Heavy Equipment info needed

Lou Zehnder

Lou Zehnder

New member
Can someone shine some light on heavy equipment cleaning .....do's and do not's, pricing, most important how long it takes per piece.ex. D8 dozer , backhoe , trackhoe, ect....I know there is variables to it. If you wanna call me please do if you don't wanna share to the world. I just came across a huge lead and really don't know anything thing about it. I run a 9 gal hot machine and if needed a I can get another one ....Thanks.
 
They are used to paying hourly. I would go with that. There are far too many variables to give a true piece rate.
 
from an ex equip operator ive cleaned my share and scott is right on the hourly. that mud on the tracks cooks from the heat of the hydraulics and gets hard as concrete and it might be 1000 punds of mud on a d8 or 800 size excavator. on the excavator u might have 50 pounds of grease piled up in the turn table and if a main line blows u could be spraying off a few hundred gallons of hydraulic oil.

good luck
 
I have a different view on this subject. I do lots and lots of heavy equipment. I would say go with a piece rate. As you get better and get them on a regular schedule your hourly will go up. You could never sell $250 an hour but with per piece I can do that easily.

Also, scraping large chunks of grease off first will help to keep the mess as minimal as possible. Watch out for stickers, service histories, windows, and hand rails. we wash the windows and wipe down the hand rails every time. no operator wants to climb in and not see or get crap on his hands. You also have to decide for yourself how clean your going to get it. Remember its heavy equpiment and going to look like crap in a few days anyway. You still need to do good work, but it doesn't need to be like a vehilce. Tons of up sells, the insides, engine clean, reclaim cause not many will do it and one day you'll get hit.

pm me if you want some more info...
 
dbgpowerwash said:
I have a different view on this subject. I do lots and lots of heavy equipment. I would say go with a piece rate. As you get better and get them on a regular schedule your hourly will go up. You could never sell $250 an hour but with per piece I can do that easily.

Also, scraping large chunks of grease off first will help to keep the mess as minimal as possible. Watch out for stickers, service histories, windows, and hand rails. we wash the windows and wipe down the hand rails every time. no operator wants to climb in and not see or get crap on his hands. You also have to decide for yourself how clean your going to get it. Remember its heavy equpiment and going to look like crap in a few days anyway. You still need to do good work, but it doesn't need to be like a vehilce. Tons of up sells, the insides, engine clean, reclaim cause not many will do it and one day you'll get hit.

pm me if you want some more info...
Click to expand...


Good post!
 
I have a customer here laying pipeline from out of state, they call me because I charge an hourly rate. Sometimes they have particular parts of each machine they want clean, not necessarily the entire rig so definately charge hourly. Sometimes they just want the radiators cleaned, other times, they want the engines cleaned because they need to work on them. Rarely anymore than that unless they are moving them. I only charge one hour minimum since they are local, otherwise charge two hour min. plus mileage.
 
When I wash heavy equipment I charge by the piece as people don't like the hourly prices.

I have it down to where I can make great money per hour by charging by the piece.
 
I agree with what joe said. If your doing the whole machine I think piece rate is best, but if your just doing something small like a radiator or engine etc hourly plus materials would be your best bet.
 
I will charge a flat rate on things like radiators, engine degrease or general light cleaning. The only time I really get into per hour is when you are doing thing like paint prep or when the mud is completely caked on the unit. I had one where the guy sunk a backhoe into a pond he was digging. I took 8 hours just to clean out the engine compartment it was solid mud.
 
I'd rather charge piece of rate on everything that i do.But if you want to play safe what i would do it's take a look first of the equipment to wash if it's possible and try to get a best clear picture of what they want from the wash.It can go for just demuck and degrease or they may want the radiator and motor steam clean or just pressure wash and also they may want to sell the equipment and want more detailed type of service.On a d-8 depending on the situation and your equipment( at least anything above 5gpm 3000 psi hot water)it may take you from 2 hours up to six and on the excavator it is pretty standar time too.That being said just average your hourly rate for this hours plus another 15% and you will be o.k. and when the time goes by and you get faster and experienced you can adjust your prices up or down depending if you going to do it on a periodic maintence,just remember it's cheaper to do a periodic pressure wash and find or prevent breakdowns than costly heavy equipment reapirs that can be several thousands of dollars.Give me a call if i can help you on anything.www.tsunamipowerwash.biz:wave3:
 
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