[Thackley Cleaning Services]

With all this talk about truckmounts vs portables and price being a prohibitive factor has anyone actually tried to build their own truckmount from individually bought bits ?

Im not a techie but how hard would it be and what bits would you need ?

The guys with TM's do you think that you could build a TM for less money than you bought it for ?

danny

[Colin Day]

I've heard of some successful stories of people building their own... Hardly rocket science I suppose

I'd love to harness the power of a jet engine and have the most powerful carpet cleaner in the world. Costing about 1 grand an hour to run, there's a few people on here who earn twice that

[Paul Evans]

 

[Paul Heath]

"I'd love to harness the power of a jet engine" blimey Colin...do you want to clean then or fly them round the world..

[Andy Hogarth]

Mick Halliday has built his own, it's a freaking beeeeeast!!!
My truckmount is a fairly simple one but Mike still tweaked it and called it overengineered lol

pmsl col

[Neil Williams]

I haven't done it, but as an ex mechanic it wouldn't be rocket science.
Unless someone comes up with a kit version it would be time consuming and you'd need to make sure you get the balance spot on between engine and blower, totally secure within a frame and meet legal requirements with regards to noise and exhaust emmissions, not forgetting a safe fuel delivery system.
There are other items too but these would be the big ones.

[wynne jones]

It's for people who like scrapheap challenge. The time involved wouldn't be worth it unless you'd be building something in the garage anyway.

 http://www.turbinefun.com/Turbine_Powered_Projects.asp

[Thackley Cleaning Services]

when you consider than restoremate are asking for six and half grand for a prowler, surely for a couple of grand you could source the same parts and put together a machine with the same capability and power for the price of a porty.

most of the parts are available online including generators, hoses, vacs etc...  the only thing that you would have to find would be the casing to house the whole caboodle.

[Colin Day]

when you consider than restoremate are asking for six and half grand for a prowler, surely for a couple of grand you could source the same parts and put together a machine with the same capability and power for the price of a porty.

most of the parts are available online including generators, hoses, vacs etc...  the only thing that you would have to find would be the casing to house the whole caboodle.

Now, there's a technical term I like....

[PaulKing]

when you consider than restoremate are asking for six and half grand for a prowler, surely for a couple of grand you could source the same parts and put together a machine with the same capability and power for the price of a porty.

most of the parts are available online including generators, hoses, vacs etc...  the only thing that you would have to find would be the casing to house the whole caboodle.

Not quite as easy as that, you have to have the knowledge of how to do it, resources to do it. And time to do it.

I could do all three but it would take a fair bit of time  and in that time I could clean a lot of carpets or be marketing my business. Or just relaxing.

Take something like a bicycle you wouldn't build one from scratch because frames are hard to make, however as has been said if there was a kit available then maybe?

[Dennis]

I'd love to harness the power of a jet engine and have the most powerful carpet cleaner in the world. Costing about 1 grand an hour to run, there's a few people on here who earn twice that

Come on get on with it then.  






http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BAC-TSR2-RAF-Aircraft-Olympus-320-Jet-Engine-TSR-2-/130557091343#ht_4569wt_907

[PaulKing]

Four to the door?

[peter maybury]

As a well equipped and trained carpet cleaner you have a great earning potential. The time it would take to design, source and build a machine would be considerable and probably put to better use marketing your trade. Even with years of truckmount experience I would not undertake such a venture as it would not be cost effective.

Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com

[Andy Hogarth]

My problem is I'm crap at fixing things let alone building.

i have Mike H on speeddial 

[Jim_77]

Danny (or anyone else thinking about building their own truckmount),

Download a full user manual for a TM with all the exploded drawings, and count how many parts there are!

If you can't piece it together in your head you'd probably struggle to build a machine in real life!

People like Mike Halliday are a rarity, an exception.  Mike is obviously very passionate, and very handy, when it comes to handling engineering projects in his own shed.  I think the majority of the rest of us don't need to waste our time and money because we'd never make it happen!

[John Kelly]

If it was that easy I would be building a similar machine to a Prowler. But a quick tot up just shows how daft that would be. Blower £900, Heat exchanger £700, Engine £900, Pump £400, Hoses, rough guess, £120, Guages, pressure regulator, Solenoid valve £120, Then you have to have frame which is lazer cut then welded then powder coated. I doubt I could get someone to make that to the same quality for less than 5-6 hundred if not more. Theres getting on 4k then you have the labour costs, marketing, overheads and Profit. Just wouldn't be worth it.
Thats not to say building one yourself is out of the question. I think it would be relatively easy if you had some basic skills. It probably wouldn't be of merchantable quality but would do the job. But as Paul says probably better off earning or marketing.

[Simon Gerrard]

Why do people think tm's are 'prohibitively' expensive? My first TM cost £7,500 + vat twenty odd years ago. Now, you can still buy an entry level TM for £7,500 + vat and because of the prices we charge these days you can have your money back in a month or so! What's expensive about that?

Simon

[PaulKing]

and didn't your first TM last a few years as well.

[Simon Gerrard]

My first one was a Prochem 100A with a 16 hp rope start engine and a diesel fired burner. We then had the first of every new technology since, the Titan 875 is my 7th.

Simon

[jon barnes]

plus you would have to factor in the breakdowns for all those little teething problems with time to fix the knackered parts and ways round the issues you would be better off buying a cheap second hand one see how the pros have done it and then build the next one if you were still that way inclined.