PLD

Old thread, new questions. First some background. I have the same pump as Mike on an APW skid. I checked the net today, and the Interpump WS202 (equiv general TS2021) is rated at 3000/5.5. Q1: According to several sites (landa, hotsy) it is rec'd for use with a 11.3hp engine. My math says 15hp. Why the discrepancy? Q2: My system is equipped with an 18hp engine, and my gauge reads 3500lbs. 5.5x3500 = 17.5hp. Makes sense. But why would you put an 18hp engine on a 3000/5.5 or conversely a 3000/5.5 on an 18hp engine? FYI http://www.hotsy.com/docs/catalog/Pumps_Kits.pdf

Shucks, you guys are much to kind. Well, I guess all those years at GaTech had to be good for something... :) But please do check, otherwise I'll start believing my own BS sooner or later... WAY OT: mpemba effect - I'll give you my theory in two phrases. Double Pane Windows and Crystal Formation. Think about why double pane windows decrease energy waste.

My group 31 battery is 800Ah. That means 400Ah is useable. My deckster (pumptec = similar to shurflo) draws 15 A. 400/15 = 26 hours. I have personally run my shurflow for 3 hours off a lawn and garden battery. Granted, it killed the batter after 3-4x times but it was an SLI and not a deep cycle.

Before hooking your PW'er to your vehicle power system, install a "battery isolator" It allows the vehicle to charge the PW'er, but does not allow the PW'er to draw from the vehicle Battery. This keeps you from getting stranded is the PW gen 12v gen dies quietly. It will also not allow charging the trailer battery unless the vehicle battery is good.

Booked 8hrs/day, 3 days a week til May 1st! 100% resi. local advert magazine (similar to money mailer, but bound.), local newspaper, 2 local yellow pages.

I looked at it and actually own the 1.8W unit to keep a work truck battery in tip-top shape . The charge rate for the 5W panel is only about 1/2 amp per hour in full sun. It's useful for keeping a battery topped off in storage, but it will not even begn to compensate for normal usage. For comparison, my 1.8W unit will not even power my RV monoxide alarm. Before investing in solar, think about your usage. If you use 10-15A (normal for a shurflo) for 4 hours a day you consume 40-60 amp/hours. To compensate for that (and charging losses, you will need to accumulate 60-80 amp/hrs per day. Assuming 12 hours of full sun every day (unlikely), you'll need to provide 6.67 amps during that entire period. That means an 80 watt or better panel (the one you listed is 5W). And given that sun profiles are far less than 12 full hours/day, I'd plan on buying at least 150W+ panel. That'll set you back $8-900 and require about 60"x30" of real estate... Bottom line, these are storage maintainers, not battery chargers. For that reason, a charge controller is not neccessary for panels under 12W. If you need more info, search RV forums like RV.net. This is a HOT topic for travel trailers owners who camp in areas w/o power.

Prev thread restarted here for further discussion.

Can you offer more info about a JIC fitting?

Is that what you had in mind? IMHO, smart vendors will want to sponsor some eye catching prizes and get involved in the PR machine early. Being the official sponsor of the "2006 WolTempco Best Deck championship" is probably gonna get alot of PR as those who show and win start adding "Winner 2006 SunDelco Best Deck Championship" to their signatures, their marketing materials, etc. The more I think about this, the more I truly think that it has more PR potential than wood certification (at least for the few who show well). Not that certification is bad, but a customer can really get their mind around a national championship in which the best of the best duke it out for top dog. Add to it that the judging is done by a panel of hypercritical peers and you've got a really marketing boon for the winner. Picture this as a TV commerical <loud booming voice, 2010 bold music background> <images of decks slide show in background> <bold text zooms in from back> Judged exclusively by Wood Restoration Experts... {fade to black} <bold text zooms in from back> Contestants from all over America... {fade to black} <bold text zooms in from back> Thousands of entries... {fade to black} <bold text zooms in from back> Only ONE winner... {fade to black} <bold text zooms in from back> The 2006 Best Deck Championship! {fade to black} <music reaches crescendo> <text fades in> Can your contractor handle it? {fade to black}

Good catch, scott. I totally ignored that. It'd have to run at less than ~2300 rpm to avoid that hypersonic effects in normal atmosphere. And the kinetic enery to transcend mach is far greater than that required to operate below mach. In short, while 2000rpm may use 3.5 HP to maintain rotation, 3000rpm may need 10hp (WAG). Also, the air under the cover would being rotating in unison with the spray bars, and the net ^V would be much less than the bar's ^V relative to a fixed object. This would reduce drag effects, but figuring the amount would require non-trivial math. Finally, sonic booms relative to the frontal area of the object in motion. A small object like a spray bar tip would generate a relatively small volume of noise. A 1-20lb rocket, for example, produces a sonic boom that is quite frequently not heard by a crowd of a few hundred spectators. And even when you do catch it, it sounds like a flag cracking in the wind.

