip angle is preset and but not optimal or anything of design on a surfacer is out of whack you will find it easy to cry foul and blaim surfacer size as beng too big for machine gpm...Is more about user error or inexperience in my opinion.
Big Guy is highly recommended machine so all should be in order to use with a 5.6 or most any machine of that class.
On a side note...Just the other day one of my floor jobs had their pad and walks done by a 5.6 machine and surfacer in the 20"+ size. Striping was everywhere. In talking with the next guy that I assumed showed up to fix the problem I soon realized he needed help too. Turned out he was just returning to try and fix things up a little better after his first nights work. I pretty much want to scream foul on a certain supplier in my area for not setting the guy up right. He didn't even have a downstreamer for goodness sakes. I will say it wasn't Derosa's outfit that left the guy out to dry... I know John frequents here and wouldn't want to leave such imply.
Big Guy is highly recommended machine so all should be in order to use with a 5.6 or most any machine of that class.
On a side note...Just the other day one of my floor jobs had their pad and walks done by a 5.6 machine and surfacer in the 20"+ size. Striping was everywhere. In talking with the next guy that I assumed showed up to fix the problem I soon realized he needed help too. Turned out he was just returning to try and fix things up a little better after his first nights work. I pretty much want to scream foul on a certain supplier in my area for not setting the guy up right. He didn't even have a downstreamer for goodness sakes. I will say it wasn't Derosa's outfit that left the guy out to dry... I know John frequents here and wouldn't want to leave such imply.
Russ Spence
Commercial Pressure Wash Expert
yes it will, the nozzle size depends on the application
IndyExterior
New member
I've been tempted to get a Big Guy and it says they are rated as low as 4gpm but my 20"'s would barely run on a 4gpm I had at the time. I couldn't imagine a 4gpm running a Big Guy. Glad to know the 5.5 will work.
Thanks for the replies I really don't need an $800 boat anchor.
Thanks for the replies I really don't need an $800 boat anchor.
Chris Tharpe
New member
This is the 3rd time I have tried to reply to this post (I hate airport internet connections)
Thanks for the input. I am soon adding 2 5.5gpm units to a new trailer along with my 8gpm unit. After the advice I think I will add the best of both worlds. I have needed a smaller surface cleaner recently and will soon need it again hopefully. This will give me the option of cleaning large and small areas at the same time.
As for the time being I have been experimenting with 15* tips in my SC. I have had issues with striping before the switch over. After I changed to the 15* tips I had the same issue, I found out that I DS caustic onto the surface and let it dwell for just a minuet or 2 things were totally different. I will say that these partictular stations have been cleaned with cold water for the last 2 years along with the supplied stores degreaser. I hoped that hot water alone would cut through the buildup but the results were not so good. You could actually see striping on the concrete before we started cleaning from the previous cleaner. Has anyone found a better way to combat this?
Thanks for the input. I am soon adding 2 5.5gpm units to a new trailer along with my 8gpm unit. After the advice I think I will add the best of both worlds. I have needed a smaller surface cleaner recently and will soon need it again hopefully. This will give me the option of cleaning large and small areas at the same time.
As for the time being I have been experimenting with 15* tips in my SC. I have had issues with striping before the switch over. After I changed to the 15* tips I had the same issue, I found out that I DS caustic onto the surface and let it dwell for just a minuet or 2 things were totally different. I will say that these partictular stations have been cleaned with cold water for the last 2 years along with the supplied stores degreaser. I hoped that hot water alone would cut through the buildup but the results were not so good. You could actually see striping on the concrete before we started cleaning from the previous cleaner. Has anyone found a better way to combat this?
Russ Spence
Commercial Pressure Wash Expert
here is one !
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MMI Enterprises
New member
Maybe poor design and/or adjustment...
Russ, Why so slow mang?.. Here, fear the DIY 28"
:<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/EDP90NWp6vE&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/EDP90NWp6vE&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Chris Tharpe
New member
I can move pretty fast on surfaces we clean reguarly but service stations are a totally different thing. If im doing a shopping center we move really fast and have no striping but try that on a fuel station without caustic and see what happens
Peerless
banned
I'm not a flatwork guy but we have a few strip malls we service.
