Fleet help

Squirtgun

Squirtgun

New member
I closed a small fleet account(every 30days) on friday only 2- tractor,2-trailers and 2- 24' box trucks.I happy to have the account,but they want us to start them tomorrow.
I don't have any specific truck wash on hand,but plenty of caustic.How much caustic could I mix with 5 gallons of water to down stream to get these clean until I can order some STW-75 or Panel Bright(brite)?
 
DON"T DO IT!!!

I take that back. Mix some caustic with some over the counter car wash soap from Autozone. It does not take much. I think that it is about a half pound per gallon for a super concentrate, that is diluted about 70:1 by the time it hits the tip.
 
Please wait and get the correct chemicals for the trucks.Do you have any hf on hand the reason i am asking if you get the mix off you will burn the aluminum and you will be sitting there with no solution to the problem.Washing trucks is great fun but its all about the chemicals.Get some good soap and hf and have at it.
 

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Kiloman said:
Please wait and get the correct chemicals for the trucks.Do you have any hf on hand the reason i am asking if you get the mix off you will burn the aluminum and you will be sitting there with no solution to the problem.Washing trucks is great fun but its all about the chemicals.Get some good soap and hf and have at it.
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HF is good and all but I know you didn't put HF on those polished tanks and wheels. Sure it can be done but to put that photo up stating to use HF is misleading to people who don't wash trucks.
 
I would not use caustic and water, you need more than that.

Are you going to apply under pressure, downstream or bucket and brush?

Downstreaming a good soap will only do so much, probably will still need to brush.

Running the soap through the pump will do a lot better but you need to go back to the trailer to stop the soap to rinse unless you have a remote control.

You can rig up a delavan to apply the soap and have the wand there to rinse and have a brush there just in case.

There are so many ways to do this, how dirty are the trucks?

I would think that there might be some fleet washers close by that you could get some good fleet wash soap from, I just don't know anyone there in Georgia, maybe you know some guys.

Feel free to give me a call.
 
Chris Tharpe the photo does illustrate a truck that has been polished out you are correct.However there has never been any caustic on the truck as well.A very much milder soap not that junk soap loaded down with caustic that people claim such high dilution ratios.Even emoron paint that is used on these trucks will feel like sandpaper after 5 years or more with a heavy caustic soap.I guess what i was trying to get at if he got the mix to strong it would burn the aluminum polished or not you know the brown streaks etc. I was just trying to help the man out by just waiting till he got the right soap for the job.Sorry if i offended you in anyway.
 
Kiloman said:
Chris Tharpe the photo does illustrate a truck that has been polished out you are correct.However there has never been any caustic on the truck as well.A very much milder soap not that junk soap loaded down with caustic that people claim such high dilution ratios.Even emoron paint that is used on these trucks will feel like sandpaper after 5 years or more with a heavy caustic soap.I guess what i was trying to get at if he got the mix to strong it would burn the aluminum polished or not you know the brown streaks etc. I was just trying to help the man out by just waiting till he got the right soap for the job.Sorry if i offended you in anyway.
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My soap has caustic in it and the trucks I have been cleaning with it for 6 years still shine like they did when we started using that soap! It has a good bit of caustic in it compared to some other cleaners also. Now I have some trucks we clean that are only a few years old and were 2 stepped before us that are very dull and were dull when we started! I don't know if maybe a combination of caustic and hf from 2 stepping or maybe just other ingredients in some detergents might dull the paint, but the mine dont and it is actually one of the strongest degreasers I have found also. We DO dilute ours before using and then downstream, but it does have caustic and it has not dulled any trucks we have cleaned yet!! We used one of the brown soaps before this and it also had caustic and never dulled any of the trucks either. We clean around 50-75 trucks every week and with exception of drivers tearing them up (wrecks and stuff) the paint on them looks like it did when we started. Some of them we have been cleaning for 10 years!! I use this soap for oil stains on concrete also.
 
I think before anyone gets some "HF and have at it" they need to know the possible hazards to health and windshields. It works great but can cause problems without knowing how to use it.
 
HF can be deadly!! Also it will cloud up winshields and dull paint if used too strong.
 
Since I know Scott, and know what he is capable of, and his understanding of what it takes, I gave an answer that was in his skill set, which is high. Often times, I will not reply, or reply with all sorts of cautions, because I am not confident in the skills of the contractor. That is just me.
Ideally, you should have the proper soap to clean a vehicle. Amazingly, there is no such thing as a consensus on what the perfect soap is. Just my opinion.
 
Cooper do you blend your soap i saw on the bottom of your tag you sold soap i was just curious.If you blended your own or rebaged some of the stuff thats out here?You mention that you mixed the caustic soap down before you used it at what ratio s are you downstreaming or whats your prefered method of injection? On most trucks i wash i like to use a more milder blend using sodium metesilicate instead of the dreaded caustic.Muiga says must be smart to blend soap with no caustic that will clean as well with caustic.
 
Scott, how did the job turn out?

Did you make a blend that worked good on the trucks?

Hope you did not have to brush too much.
 
Kiloman said:
Cooper do you blend your soap i saw on the bottom of your tag you sold soap i was just curious.If you blended your own or rebaged some of the stuff thats out here?You mention that you mixed the caustic soap down before you used it at what ratio s are you downstreaming or whats your prefered method of injection? On most trucks i wash i like to use a more milder blend using sodium metesilicate instead of the dreaded caustic.Muiga says must be smart to blend soap with no caustic that will clean as well with caustic.
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It is my recipe but I have it packaged by another company that handles all the msds and all that stuff so I know I am covered on that stuff and they package it in drum kits so I can sell it easier. So far I have just sold locally but am planning on setting up a web site and having a store online soon. I also sell that company's other products and they have some good products too! They have caustic and non caustic fleet wash detergents, degreasers caustic and non caustic, and many specialty cleaners too; I have tried them all but still stick with my formula for most jobs.

I usually dilute at 5 parts water to 1 part soap and then downstream with a general fixed injector with 8 gpm machines for fleets. There are other fleet cleaners that may be just as good but I have not found a better degreaser than this formula. It will melt gunk buildup off engines.

I use it for everything! I dont do much wood, but have stripped solid stain with it and resealed with clear afterward. It is really good for paint prep for cleaning and removing oxidation. It is very good on concrete and oil stains also.
 
We ended up using 1/4 pound per gallon with about 10oz of car wash soap per 5 gallons downs treamed.Brushing was minimal mainly the back doors and grills.

Trucks are pretty much shot any way the paint is failing to bare metal in places.There was a huge improvement in teh appearance,but they will never look great.
 
Squirtgun said:
We ended up using 1/4 pound per gallon with about 10oz of car wash soap per 5 gallons downs treamed.Brushing was minimal mainly the back doors and grills.

Trucks are pretty much shot any way the paint is failing to bare metal in places.There was a huge improvement in teh appearance,but they will never look great.
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Around here I have 10 or 12 trucks like that and the companies want them cleaned even more often that their nice looking trucks! It keeps DOT from looking as hard :lol: But they pay the same price and the trucks are easy to wash cause the paint was already so ragged that you don't have to worry about if they need brushed or not. We just keep the oil off everything and keep the tanks and wheels bright and they are happy.:D Those trucks get cleaned weekly and the others are every other week.
 
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