I had a QC rip in half and leave the tip in the QC and the threads on the hose. The failure was non-violent. The QC was stainless in decent condition, so I suspect material failure as a result of use related stresses. Q: Was this just simply a case of I didn't properly seat the gun in the quick connect? Probably. When a HP hose/fitting fails totally, it loses pressure (and force) very fast. There is little opportunity to generate propulsive forces. However, when it fails under constraint the propulsive forces remain high for a longer period of time and the item can develop significant velocity. If that doesn't make sense, consider the point blank velocity of: - a 22 cal cartridge held with pliers and fired (no barrel) - a 22 cal fired from a 1" derringer barrel. - a 22 cal fired from a 24" rifle barrel. Q: Has anyone ever had a quick connect blow apart? Yes, see below. Q: Do you replace quick connects on a scheduled interval to prevent failure due to wear? No. I replace them when the leak significantly, fail to couple, become very sloppy (from deburring), or fail to decouple (mostly on mid-hose joins) Q: When you have multiple hose lengths connected on your hose reel do you join them with quick connects or used permanent style connectors? QC's, but I'm rethinking that. I'm actually reconsidering having one hose made. The joints make reeling/stacking hose a pain. And after a few months those joints are frozen anyway. Q: If you use a ball valve... do you make sure the area behind you is clear before opening the valve while the machine is running? No. Q: If you don't use a ball valve... have you ever had a connection blow apart when you started your machine? Once. It was partially disconnected during roll up and failed on start up (still on the reel. The hose hit the trailer with a loud and frightening bang. It sounds violent, but the net movement was less than 12". Similarly, I have had a stuck QC (mid hose) that I tried intentionally to blow open. I taped back the collar and cranked her up. It took about 30 seconds, and the failure was non-violent.

The problem I see with "the intimidator" is that swinging a 72in bar requires an outrageous amount of energy just to keep it in motion. That's one of the reasons why larger mowers gang together small blades. At 3000rpm, the tips of that monster are travelling over 950mph. For comparison, at 3000rpm a 20in'er tip is only travelling at ~75 mph.

I agree. Some of the most memorable mistakes I made early on involved turning away work that I personally did not like to do. Now that I have a crew, I kick myself for turning away good profit jobs.

Seen it! Legs and all. It was a custom made job for a guy that sells screen printed shirts from the back of a van. The entire 8ft shelving unit was mounted to a pair of rail that slid out the back of a van. I know it sounds like it's not in the same leaque, bvut if you saw this stack of inventory it was at least 1000lbs. Myself and another dad even commented about the load that that roller system had to bear. If this comes through viewable, the ascii art below will show a diagram of how to make it. O's are rollers, S is a stop, and the underscores are angle steel. The periods are substitutes for spaces. For pics on how to make the rails and rollers, search for "Portable sawmill". The use very similar rails and rollers to move 800lb sawmills over stationary logs. I would estimate you could have it made for about $3-500 welded and unpainted. __________________________________ O_______S________________________|__ .................................................................O

Seen it! Legs and all. It was a custom made job for a guy that sells screen printed shirts from the back of a van. The entire 8ft shelving unit was mounted to a pair of rail that slid out the back of a van. I know it sounds like it's not in the same leaque, bvut if you saw this stack of inventory it was at least 1000lbs. Myself and another dad even commented about the load that that roller system had to bear. If this comes through viewable, the ascii art below will show a diagram of how to make it. O's are rollers, S is a stop, and the underscores are angle steel. For pics on how to make the rails and rollers, search for "Portable sawmill". The use very similar rails and rollers to move 800lb sawmills over stationary logs. I would estimate iyou could have it made for about $3-500 welded and unpainted. __________________________________ O_______S________________________|__ O

