Christopher

Great info guys, thanks.

My dad tore his acl about 25 or 30 years ago and just wears an elastic knee support, he just dealt with the pain over the years. I have been taking the Glucosamine, Condroitin, etc.... a couple times a day, 2 different brands and have had little success. A doctor and pharmacist told me that if after a month or so of taking supplements if they don't work, they probably will not and it needs serious medical attention like surgery. I am hoping surgery will not be needed, I will find out in 2 weeks at the Dr. appointment when they check it out.

Thanks John. The ER gave me the long brace like what you have to keep your leg straight, cannot even get into the truck with it on, it goes from my ankle up to right below my butt, it was the largest they have. The other brace is so I can move my knee, straps around the thigh, the other part around the leg below the knee and then other straps that go around those. Hoping to not have surgery if that is possible, looking at alternatives also. Thanks.

I hurt it last year and have been limping on it since. At the ER last year I was told that it was probably the Meniscus but they cannot tell without the MRI. The other week at the different ER, they did not have an MRI (I was hoping that they would so we can see what is going on) so still not sure. Looking at some different types of treatment and have an appointment in a couple weeks with the specialist to see what is wrong and what it will take to get it working again. Thanks guys.

Shane, sent you a PM.

Prayers sent.

Craig, do you have an email address to send a few pictures to for your advice? Thanks.

The Whisper Wash does not have a grease fitting and you do not grease it. Maybe the grease you are talking about is the BE or Whirl A Way swivel. Either way, I would change out the bearings and seals each time it is rebuilt.

Thanks Russ.

Russ, since there are different switches out there, does it matter which wire is on which terminal in there, as long as you use the terminals you mentioned or do the wires have certain terminals they need to be on? Thanks.

You can make it with a 100 gallon tank if you have good flow but you will not know what you can do unless you can estimate or measure out the flow at the locations. Having a 225 tank or even a 100 gallon tank will work if you have 2 water supply hoses feeding it if....they have low flow. If the flow is at least 8 or 9 gpm, one supply hose will keep you going but you need to know the flow. I have had a 5gpm, 5.5gpm and 8gpm running off my 325 gallon tank but had 2, 3 or 4 supply hoses supplying water to the tank so we would not run out and have 4 hudson valves inside the tank so we don't over flow the tank, just depends on the flow. Not every location has the same flow as another location as there are a lot of variables like size of pipe in their walls, how far they are from the municipal water tank, what time of day, how old and corroded the pipes are, etc.... that will affect the flow. I have done 2 commercial places that were not 1 year old yet but I had to run 2 hoses to supply the 5.5gpm machine where the other location would supply both the 5.5gpm and the 8gpm machine off 1 supply hose so you just never know. If you have to haul water to any of the locations (if they do not have any water at all), you will not be able to haul enough water legally on the truck or trailer unless you can put a 1000 gallon tank on there and find somewhere to fill up for each location before getting to each location. A couple years ago I was bidding a chain of dollar-type stores that 1/2 of them did not have any water and my 325 gallon tank would not last long at each job so I would have to haul water and pay a close-by location to use their water but a few did not have any places close by so I would have to work until I ran out of water then shut down, roll up hoses then go fill up somewhere then go back and work until I ran out of water and repeat until that job was finished. Are you having to haul all the water to do the jobs?

That is a hard question to answer because some places might have a good flow like 10 gpm and you can get by with a 50 or 100 gallon buffer tank but some places could be like 4 or 7 gpm so you will have to shut down. Driving around and timing the flow into buckets would be time consuming and look very odd to people, this is how you would know how much flow is coming out of the water spigots. I would not have any buffer tank smaller than 100 gallons for 9gpm or 8gpm based on many different factors on supply and not many places have above-average flow. 100 gallons of water is 833 pounds and running 9gpm you are running out of water in about 8 or 9 minutes because of the bulkhead above the bottom of the tank if you are hauling water to each job. I would not haul water to each job running 9gpm, it will not last long, not long enough to wet everything down but if you are using it for a buffer tank you might be ok. I would go there with the tank 1/2 full so you can get started right away once the water hose is connected and flowing into the tank. This way you are not hauling a full tank of water but a 1/2 tank will have a lot of slosh (moving back and forth) but that is up to you on how much you want to haul. Even with a 325 gallon tank, this will only last about 30 minutes or so without water going into the tank if you are only using what you hauled.

