Rob
We have van mounted reels and they work really well
as for the pulling off the hose to the front of the van ,If you are parked the wrong way on some jobs its a pain ,
But we do use the slip'n'slide hose pipe guide and have found that to be a great help,
Available from varitech, cleaning spot ,cleantec , the window cleaning warehouse,
And sureclean systems
one good thing about the van mount reels is that they are allways charged and ready to go
Hope this helps
Andy