Do I need a new truck? - Certified SoftWash Roof Cleaning

Jacob Daley · SoftWash Systems Certified Applicator

Do I need a new truck?

Jeffrey Kirby · SoftWash Systems Authorized Professional

the dry weight of the Gen 3 will probably not exceed your GVWR load. Add the accessories, 45-50 gallons SH concentrate, 30-50 gallons in your mix tank, and 40-45 gallons of water in your bulk rinse tank...and you have added about 1000 lbs of liquid weight, plus the accessories (batteries are heavy!!). You will likely be pushing your GVWR or be over it. A half ton truck would be better. I prefer the 3/4 ton truck. I have 1 of each currently--F150 / F250 / F350. The next truck will be another F250.

Chad Eneix · SoftWash Systems Authorized Professional

Also worth noting is the "slosh" factor. When you turn or brake, the fluid in the tanks keeps moving, putting additional load on the brakes, suspension, etc. The biggest factor I would worry about is safety. You will also want more room. I have an 2007 F250, 2 wheel drive, extra cab, 8 foot bed, and I still wish I had more room to put stuff.

It was a long drive for me, and would be even longer for you, but if you shop for work trucks in Houston, TX you can save thousands. The truck above with a little over 120K miles, with the body in nearly perfect shape was $6800. That truck would have been at least $11,000 up here, and probably would have had some rust starting. The trucks are used oil company vehicles, and there are a ton of them all over Houston.

Tim Teed · SoftWash Systems 5-Star Professional

Ideal is a F250 8' bed with extended cab. I also have an 2004 F150 8' bed and it works fine. You can probably use your Tacoma short term but don't carry water or any mix while driving between jobs. Also very little space for the extra stuff. Maybe even look at a trailer for the rig.

Troy Layman · Lead Tech

Water weighs 8.35 pounds per gallon, so every 50 gallons is about 420 pounds.

Another option for extra space is a cargo carrier. I included a link below if you're not familiar with them. I don't know anything about the company linked below - they just came up when I did a quick search for images. There are also gear bags for cargo carriers so you could put your lighter weight items that don't fit well on the carrier. It may be enough to get you buy until you can get a bigger truck if you don't want to go with a trailer. I don't do Soft Washing 40 hours a week, so I use a trailer so I can still have full use of my truck when I'm not cleaning. I've seen some photos of AC's rigs in trailers before as well and they look pretty sharp.

www.discountramps.com/cargo-carriers/c/5110/

Chad Eneix · SoftWash Systems Authorized Professional

Bleach is actually heavier than water by a good amount at 10 pounds per gallon. On a high production roof cleaning day with a full bulk tank and a mix tank full of 4% you would have very close to 1000 pounds in fluid weight with your bulk rinse empty.

Jacob Daley · SoftWash Systems Certified Applicator

Thanks for the response guys. Looks like I have my rather obvious answer. I wanted to make this truck work for a couple months.. Looks like I am going to go get a new 250 super duty though.

Jacob Daley · SoftWash Systems Certified Applicator

I already have a trailer rig. I am going with truck mounted rigs from now on. I have found the topography in the northwest to not be very trailer friendly, and it definitely raises liability when you have employees driving trailers around. I am digging those little trailer hitch racks though.

AC Lockyer · Administrator

Jacob,

Our systems were engineered to fit in a Nissan Frontier 6' bed with little modification. You will need to have 72" of bed to fit the system. You will also need to add helper springs and / or 5,000 pound air bags. The curb weight of our Minuteman Package, (cradle skid, loaded hose reel, DPI module and Bulk Storage module) is 450 lbs. I estemate adding 100 lbs for each loaded reel or module I add to a system. Also figure 9 lbs per gallon if tanks are full. (average between water and bleach weight / pound).

Hope this helps.

AC

Vic Irish · SoftWash Systems Certified Applicator

Jacob Daley wrote:
Thanks for the response guys. Looks like I have my rather obvious answer. I wanted to make this truck work for a couple months.. Looks like I am going to go get a new 250 super duty though.

It was great meeting you at Windows 101, Jacob! Your rig looks great, man, I'm impressed! That new Blend system looks like the cat's meow!

That is a fine looking truck, too. Hope you share a picture of your wrap when it gets put on this week.

I was happy to let you use the mr. vic softwash pole tip. How do you like it? By the way, I wouldn't use it on pressure washing...

Hoping we can have another Revolution at Brandon's pretty soon!

I don't ever want to go to Seattle again, as I spent 2 hours on a 1.8 mile stretch of I-405. Arghh!! The ramps on it and I-5 were backed up.

Bob Riddick · SoftWash Systems 5-Star Professional

Jacob Daley wrote:
Thanks for the response guys. Looks like I have my rather obvious answer. I wanted to make this truck work for a couple months.. Looks like I am going to go get a new 250 super duty though.

Jacob, if you can swing it, get the club cab on that F250. The extra space inside is invaluable!

Brandon Vaughn · SoftWash Systems Pro Staff

Jacob - all our trucks are Chevy 1500's Extended Cabs - LONG BED. We've installed airbags and brake controllers on all of them. With all the rain we get in the NW, you will want dry storage inside your cab, and lots of extra room for blowers and brooms, buckets.

Tear out the back seats and install plywood on the back wall and floor for even more storage options.

Mark Fermoyle · Lead Tech Certified

Josh,

Unrelated to your question, but who does your shirts for you? They look pretty nice. How well do they hold up the the SH????

Mark

AC Lockyer · Administrator

Jacob,

Post some pix of your truck soon please.

AC

Jacob Daley · SoftWash Systems Certified Applicator

Here is a few pictures of our truck setup. We ended up going with a 2016 F-250 Super Duty. It handles the system quite well. The truck does squat a little when the tanks are about half full. The wrap is still in process. I included a picture of my other truck. The wrap will be an updated version.

Vic Irish · SoftWash Systems Certified Applicator

Picture #6 is number one with a bullet! Nice wrap, Jacob. Very nice.

Chad Eneix · SoftWash Systems Authorized Professional

Nice trucks, just curious, how do you like those ladder stabilizers/standoffs? How much ladder sticks up past the gutter line? I like to have the ladder end as close to even with the roof edge as possible so there is nothing to climb around. (I know what OSHA says, but I feel it's safer than their way) I've been looking for something different than the bolt on ones and have seen those.

Chad Eneix · SoftWash Systems Authorized Professional

Also, if you want to be rid of those straps for your ladders, check out this old post;

softwashsystems.activeboard.com/t60294159/cool-item/

Jacob Daley · SoftWash Systems Certified Applicator

I love these standoffs. They are lightweight, easily removable, and cheap. They do not stick up over the roof that much at all. If you need them to stick up over the roof you can just move them to a lower rung pretty quickly. We even use them on the 40 foot ladder with no problems.

Brandon Vaughn · SoftWash Systems Pro Staff

I'm with Jacob - we love these standoffs too. We have them on all our ladders. Thanks for the post on the hook-um dano! Just ordered 8 of them.

Chad Eneix · SoftWash Systems Authorized Professional

I'm going to order a couple up. Thanks.