[Hilton]

Why do you need all that power just to clean a carpet ?

I sort of get it on large commercial that you can actually get access to but on bread and butter every day stuff its pure over priced vanity (are carpet cleaners ripped off post alluded to this) that is not needed and how many CC actually have the business to warrant all the cost., how long before you see a ROI because its not just the TM,is it ? its the van it sits in as well.

[Robin Ray]

As I said I don't have a TM but after using one coming from a fairly powerful porty I can see the cleaning potential therefore the earning potential/ or working less potential is imminence.

I thought it could be the vanity of having a big noisy expensive shiny machine before actually using one, now I see it differently. The only way I can really describe the difference is like changing from a horse to a car. Horses are slower and need a lot of grooming feeding mucking out, you fill a car up once and it goes for miles faster and in comfort. The longer I rely only on my portable the longer I will feel being held up unnecessarily.

Of course this does not mean portable machines are useless. I can get the same result with my machine it just takes longer with more inconvenience to me and the customer. I will not get rid of my portable as I will need it in many situations.

As for having enough work to merit using a TM I would not consider buying one if there was no need. And there are carpet cleaners who have been using TMs for decades that seem to have the work to merit their use.

[clive ware]

Hilton, I mainly clean domestics and I absolutely could not to without a TM. I`m stacked with work and you can just knock each job out so much quicker. I`ve had a problem with my van recently and had to use my porty which does a perfectly good job but just much much slower.

[mlscontractcleaner]

I've fancied investing in a truck mounted machine for a while now but have always been worried about not being able to park close enough to a job to be able to use it. How far away can you be before it becomes useless?

[from edge2edge]

I had a truckmount which although old it had 22hp and worked very well but most of my work is Oxford so I made the decision to go down to the  Storm which has excellent power(not as much as the truckmount obviously) but there were just too many access issues with my work area sometimes couldn't get parked on the right side of the road so hose lengths/power etc didn't come into play.If your work allows get a truckmount(have little porty for small stuff)......you need to assess your workload places of work etc...............Alan

[Simon Gerrard]

Why do you need all that power just to clean a carpet ?

I sort of get it on large commercial that you can actually get access to but on bread and butter every day stuff its pure over priced vanity (are carpet cleaners ripped off post alluded to this) that is not needed and how many CC actually have the business to warrant all the cost., how long before you see a ROI because its not just the TM,is it ? its the van it sits in as well.

Vanity???
Picking up your first TM and handing over thousands and thousands  of pounds, not knowing whether or not you made the right decision has got sweet fa to do with vanity.
And if it was about just vanity, bragging rights, mine's bigger than yours then your moment in the sun is going to be short lived.  If all you are bothered about is vanity, why not just photoshop a picture of yourself standing next to a shiny new TM and get the glee without the pay-out?

Simon

[Simon Gerrard]

Here’s a TM story for you.
Over thirty years ago just before I got my first Prochem 100A truck mount (16hp Briggs and Stratton, with rope start and diesel burner), we used to clean the carpets in a very busy pub in the centre of town. The area was around 230 sq metres and used to take us 8 hours overnight. We combination cleaned it, rotary scrubbing with Multipro and fibre shampoo and then extracted with twin vac machine.
Then I got the TM and the job time went down to 3 hours 50 minutes, we were still rotary scrubbing. I then got an RX20, the first in the UK, and the job time went down to 2 hours 45 minutes, cleaning non-stop and went from being a night job to a morning job. The quality went up and the job time went down massively AND the area manager was so impressed we ended up doing all of the company’s pubs in the North West. The sales value of that alone paid for the TM many times over.

We got another pub chain by persuading an area manager to let us clean one of his pubs carpets the day after it had been done by their existing contractor.
We filled the recovery tank with clean water and drained it in front of the client before we started so he could see we weren’t playing tricks on him. We then cleaned some areas of his choosing and the result was very much better than the existing guy we then took the area manager out to empty the machine which was tarmac black. Guess who cleaned their carpets after that?

