[Steve Weatherley]

As an owner of a portable machine, I have been considering getting a T/M for quite some time. A visit to the show gave me plently of opportunity to make enquiries to the companies selling these machines.
I asked some of the guys on the three of four stands (no names mentioned)to give me some good reasons as to why a T/M might benefit me. All of them gave the same three reasons:

1. The matter of image......a T/M user has the higher level of respect from his/her customers and there are now customers out there asking specifically for T/M cleaning.
I have never had a customer ask me for T/M cleaning and all of my customers are highly impressed when I wheel the Ninja up to the front door.
2. Setting up times are quicker.
I don't dispute this but would expect to be saving only approx half an hour per job in setup/ packdown time. On average I do 2 jobs per day so one hour doesn't make a massive difference to me.
3. Extra power gives a better clean.
Most of the cleaning is done by the pre vac, pre-spray and agitation. The main part of the extraction process is to simply rinse the carpet clean and leave it as dry as possible. In my view I have never had a problem using my portable alongwith other accessories.

Is there a major point or an obvious benefit which has not been mentioned by anyone?

Please understand that I am not knocking T/M's - having never used one I am not qualified to criticise them. After all there are hundreds of satisfied users out there who obviously feel that they have had good value for their 15 grand. However I have come to the conclusion that my 15 grand might be better spent on a range of other methods and accessories, i.e Dry Fusion, Host or Envirodry, etc. And I would still have spent considerably less than £15k.

I would appreciate anyone else's views on my thoughts.

[Ian Gourlay]

Ive only got a portable.  I would love a new van and the best truckmount and accesorries money could buy. So I could also do patios tiled floors etcetc

In fact I would love three .


However to acheive one I would have to be certain that I could generate enough work to justify the cost etc.

Lasat year I looked back at the origional postings on Cleantalk, and you will find people on these boards who now have truckmounts saying how wonderful their portable was and did not consider they were doing an inferior job with their portables.

It apears to me they are born with an abundance of confidence and Know how to spin a tale to their best advatage. By doing this they increased their turnover and graduated to a truckmount.


What does amaze me is people who start out with a truckmount, they must br megga confident.

[Mike Halliday]

1)all of my customers are highly impressed when I wheel the Ninja up to the front door.

of course they are! because they know no different,

your customer will never ask for T/M cleaning until they are told about the benefits to them that using a truckmount will give.


[2)i]Setting up times are quicker.[/i]

yes it is quicker, all small jobs you might save 30mins but on bigger jobs that could be 2hrs.

3)Extra power gives a better clean.
You're wrong with this one. pre-vacing, pre-spraying & aggitation does nothing to clean the  carpet, 'a better clean' come from the amount of solution jetted into the carpet then sucked out, a truckmount flushes a lot more dirt out of the carpet.

the more I read your post the more I see the views of a man who has no intention of buying a truckmount, and is doing a very good job of convincing himself he does'nt need one

Mike

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys,

Although we get excited by Truck vs Porty,micro vs detergent etc ,99% of customers don't give a damn they just want a clean carpet.

I've been surprised how few people do ask for a truck clean , only 2 ,I can remember in the last few years and one of them was so obviously a carpet cleaner I had to stop myself from laughing :

Cheers,

Doug

[Ian Rochester]

Just been to the Cleaning Show on Wed, looked at the various TM's on display, liked the Hydramaster set up and had a good chat with John, he even arranged for me to go outside to see Lee from South Wales' Boxxer set up that he brought with him (thanks for that Lee).  But my main concerns with TM in general are:

How do you get on with having to leave both your van door and the house door open whilst you are working inside, is this not insecure for your equipment/van and bloody cold in the house if it is bad weather outside?

How do you get around keeping your hoses clean whilst  dragging them along the ground then into someones house, do you have to clean your hoses off after each job?

How do you get on with hotels are other secure areas where doors cannot be left open or where they have an automatic or carousel type doors at the entrance.

How do you get on if you cannot get parked up close to the house or office area.

I may well take a trip down to sunny Cornwall after the spring rush, for another look and a cornish pastie.

[Mike Halliday]

During march I was booked up sometimes upto 3 weeks so was passing on work to a friend, A number of existing customers who I tried to pass on decided to wait the 3 week rather than have someone who used 'different' equipment to me,

in December A customer who had moved ( into a retirement flat)decided to make do with the carpets as they were rather than me pass onto the same friend who did'nt use my 'equipment'

a girl once said to me " once you've had black, you never go back" I don't know what she meant : but But I could say " once you've had 'T' you never want to 'P'

Mike

[stevegunn]

Personally i think a truckmount is more of a want than a need.A lot of truckmount owners still run a porty for doing upholstery.I would love a truckmount to try for a couple of weeks to see if i could justify the cost and the logistics of owning a truckmount.I can see the advantages on big jobs i sub contracted a truckie in to do a school for me once and the time it took was amazing i would have been there 6-7 hours but it was done in 3-4 hours with the truckmount.Hydramasters set up is the best i have seen so far.Get yourself to the sunny day out as a lot of different truckmount set ups are on show. 

[Doug Holloway]

Mike,

I too have had the I'll wait for you ,thanks,  but for the quality they know they receive from me rather than the size of my equipment

Cheers,

Doug

[Ian Rochester]

Mike,

You are obviously a TM convert, can you help answer any of my queries above, how do you get around them, they are not once in a blue moon issues, they are issues that I would have to surmount with the majority of my major contracts?

