tonyshelton

Now that the Kennedy influence is gone on that side of the country maybe we can get a Republican governor in California. :)

Tony, that is great stuff. BTW, call me when you get a chance, (for some reason it won't let me PM you here) I'm working on something in your area and need to get with you about it. Thanks Tony. 702-358-7477

You will be absolutely fine with that van. If it sags, just put some helper springs on it and tune them to what you need. Those E350s are workhorses. I finally got rid of one of my delivery vans, a 1995 E350, at 465,000 miles and it was still running fine. I've had tons of vans in my other business and was into truck campers (HEAVY) long before I put a PW skid on anything. (Try this on for size- 1999 F250 with a 4000 lb camper on the back pulling an 8000 lb trailer up to the top of Mount Charleston. Welcome to the world of truck camping) We've got a 1996 F250 with a 325 lb tank (we keep full half the time) and a skid which includes over 1500 lbs of equipment including the aftermarket flatbed. Add to that another 500 lbs when the lift is pulled behind it. That's about 5000 lbs on a F250. We installed a pair of Helwig helper springs. It takes off slow, can maintain 75 up hills and stops quickly fully loaded. Oh, and by the way. The truck has 155,000 miles on it. I know that's over Ford's ratings, but almost every truck camper in world is over most truck's ratings. For the most part ratings are just a joke on the truck camper boards. It's only the weekend trailer towers that get all worked up about weight ratings. We don't have any jackbooted enforcement running around here ticketing everyone. (I love this town!) It's not uncommon to see an old Nissan pickup with its bumper almost dragging the ground with a 325 lb tank on the back along with a John Deere machine and a shop vac of course.

I can hear it now. Upon arrival Tom expresses with delight, "Welcome to the expo of the century, Jim" :cheers: "Thanks Tom, happy to be here, How hot can your rigs get?" inquires Jim.:zipit: Exasperated Tom exclaims, "Get the **** out of my expo you negative wannabe garage cleaner!!!!" :furious: Jim goes home rejected again. :headspin: On second thought Jim, maybe you should put on your own "expo".

Jim, if price is no concern why didn't you just make it in stainless to begin with?

Scott, your case is unusual because you do so much government work. Writeoffs are just a business expense that has to be planned for in the beginning. Work has to be priced in a way to absorb it. I will have to go back and look at old tax returns but I estimate I wrote off more than $100,000 in 8 years in the DC business. It was just built into the pricing. It must be nice working for the government (unless you are in California and getting IOU's!!:D) I never took anybody to court. I never sent anyone to collections. I still made a small fortune and was simply thankful for what God had given us. Thankfully it happened when we were stable enough to take it. The only one that p*ssed me off was the casino. It was deliberate, planned theft. Most of all the other ones were legitimate difficulties. (Layoffs,firings,real bankruptcy, etc) Even the bankrupt airlines had a legitimate reason not to pay.

Call Ron. I think there are laws that work in our favor in the case of property managers. (The only exception would be out and out fraud or theft, I think)

Thanks man. I knew you could make me laugh about it.:D

And the worst thing is they badmouth us when we refuse to service the accounts anymore! That casino was begging us to keep the account but when we left the new Dry cleaner called and told me they were badmouthing us and saying we left them holding the bag! Good Grief!

Here's what happened here. Casino named "A" files bankruptcy with an AP to us of $14k (60 days late) They always paid before. That is why 60 days didn't bother me. (Lets say it's January and February billing) All the sudden I get a letter in the mail March 1 stating that "A" is in bankruptcy and other legal mumbo jumbo. I call them and am informed that the bankruptcy won't affect our relationship and things remain as usual. I was told the bk only affected long term debts and not ongoing operational costs. I continue to do work for them in March I get a payment for March's work. I called about Jan and Feb and here's what I'm told: "That was an entirely different company. "A" was bought out by another corporation and any and all debts of the previous corporation are included in the bankruptcy and the new company is only responsible for debts incurred after March 1." That is a brief synopsis of what happened. Actually it is a little more complicated than that and I never got a single dime. I cut off their service immediately and spread the word to other dry cleaners. I found that this is standard operating proceedure for casinos. I also got hit with an airline that went bankrupt and left me with thousands in uniform cleaning debt. They went bankrupt over 6 years ago and I still TO THIS DAY get updates on the case in the mail, but have not received one dime. America as a whole is just about to do the exact same thing.

A few casinos got me pretty bad when I had the dry cleaning business. I just quit doing business with any large casinos and only do the locally owned ones now.

The restrictions were initially made on businesses because large construction and manufacturing plants were using the local waterways as a free dumping ground. Even so, with the government always looking for a way to take in more money they started the NPDES program which basically says "if you pay us enough, you can pollute with a permit". NPDES is set up specifically for point-source polution such as manufacturing plants or construction sites. Why is there no permitting for cosmetic cleaning? Because there's just not enough money in it to bother with and it is too difficult to implement. On the other hand, there is always the looming threat of fines to bring in more money. It's time we stood up with one voice and demand the common sense reign and fight for cosmetic cleaning up to xxxxxxx gallons per year be completely exempt. Here is what happened just last year in the pesticide industry. The pesticide companies had been playing both sides. While the MSDS labels and instructions state that the chems can't be put in the "waters of the us" or "storm drain". They held a COMPLETE exemption from the EPA. Tree huggers took them to court and the pesticide companies holding hands with their friend the EPA (imagine that) went to bat against the tree huggers in court. The tree huggers won this time.. PESTICIDES people - THE EPA WENT TO COURT TO FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT OF COMPANIES TO ALLOW PESTICIDE RUNOFF INTO THE STORM DRAIN!!!!!!! If the EPA will fight to allow PESTICIDES in the BAY then why in the world is it so inconceivable that we can't get cosmetic cleaning exempted????????????? Look up the decision. It was in the 6th circuit court of appeals.