Something to think about is the bulkhead fitting on the bottom of the tank will reduce your water by 5 to 10 gallons as this is made to keep dirt and other trash from getting out of the tank and into your pump. A 50 gallon or larger buffer tank will be ok unless you are running 8gpm or more, then I would go with 100 gallons because a low flow situation will keep you watching your tank so you don't keep on cavitating your pump. I would use a float valve like the hudson valve as they hold up great, just have to clean out the trash in the mesh screen once in a while and sometimes trash gets into the float itself and will not close and stop the water but that does not take long to clean out. The guys are right, with the hudson valve you will lose 5 to 10 gallons of water area because it hangs from the top down inside the tank but I would use that float over the other brands out there.

You need a press or an arbor press to press the bearings off the shaft and then the new bearings onto the shaft but after you clean up the shaft with a wire wheel of the junk that is on the shaft will mess up the new seals. I have mine rebuilt by a shop. PM me if you want the info. The seal kit is about $40 and the bearings are about $40 and labor is about $60 I think. Plus shipping there and back. They use a different bearing than what some other companies use and I have got over 3 years out of the rebuilds on the swivels on my classic and big guy so far. There is a rule of thumb from a very smart guy over on pt state that says about 4 inches of surface cleaner per gallon per minute so the big guy is way too big for a 13hp machine. I found out the hard way that even a 5.5gpm is a little bit slow for the big guy but when you put 8gpm on the big guy, it works great. For 4gpm, I would stick with the classic or a little bit smaller (19") and you will be ok. If you don't have a press for the bearings, you will need to find a shop that can do the job for you but most machine shops have a $60 or $80 minimum so for the money, I just send my swivels to the shop and have them rebuilt right with the different bearings so they last in this hot humid environment. Hope this helps.

I was there last year at Paul's shop there in Milwaukee, it was great! We got to see the Sirocco 40" vacuum recovery surface cleaner, got to see some different brands of regular vacuum recovery surface cleaners, different machines, some of Paul's designs on other frames that take up less space/more compact and got to listen to Ron M talk about getting more work from PM's, listened to Jerry from Sirocco about recovery systems and being compliant and more, listened to Paul about pumps and burners and some other great stuff! Paul's event was great! I will be going to another when I can.

I have one that I use on some jobs once in a while as it is for special projects and not used much. I don't paint it because I need to see how much water is in it at all times so I don't run out of water and when the job is almost over, I want to have it almost empty, if you paint it, it will be hard to see the water level unless you install a water level sight glass or similar device.

You should have been at the great NCE event last year in Tampa, Florida. It was a great event, lots of great prizes throughout the whole event, great classes on lots of topics, lots of certification classes and there was the fundraiser event for Make A Wish where we helped raise a lot of money to have a wish happen for a child which made it an even greater event. It is really nice when we all can help give back to the kids out there and with the Make A Wish there, it was just that more special of an event. I don't remember how much was raised but I am sure that Ron ********** or Paul K know how much and all the particulars. Lots of pictures were taken and posted over at *** but I am not sure if it was discussed much over here. It really is a great feeling helping out the kids with events like that one, especially where a wish was granted.

Doug is a good person and does help a lot of contractors, especially the new guys, he will be missed here.

Residential concrete without the grease and nasty stuff can be cleaned with cold water where the commercial dumpster pads, drive thru's need hot water and degreasers. Sometimes the swivel will turn freely but it is just enough resistance that the water pressure will not make it spin, had that happen to some whisper wash swivels years ago until I got better bearings for them and they last a lot longer now. It only needs a little bit of damage on the bearings to cause enough resistance to not be able to turn under water pressure but will turn ok when spinning them by hand. If it is possible, can you return it and get a different brand of surface cleaner and pay the difference? If I could, I would go with the Whisper Wash Classic or other Whisper Wash brand surface cleaner, Mosmatic or Steel Eagle as they have held up great over the years for me and a lot of other contractors out there.

