Dry Chemical Washing

T

Total.Lawn.Care

New member
I have the opportunity to bid on Truck washing for a fleet at a local terminal, but there is a hangup. Due to the fact that they have a gravel lot, they say it has to be done with a dry chemical that you apply and then squeege off. They say that they can be hevily fined if they let the run-off from the trucks seep in to the gravel ground.

SO, I have two questions:

1. Does anyone know anything about this Dry Chemical to use in fleet washing, where to get it, how much it costs, etc?

2. Does anyone have any ideas on setting up a portable water reclamation system that could be used on these gravel lots, its effectiveness and possible cost to put one together?

Thanks
 
If you are going to be doing a lot of washing there you can invest in a Hydropad setup or build a wash pad area. The portable type mats don't hold up for a long time on gravel, so if you have to recollect your options are somewhat limited. As far as dry chem fleet washing, sounds messy and ineffective as well as impractical.

If you are washing primarily trailers you may look into a vader system.
 
His site needs a little update but this gives the general idea. you drive it around the trailer and it washes brushes and recollects the water. There is still a little detail work to do by hand but it saves a lot of labor and will keep you compliant. http://mobilwash.com/vader/
 
Vader systems are junk and way overpriced. A trucking company across the street from us bought one for $60,000 and are very unhappy with it. It does a bad job and they can't even wash their tractors with it. They contacted us and said that if we buy it from them we can wash their equipment. Why would we want a white elephant? DUH!
As far as the "dry" chemicals is concerned, they are possibly referring to a product that is advertised for use on cars that are in environments that don't get too dirty: California, Las Vegas, Florida, etc. They are not designed for the truck washing industry and would not work on things that actually get dirty. As soon as you wipe the surface with this sort of "cleaner" you're scratching it. The fact that they are on gravel doesn't necessarily mean you'd have to reclaim. It is more dependant on the type of soil under the gravel layer that the equipment is parked on. Reclaiming is still the way you'd probably want to recommend to these guys, and I'm sure the price tag will be too high for them anyway if I'm reading them right....
 
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