As for neutralization, I can only say this (again): "Neutralization" is a waste of time and chems unless; - The next step (after neutralization) likes a Ph opposite of what you have prior to neutralization. <or> - The present chem situation will continue to degrade the substrate, and the opposite Ph will not. An example of this is NaOH on wood. That said, you cannot "neutralize" a chemical unless you know it's molarity and volume present on the substrate. You would then apply the exact volume of chem necessary to convert all the residual chem to an unreactive salt. Without this information (impossible in the field), you will either under apply (Ph remains as is, albeit less volume) or over apply (Ph swings past 7 and opposite reaction occurs. In the case of wood, the next step is to brighten the wood. Hence, over application of oxalic stops step 1 and prepares for step 2. This is a desirable situation, but it is not "neutralization" as the wood's PH is far closer to 1 (acidic) than it is to 7 (neutral) That said: When you seek to stop the action of a chemical ("neutralize"), look on the opposite side of the Ph spectrum. Acids neutralize Caustics and vice-versa. If you need to neutralize oxalic, citralic, or muratic the handiest chemicals to do so are bleach and NaOH. If you need to neutralize bleach, NaOH look for Oxa, Citralic, Vinegar, even lemon juice. One thing to remember when "neutralizing" is that the purpose is to stop (or mitigate) a reaction that will cause damage if allowed to proceed. Hence, if is often desirable to "neutralize" with a larger volume of a much milder chemical. For example: It makes no sense to neutralize NaOH on your skin with 33% muratic as the cure would be worse than the ailment. Vinegar or diluted oxalic would be a MUCH better choice. However, if I got 33% muratic on my skin, I would not hesitate to neutralize the acid with 12% bleach, followed with copius amounts of water to dilute the bleach. Anyway, I'm rambling. As a physics student, I was forced to endure alot of chemistry. If you have Q's feel free to ask.

Rich: Huh?!? You add baking soda to you Ox barrel? That does not buffer anything. The oxalic eats the bicarbonate and reduces your Ox concentration.

Dead on. I close a good number of jobs MONTHS later. If they say "not now, wait till spring/payday/next month" I call them back at that time. And if I get a feel that a customer wants it done and there are other situational issues, I may f/u once a month for months. People are busy. They have many things to on their plate, and sometimes it's a blessing to have the items f/u on you, rather than vice-versa.

Yep. I had a customer that I quoted clean (1hr quote/BS session), and worked as #2 of the day later in the week. The lady kept saying, "Philip said you would do this", "Philip said you wouldn't do that" (not really nagging, just making sure the worker bee's followed up on sales guys comittments). After 2-3 times, I pulled off my hat and said "Mrs. Jones, I am Philip...." She was very embarassed. Her husband teased her unmercifully about it the rest of the day (big job)

Adrian's right, scared is good. But scared is just a feeling. You feel happy, you feel sad, you feel scared. The only way that scared can hurt you is if you let it paralyze your decision making process. Right or wrong, make a decision and go with it. I had been pwing PT about 3 months and I was pulling down 85k+ FT when I decided I had enough and quit my job. Was I scared? Hell yes! The first year was hard. I had a PU truck, a roll around PW, and a mortgage. Despite prior business experience, I was clueless as a contractor. I had flyers for advertising, Dollar General for bleach, and generic laundry soap for an emulsifier. My credit cards creeped up, but I was paying the house note and feeding the kids. Even more important, I was self sufficient for the first time in my life. I know the gap seems huge, Neo. You must not think you can make the jump, KNOW you can make the jump. For perspective, 100k is $378 on each of the 264 working days in the year. Do you think you can manage to wash 2 houses a day? Or one big one? Put that way, 100K doesn't seem like much... And if you're a 50k guy, then you can work Mon, Wed, Fri and make more than you were making. Anyway, call me anytime. 770-460-0469 Now, Let me critique your own self doubt a bit. I would venture that 80% of the people on this forum are PW'ers because the could not take one more day working for Dilbert's boss. Based on the phrase "my intelligent boss", I would bet you are one of us... How long will that take? Most good jobs take 1 month for every 10k salary to locate. If you're going to be unemployed for 3-6 months, might as well make some money. And if you're making enough, why keep looking? I would suspect that your fear is very apparent right now. Your lack of confidence is feeding her fears, and hence her lack of support in return. In most families, it's the man's job to reassure everyone that everything will be ok. Assume that role decidedly. Cry on the back porch at 2am if you need to ( I have), but in front of the troops suck it up, smile, and press on. And as I tell my wife; There is no need to worry about things you cannot control. And that includes the past. You know how to wash, you know how to sell, now just do alot more of it. Yep. And soon it will be difficul to schedult PW'ing jobs and handle the office work for your business. That's a good problem. Pick the several upper middle class neighborhoods (250-400k) in your locale. Get enough to total about 1000 homes. Mail them every 2 weeks for 2 months. Know the neighborhoods well enough to quote on the phone. Make it your goal to book every job and do so w/o low balling. You may have to make price concessions, but maintain a good price/good value on every sale.

