[Mike Halliday]

They're over priced for what they are.

 I prefer to build exactly what I want, plus  I enjoy the inventing aspect  of building my own, it's a bit like a guy driving an old car he has restored, he  could buy a new car but  it's about the build

[Robin Ray]

What is the TM you have?

[Glynn]

How can you say they are over priced ?, I have 2 large TM's and they have paid for themselves within a month .

[Simon Gerrard]

I think we need a picture of this beast, Mike.

Simon

[Mike Halliday]

It's in bits in the unit now, I will try and find an old photo.

Basically a 18hp engine, 45 blower, 1500psi pump, propane burner (or heat exchanger with the water preheated by the van engine) same performance as a boxxer or other mid range machine but at a quarter of the price and twice as reliable. The best bit was no waste tank as I filtered the dirty water and expelled it through the blower ( like the prowler) which made the footprint on the machine a lot Smaller especially as I mounted my hose reel on top of the freshwater tank.

I can understand why people like the ease and convenience of purchasing a ready made truckmount but I have the knowledge to make a extremely customised machine,  like using a massive truck silencer which makes it very quite and cuts down on restricting the blower or using a propane heater which is'nt available in the UK. I use a flexible coupling that can be changed on the job in 15 minutes but will never need changing as its rated to 130hp which is 5 times higher than it needs to be.

I have another machine that uses a Kevlar drive belt which is rated 4 times higher than it needs to be but will last forever, a machine manufacture would never fit such redundancy into their machine as its too expensive to do.

Making your own gives an amount of flexibility that is impossible with ready made.

[jasonl]

I wish I had the know how to make a hybrid like Mike , I have a bane in working order , I am sure this could be adapted into a beast of a machine relatively simply .

[Simon Gerrard]

Mike,
So where does all the dirty water go, onto the road?
Is there a silencer on the blower as well as the engine?

Simon

[Mike Halliday]

If I'm parked on the road then it just expels into the roadside gutter, if I'm on someones drive I fit a piece of 3inch lay flat hose and run it whereever is most convenient.

It has a heat exchanger on the engine so no engine silencer and the blower uses a truck silencer

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

I suppose it's a bit like me making up my own formulations, it makes the job more interesting!

Cheers

Doug

[Robin Ray]

If you expel the waste water through the blower and the blower has a truck silencer does the waste water get blown through the silencer?

[Mike Halliday]

Yes. You need to change it every few years as very small fibres get past the filter and accumulate in the small holes within the silencer.

But it's quite an easy test to know when it need changing, you just loosen the clamp attatching the joining pipe if the holes within the silencer are starting to get blocked the back pressure created  by the blower  pushes the silencer off

[CarPete Cleaning]

Hi Mike, I'm interested in the flexible drive coupling you mentioned.  My Chemtex 27 hp TM eats through the couplings I use, just wondered if the ones you use would be suitable for mine?  If so, where can I get them from? Thanks Pete.

[Mike Halliday]

http://www.fptgroup.com/fenner.asp?title=HRC-Couplings&pageid=2673.

Geoff also has changed his coupling to this type on his TM.  buy the biggest that will fit, I buy mine from a local industrial transmission shop, just tell the your shaft size and measure the shaft clearance from the floor to see how big you can buy,  I think mine is 8 inches which is massive overkill

[Mike Halliday]

Here's  the coupling I had fitted to a machine I made,  (ignore its rough looking appearance it was a work in progress . )

[gwrightson]

Not had a problem with mine in a long time ( touch wood )   Mike

The guy who services my t/m  did dedicate some time getting alignment right and a couple of other tweaks to ensure smooth running  .
Geoff

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I used to go through coupling Pete it's a chemtex thing a lot of the US cleaners say the same, I used to import them it was cheaper and had a few in stock I got quite good at changing them over.

One thing I would suggest Mike although I know you will have made up your mind, compared to my chemtex and other similar TMs my new bigger TM does clean faster I can't work out why but even on a smaller job I'm faster.

Shaun

[Raymondo]

This job is not like a 9 to 5 where we can switch of from it. It becomes more of a hobby.

I have taken my TM apart a few times to replace bits like HX or the engine etc.

I have always enjoyed it working out how to solve a problem.

Had to replace the engine in our transit this year a bit of stress but I enjoy tinkering with anything mechanical.

[gwrightson]

I used to go through coupling Pete it's a chemtex thing a lot of the US cleaners say the same, I used to import them it was cheaper and had a few in stock I got quite good at changing them over.

One thing I would suggest Mike although I know you will have made up your mind, compared to my chemtex and other similar TMs my new bigger TM does clean faster I can't work out why but even on a smaller job I'm faster.

Shaun

One small problem with getting through the work faster Shaun, ok problem probably not the correct terminology  is I often find myself justifying the price for the little time I have taken, quite often I will get a comment like "you have  finished already"  although they are happy with the results.
Just a thought!!!!
geoff

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I've gone passed that Geoff although it can leave time for kitchen sink marketing without the need for the kitchen sink.

Shaun

[julianb]

I've been intrigued by the idea of getting a largish diesel car engine to build a tm.  My theory is that it could run on idle and still have plenty of power and hardly use any fuel. Maybe it would last longer as well.