That is great!

Jim, you and I have had this conversation before, you know what I'm going to say, so don't take offense. And for everybody else, Jim is far more conservative than his posts reveal. Your state is bankrupt. Your state is the most perfect example of why over regulation and excessive taxation is a FAILING proposition. Is your water cleaner. No. Is your air cleaner (cleaner than it was in 1970, but no cleaner than any other state even with your excessive emissions requirements) Are your roads better with your higher taxation? No. The roads in California are beginning to look like Mexico. Aren't your property taxes the same as mine? Then why isn't Nevada bankrupt? You pay many times more state income tax than we pay, (Nevada has zero, not even a corporate income tax) Why not change the conversation and tell us the devastation your state has experienced because of the nimrod politicians who levy the fines and make the laws? How about the I.O.U's your state workers have had to take for pay? Eliminate the wasteful inspectors and redundant government agencies and get back in the black! I don't understand why we, as business owners, can't understand the simple principal that the goal of government is to TAKE AWAY what you (you being 1 voter) earn and give it to a bunch of other non-business owners who have many votes (and that includes your employees). This ensures RE-ELECTION and perpetuates class ENVY! They take this away from us via fees, taxes, fines, and levies. They use the media to plant seeds of fear in everyone's head (voters) i.e. "the public needs to be "protected" from unscrupulous contractors" and "the government needs to "regulate" all these chemicals" (that you, the consumer can buy legally). Bottom line is this. Business regulates itself. Bad work can only continue as long as there is no one there to do a better job for a lower price. It's just plain old economic law. If a contractor's goal is to raise prices by lobbying government to HELP you raise prices through more regulation then you are a **** poor contractor who can't compete on a level field and should have your a** beaten and should be thrown out of town. (Not a reference to you Jim, I know you have fought against the regs in the past) Whew.... I just don't understand why so many people can be duped by the government charade.

John, I think your heart is in the right place. *** does have a longstanding reputation. What you are talking about has potential, but even suggesting it right now while many still have a bad taste in their mouth regarding the ***** is just not the right timing. Why not let the ***** flourish (with newfound honesty and new leadership) or implode (with the status quo) before looking into something else. It won't take long to see where it's going. It didn't take long this year did it?

The PWNA has ten board members. I've personally met 4 of them who actually own pressure washing businesses and bill multiple millions annually. All four seem to be both cutthroat businessmen and sharing mentors with a great level of respect for the little guy at the same time. Any man (or woman) running a multimillion dollar operation who is willing to take time out to serve food to a bunch of guys like me and my son at a roundtable has my respect. That's a far cry from pretending to have something you don't have just to try to achieve respect. Board of Directors | Power Washers of North America Membership in the PWNA associates one with successful pressure washing contractors. This is the first "org" I've been inclined to join since 2001 or so. We'll see what happens.

Ron, don't you owe me for a steak dinner? I know you paid for a lot of dinners where we dined together, but I paid for one of yours didn't I? You'll be hearing from my lawyer. :lgbonk:

If two or three or more orgs could get together with the stance that cosmetic cleaning is EXEMPT from the EPA, there would be a good argument that orgs can be positive for the industry. When you get up off the floor from laughing you can look at reality and realize what REAL industry representation can do if it doesn't have it's head up it's ...... rec***. What about EPA exempt products? (School IPM) By the way, this is just one of hundreds.

Russ wins all the comps Scott controls everything behind the scenes. Ken walks around naked all the time to get everyone off guard (It's been done before on survivor.) and David Vicars swoops in under the radar and wins.

We got that same coverage. We're only covered in four- the states of: Confusion Intoxication Inebriation Altered Consciousness

This is funny how different the residential and commercial markets are. There is a company here in town called Nevada Illumination. They completely DOMINATE the commercial lighting maintenance service in this town. They drive nothing but the same old 1970's and 80's trucks they started with. They keep them looking nice though and lettered well. I asked a customer of mine why he uses them instead of GE or Linc Services or one of the other nationwide companies. His answer was "Any guy who is frugal enough to keep trucks running for 20-30 years will probably be just as frugal with my money as he is with his own. A lot of people must think like that because they probably have more business than all their competition together.

This just in - the same guys who hacked into the global warming scientists emails have just broke into the Dow server and found emails that show the slow, steady gain was all fabricated. :)

We humans inherently strive for something more than just this life. That is something my dog does not have. That's something a chimp does not have. We search for the reasons behind that striving within us. We either die while still searching, die without caring or die after having found the reason. Those who have found the reason look at everything through the glasses of what they have found. If you stand facing the end of a line of string and I ask you to tell me what what is in front of you, you would rightly say "a dot" because you can't see what is behind the dot. You would argue from here to eternity that the object in front of you is a dot. But without any idea of what is behind the dot you'll never know it is actually a long string. If I told you "it's a string" it would be up to you whether to believe me or not based on comparing other information you have gotten from me and a thorough analysis of my past history of telling the truth. I would be right. From where I'm standing I can see that it's a string. You would be wrong because you are only basing your judgement on what you can see. That's the difference between evolution and creation.

ok, funny, got me on all three.