That is good, hope you guys raised a lot of money for the kids, it is great to help out the kids.

Maybe that should have been several posts, I could not keep my concentration reading that post John, sorry. I will go back and try reading it again another time. It is ok John, there are many opinions and attitudes here on the various sites, some post a lot, some don't post much at all. It is really great meeting contractors from all around the world at the many events all around the country and most of them are not members of the orgs, when you have 100's at most of the events that are not members of the orgs, that is clearly stating something, people either don't have the money to join, have not been educated on the benefits of the orgs, don't trust the orgs or other reasons out there, these are the most common that I have heard in the past few years. It is ok that I am not a member of the orgs yet John, don't let that ruin your day, it will be ok. I might join one day but that day will be when I choose to join, not because of the org's popularity or who are members there or other reasons that are not mine, you should not worry so much that I am not a member right now, it might happen soon, who knows, maybe I might join both and go on the cruise for a little get away, who knows? It might be interesting out on a big boat, not sure right now on either yet. As for contractors and vendors whether contractors are vendors or not, that really does not matter to me, it does not keep me up at night, it does not bother me, it does not affect me in any way whatsoever. If a contractor wants to be a vendor then that is ok for them, that is what they want to do and nobody here or on any other site should not have a problem with that, nobody should try to harass them or bash them because they want to sell stuff, a while back Beth and Rod used to sell stuff, I remember at the Dallas PWNA convention I talked to Rod about some tools and extend a wands so being a vendor and contractor is not a bad thing. It is ok John. I might start selling some new stuff that just came out, who knows? Not sure right now but anything is possible. Nobody should be harassed, insulted, blacklisted, bashed or treated differently because they are both a vendor and a contractor no matter what bbs they post on, people should be treated fairly no matter if they sell stuff or not. Now if they are selling junk that is worthless or chemicals that are watered-down and don't work or other reasons to tell other contractors then I have no problem with telling the truth, it can be the truth of what you are saying but without the bashing and harassing. Luckily we have not had major problems with those kind of issues lately. Have a great evening John, I think you need to rest after playing balls all day and soak in the hot tub so you are not sore tomorrow.

At the many round tables, meetings and other events for contractors that I attend each year, more and more contractors want their input and less of a vendor input into what is happening in their part of the country. Contractors are tired of someone else speaking for them about what requirements should be added, adopted or changed in how things are cleaned or maintained at different levels without the input of the contractors that are actually out there doing the work. Vendors are there to sell equipment, they are not out there working to feed their families and having to deal with the recovery/reclaim issues. Contractors are wanting their input known but most I have talked to are not wanting an org to represent them due to what has happened to the orgs in the past years, they would rather get together in another format and be represented in another way. NCE has brought together a lot of contractors from all around the USA but also from out of the country like Puerto Rico, Mexico, Australia and I think even the UK which shows that people out there are serious about learning and doing the right thing. These contractors are also wanting to keep things in a workable fashion so that they don't have vendors out there selling to cities their ideas on what equipment should be used so that the contractors have to buy those systems so that they can work in their home cities when the correct way of doing the job properly can be done with the current equipment they have and if they have to, buy more pieces to stay compliant instead of having to buy very expensive equipment just because the idea was sold to the city by a vendor and someone listened to that nonsense and now compliance is only met by purchasing that brand of equipment. These meetings and round tables are a great way of getting ideas from contractors from all around the world on how things are happening all over the place, what they have to do in order to be/stay compliant and are wanting to know what new things are happening all over to keep informed.

You might need to grease that swivel if it has a grease fitting, if it did not get messed up already from not having grease in there. I have seen about 8 of these that went bad within a few hours because the factory did not put enough grease in the swivel and by then it was too late. Pump some grease in the fitting if it has one and give it a try. Check the specs, it might need more flow to push the spray bar, like 4gpm minimum.

Great post Guy! I know that a lot of newer contractors feel the same way, especially when at the many meetings and round tables each year.

Thanks for discussing this Ron, I really appreciate it. - - - Updated - - - Thanks Scott, that is great info to know about, thanks for sharing.