Sold my burner years ago and we have a buddy in the area that works those accounts. I have however hooked his Big Guy up with my 5.5 3500 belt drive and it had no problems at all.
When I worked gas stations years ago all we had were 5.5's and they pushed the Bid Guy with no probs.
I can imagine what it would be like with a 8gpm machine though. If I were going after flatwork I would have an 8, time is money...
Sold my burner years ago and we have a buddy in the area that works those accounts. I have however hooked his Big Guy up with my 5.5 3500 belt drive and it had no problems at all.
When I worked gas stations years ago all we had were 5.5's and they pushed the Bid Guy with no probs.
I can imagine what it would be like with a 8gpm machine though. If I were going after flatwork I would have an 8, time is money...
IndyExterior
New member
So with 5.5 a Big Guy, heat, doing strip malls where would you start as far as nozzle size?
Russ Spence
Commercial Pressure Wash Expert
Maybe poor design and/or adjustment...
Russ, Why so slow mang?.. Here, fear the DIY 28"
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/EDP90NWp6vE&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/EDP90NWp6vE&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
I was holding the camera with one hand and trying to focus!
Jim@Garagecleaning
banned
I personally did not test the big guy, however I did test two others on the same day the same equipment.
Steel Eagle 30 inch
Hydroteck surface cleaner model ANT28
We tried them, on the same unit, at the same pressure and temp. Though the Hydroteck appeared, to some, to have a more advanced look, it did not preform as well as the steel eagle. We think the difference is the union. The union with the steel eagle was an option and one that is well worth it in our opinion. We had the Deublin SOLID SS Union, with the 3 wand option installed on the steel eagle for this experiment.
The result is a much faster spinning of the wands. The union is better engineered and can handle well into the 270 degree range at 4,000+ PSI, though their specs say otherwise. Being that the wands spins faster, you have more times in a giving moment that the unit hits the "spot". The result is that you are able to walk just a little bit faster.
Again, your results maybe different. This is not an exact science, or a controlled experiment. We did try to duplicate the exact environment, including the same pump, time of day, water intake temp, same water district, same surface.
Specs used in this comparison, 5.8 GPM at 4300 psi at 210 degrees.
Hydotrek used ..............(2) 3.0 15 degree nozzles
Steel Eagle used ...........(3) 2.0 15 degree nozzles
Steel Eagle 30 inch
Hydroteck surface cleaner model ANT28
We tried them, on the same unit, at the same pressure and temp. Though the Hydroteck appeared, to some, to have a more advanced look, it did not preform as well as the steel eagle. We think the difference is the union. The union with the steel eagle was an option and one that is well worth it in our opinion. We had the Deublin SOLID SS Union, with the 3 wand option installed on the steel eagle for this experiment.
The result is a much faster spinning of the wands. The union is better engineered and can handle well into the 270 degree range at 4,000+ PSI, though their specs say otherwise. Being that the wands spins faster, you have more times in a giving moment that the unit hits the "spot". The result is that you are able to walk just a little bit faster.
Again, your results maybe different. This is not an exact science, or a controlled experiment. We did try to duplicate the exact environment, including the same pump, time of day, water intake temp, same water district, same surface.
Specs used in this comparison, 5.8 GPM at 4300 psi at 210 degrees.
Hydotrek used ..............(2) 3.0 15 degree nozzles
Steel Eagle used ...........(3) 2.0 15 degree nozzles
MMI Enterprises
New member
Divide the orifice size you normally use by the amount of tips the surfacer takes.
Need 1503.0 most likely. Based on two tip spray bar anyway. Should give ya under 3500psi. Going 3.5's would put ya down around 2500psi.
MMI Enterprises
New member
So was I ..lol
MMI Enterprises
New member
Haha..don't get me started again Jim.. http://www.propowerwash.com/board/upload/showthread.php?t=13028 lol
..no really there is huge truth in what Jim says about the unions. Some slower..slow enough to cause an outwalk striping situation. Let me think here a second, what did I get from hydrotek dealer?.hmm, i think it was a mosmatic and nope is not as good a speed as the cheap low psi deublin it replaced. Some of the science has to do with kinetics and the bar weight. My diy bar was way heavier than the new fixed angle bar. Between the union, bar weight, and adjustability it ran circles around the new one least until I micro tuned the height to the fixed angle.