Contrary to popular opinion, leaving hose on the reel does not "crush" the reel and cause damage. When the hose is charged, it lengthens. i.e. the circumference of a circle increases and it's the radius increases. The net effect is that the hose losens it's "grip" on the reel. For fun and excitement, we'll test this at PWNA conv. I'll wrap up in hose, and someone can charge the line and see if I squeal. Now, reeling a hose (charged or not) is an entirely different story. Unless hand fed, the hose is under a fair amount of tension and generates many thousands of pounds of crushing force on the reel. For kite enthusiasts this effect is an occupational hazard. If you reel kite string w/o having someone pull the kite and feed you slack string, the reel can crush and shatter under the load.

Wanna buy mine? I'll take $50. Read once...

Pete, I respectfully disagree. Just because a waterborne product is miscable, doesn't mean that it is any better for the wildlife. Stain in the lungs (fish/gills) is far worse than stain on one's skin. For that reason, one could probably make good argument that the surface oil being turned into a colloidon and being deposited ashore is far better than dissolving it into the body of water. If boats are not an issue, consider oil absorbent booms and a floating containment ring. Capture the excess oil and deposit it into the trash where it can be dealt with more appropriately. As for not being able to tarp it for the wash, that's just a matter of ingenuity. A few empty drums, some 2x4's, rope, and a big tarp and you have a floating retention pond. Drip into it and push it onshore with a submersible pump. That said, I'd be FAR less concerned with percarb that I would with the stain. The difference in total chemical mass, toxicity levels, and 1/2 life of 2-3# of percarb and that of 100# of stain is significant. I would spend some time educating your customer about the ill effects of "soap" on marine eco-systems, the need to employ a more sophisticated containment system, and how important it is to choose a contractor based on skill and not on price.

Yep. 6gpm/2 = #3 tips...

Pic seekers, Sadly, I do not have a pic. It broke about the time I stopped selling gutter scrubbing and I have not made another. But, it was really very simple and I can describe it well enough for anyone to make one. Total cost (excluding pole) was about $30. Total time once all materials were together was about 15 minutes. Actually, an extenda wand would be perfect if you could gut the HP hose, replace it with 1/4 braided, and add threads for the brush. Once you've tried spraying the gutters, you'll never go back to dip & brush. It works far better and is much less wasteful of product. Parts: Truck brush, extension pole with matching threads. Pump up sprayer with metal wand. 20'ish feet of 1/4 braided hose. 2 large hose clamps 2 small hose clamps hacksaw, drill bit. 1. Measure the spray wand diameter. Get a drill bit that size. Probably 1/4" 2. Starting on the thread side of the brush through the brush head so the drill bit passes behind the bristles and emerges on the threaded side of the brush. Your hose will be coming out where the drill bit does so locate it so you can still use the brush unimpeded. 3. Cut the sprayer wand in half between the tip and where it meets the trigger. 4. Push the wand half through the brush head so the spray tip is on the non-threaded side, and the bare pipe emerges on the threaded side. 5. Connect the trigger/cut pipe remaining on the pump up to the brush head using the 1/4 braided tube and hose clamps. 6. (Optional) Attach the sprayer trigger to the extension pole using the large hose clamps. How to use: Raise the pole and fan spray about 6ft of gutters. Rotate the pole and scrub if neccessary. Truthfully, with a dry spray you can usually just xjet the gook off and re-apply if neccessary. Scrubbing is no often neccessary.