[cleaning co]

way ic is like this, u tell a cust u hav a truck mount they would go ? what the hell is he on about whats a truck mount ?, do they really care ? no i dont think so they just want their carpets to look nice they dont giv a dam how u do it  , only people who gain out of a truck mount are the cleaners why ? because it makes their life easier  ,faster , if a cust c two adds one ad truckmount cleaning the other portable would they choose the truckmount over the portable ? no i dont think so it would be 1 price 2 local 3 how well the add looks,they aint got a clue the diff between the two and they dont care, u can do just as good job with a porty it just takes longer,i havnt got a truck mount but if i wasnt so tight i would buy one tommorow to make my life easier not to gain more cust because i honestly dont think it has an effect  on that side , and i could say because u can do a carpet in half hour with a tm as to an hour with a porty do u think cust thinks he is getting better value for money with a porty ? just my veiws cheers gary (ashplays had to reg another name as i lost my password and no matter how many times i tryed could not get it sent again  )

[Mike Halliday]

gary you're right, customers don't know what i truckmount is or why it will give the a sopposedly better clean.

that where the salesmenship come in my customer wait for me and want a T/M because I've convinced them they are getting something better with a T/M. Whether this is true is debatable, I believe so.

LionHeart, you ask some very valid question and they deserve a full answer but I'm just popping home betreen jobs to have some breakfast so hav'nt got time to answer them, but I will sometime this weekend

Mike

[cleaning co]

yes mike i agree with u teaching that custmer once u hav got them but my point is do it get u that custmer in the first place because u hav a truck mount ?   gary

[Mike Halliday]

I get them in the first place by telling them that anyone who brings a portable into thier home is a cowboy and will leave the carpet stinking  & soaking wet for 3 days  

actually my leaflet sells the benefit of not bring any machinary into the home  and how we've invested over '£18,000 in the latest machinary, to guarantee the best clean possible'

off back to work

Mike

[Steve Weatherley]

actually my leaflet sells the benefit of not bring any machinary into the home

I don't take the Ninja into anybody's home - even in the pouring rain - I just place the cover over it.

I have an open mind on this issue but so far I just feel that a T/M is not for me taking into account the financial outlay. From reading the comments I do agree that on the larger jobs I would save more time and concede this as another plus point for the T/M. However, if I was leaving customers with a dirty wet carpet or customers were asking for a T/M I would certainly see benefits of spending the money.
If somebody can put some answers to Lionheart's issues it would be interesting!

[mark_roberts]

How do you get on with having to leave both your van door and the house door open whilst you are working inside, is this not insecure for your equipment/van and bloody cold in the house if it is bad weather outside?

You will leave the door open if you keep the portable outside anyway.  Use a blanket or similar if very cold.  Pull the van door over and get a chain if its a problem.

How do you get around keeping your hoses clean whilst  dragging them along the ground then into someones house, do you have to clean your hoses off after each job?

Use a hose washer or a cloth.  Kepp them off the grass if possible.  Keep a seperate lenght of hose for the house.

How do you get on with hotels are other secure areas where doors cannot be left open or where they have an automatic or carousel type doors at the entrance.

Use a window or get the portable out.

How do you get on if you cannot get parked up close to the house or office area.

Get the portable out or get them to keep you a space.

I may well take a trip down to sunny Cornwall after the spring rush, for another look and a cornish pastie.

IMO you should only get a truckmount when you can afford to pay at least half in cash.  By doing this you will prove to yourself that your busy enough to justify it ie. working all day every day.  The extra job a day thing is a sale pitch.  You have to market to get the extra job.

I have a Bane, portable and Texatherm and I need all three every week.

I think to justify, from a business point of view, a petrol truckmount or £15000 outlay plus operating costs you really need to be turning over £600 per week and THATS BEFORE YOU PAY YOURSELF.

Mark

[paul@ctcs]

With the recent introduction of the high power portable machines the gap in performance has been slashed, with 900psi solution pressure on tap and enough vaccum power to achieve drying times well under an hour on some synthetic carpets I'm more than happy, plus all this for £3k!!!
 There are a few obvious benefits with bigger jobs but chances are their commercial, If this is the case then a good LM system is my weapon of choice so for me at the moment I'm happy with my porty and LM system.

Paul

[Mike Halliday]

I think Mark has answered Lion Hearts question well, all the problems he's mentioned are easily overcome.

I'm finding now that these types of questions are ignored by most Truckmount owners, people don't ask them for information, they ask them to reinforce their own negative beliefs.

its easier to to see problems with truckmounts than it is to see answers.

'no one is so blind than he who refuses to see'

Mike

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Hi Guys,

Although we get excited by Truck vs Porty,micro vs detergent etc ,99% of customers don't give a d**n they just want a clean carpet.
I've been surprised how few people do ask for a truck clean , only 2 ,I can remember in the last few years and one of them was so obviously a carpet cleaner I had to stop myself from laughing :

Cheers,

Doug

surely if 99% of customers were not bothered as long as the carpets looked clean then they would all go for the 50% off brigade!

What you will find with a TM is that it will leave it drier even if you get the same clean as a porti which I am sure all good operators would offer.

But it is quicker because less passes are needed if you were to compare the two and also the filling and dumping which takes time is irradicated (no more kitchen sink marketing(infact I call it cuppa tea marketing now))

Shaun

[mark_roberts]

When using a truckmount do you still find the need to agitate prespray especially microsplitters?

thanks
Mark

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I don't think you would get the microsplitting if you didn't agitate

Shaun