I started with a Toyota with a 4 cylinder engine. If you are going to use a cold water unit, you will be fine, depending on what aspect of pressure washing you are getting in to, and what you plan on doing to accomplish the job.
So here are the plans.
I started with a cold water unit in the back of a pickup. It was a pain, but it was what the budget would allow. I washed fleets, and in all honesty, was not very good at it then. The best thing I did at that time was to concentrate on small fleets and do a little here and a little there. I think that I was making about $30 an hour gross at the time. It was okay, because I was hungry and willing to work for the little money that I was making.
I eventually got a job doing heavier stuff, equipment, etc that enabled me to upgrade my equipment to hot water, via a hot box that I bought from Delco. Again taking a limited budget into consideration. Just before I bought the hot box I had bought a 4x8 trailer that had a tool box on the front. The only thing about that trailer I would have changed would have been to put brakes on it. I used that trailer for about 3 years, with the hot box, etc until I needed to start recapturing my water.
By that time I had a full size 1/2 ton pickup. I bought a 16 foot trailer that had two 225 gallon water tanks on it. I used that trailer for 5 years, until I had an accident that was bad enough to make me worry about its' structural integrity. The truck I had was totalled in the accident, and so it was time for a change. I had actually gotten rid of the old hot box about two years before and had purchased a complete RK-21 from Delco. It has been a pretty reliable machine. There has only been once that the battery was discharged enough to cause me problems with the heater, and that was this past weekend when it was 21 degrees where I was washing trucks.
The trailer I have now is 12 foot long, has an Rk-21 on it, two tanks, a soap tank, a generator, a recovery system, with a vacuum hose and vacuum tank, and DI bottles. It is really almost too small, I could use another 2 feet. I do like it though because it is rated at 10,000 lbs. and has brakes on both axles. It also has recessed lights on it that are a lot sturdier than the classic utility trailer lights. I am going to try to enter a URL so that a picture of the current rig will show up. ><img src="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1471816&a=11074799&p=55321434&Sequence=0" border="0" alt=""></font></p>
But i have to say to start with go with what you can afford and go from there.