A TM is far more productive and can produce far better results much faster and the ability to do that over a number of markets is what is known as ‘the competitive edge.’ TM’s might look expensive, but they cost peanuts in comparison to their earning power.

And then there is the marketing machine that a TM is……………………….

[tim handley]

such a lot of money, but id love one some day..........

[Billy Russell]

Simon is talking a load of rubbish as usual

he is a ubfec

[Paul Wisdom]

Couldn't agree with you more Simon - I bought my first TM used off you that 100A with the paraffin burner - best thing I ever did for my business. I was so impressed going from a portatable to a TM I imported  a new twin wand hydramaster machine direct from the states, before John Gott started to import them. John actually came up to see my machine and the rest is history.

I did think you would never leave Prochem and come over to the dark side the amount of flack you gave me when we did the ships together all those many, many moons ago.

Basically semi retired now but would never ever go back to a porty for love nor money if I was full time.

[garybristow]

I used my enforcer today for the first time in two months, it's great but compared to my blazer gt there's no comparison
In every way
Gary Bristowclean

[jon barnes]

Robin I've got a Phoenix 450i and a 570i and before you dismiss buying the bigger tm  I would think a little further ahead. The 570 you can LPG and the savings in fuel made up the difference in cost between the 2 machines within 1 year for us. I would also say the 570 Is way easier to work on and much more reliable

[Hilton]

Here’s a TM story for you.
Over thirty years ago just before I got my first Prochem 100A truck mount (16hp Briggs and Stratton, with rope start and diesel burner), we used to clean the carpets in a very busy pub in the centre of town. The area was around 230 sq metres and used to take us 8 hours overnight. We combination cleaned it, rotary scrubbing with Multipro and fibre shampoo and then extracted with twin vac machine.
Then I got the TM and the job time went down to 3 hours 50 minutes, we were still rotary scrubbing. I then got an RX20, the first in the UK, and the job time went down to 2 hours 45 minutes, cleaning non-stop and went from being a night job to a morning job. The quality went up and the job time went down massively AND the area manager was so impressed we ended up doing all of the company’s pubs in the North West. The sales value of that alone paid for the TM many times over.

We got another pub chain by persuading an area manager to let us clean one of his pubs carpets the day after it had been done by their existing contractor.
We filled the recovery tank with clean water and drained it in front of the client before we started so he could see we weren’t playing tricks on him. We then cleaned some areas of his choosing and the result was very much better than the existing guy we then took the area manager out to empty the machine which was tarmac black. Guess who cleaned their carpets after that?

A TM is far more productive and can produce far better results much faster and the ability to do that over a number of markets is what is known as ‘the competitive edge.’ TM’s might look expensive, but they cost peanuts in comparison to their earning power.

And then there is the marketing machine that a TM is……………………….

Like I  said pure vanity, I could have done all that with a Stimvak Junior in half the time.

[clive ware]

 ; :

[Mike Halliday]

I'm fitting a new TM into the van this afternoon, been using a portable for 3 weeks, at first I though I would just stick to using it as I had the propane burner to heat the water  (so had one aspect of using a truck-mount.... very hot solution)

It was nice to wheel the portie to the door and only have to use 50ft of hose on most jobs and with 2 of us it was no hassle.  but even using a 10 inch wand it was  still leaving the carpets a little too wet ( they were taking 5 minutes to dry instead of my usual  2mins with the TM  )

And It was nice having the extra space in the van with no TM

[Glynn]

Which new Truckmount  did you get Mike ?.

[Mike Halliday]

An  XR3 Cosworth biggibarstarder...... Are you familiar with them?

Seriously It's a little knocked up unit from some spare parts I had in my unit, 36hp engine to a 47 blower.

[COLIN BRIGHT]

i have been trying to register for the truckmounters for for ages but have never been able to, i dont know what ive done to upset whoever runs it but despite sending emails have NEVER had a reply.

[Simon Gerrard]

Colin,
Email me your details and I'll get Glyn to sort it. You need a passport type picture too.
simon@gerrardscarpetcleaners.co.uk

[COLIN BRIGHT]

thanks simon