PLD

One important note about engine power and towing trailers. Any good F150/1500 series truck can pull 5000lbs without much effort. I pull my trailer daily with a 4.2l v6. Many times it has a full load of water and tips the scale at ~5200# That said, the frontal area of the trailer and the road grade makes a HUGE difference if the engine power is marginal. A travel trailer or an enclosed trailer is much harder on the truck to pull than an open trailer because it presents a HUGE area that has to be dragged through a sea of air. My V6 f150 that pulls my 5k# work trailer just fine struggles to pull my 4100# travel trailer down the highway. And while I can pull my work trailer at 80mph without a problem, put me on a 7% grade and I'm pedal to the floor doing 35 and dropping. Btw, manufacturers do not brag about frontal area towing capacity, but it is in the specs. Check it out and it will tell you alot about the truck.

For the allen screws, soak then good in a penetrating oil like 3-n-1 and then try an "EZ out" set. It's a combination of a drill bit and a tapered reverse thread bit. Drill down the middle of the set screw and insert the ezout. Turn until the screw breaks loose, or the ezout breaks... Had you not stripped them, this would have helped a great deal: Soak in pen oil for 24 hours, Heat with a heat gun, work backwards a little (3/8 turn), forwards a little (2/8 turn), repeat until it moved freely. It may free up and bind agail later. Repeat until it's free. If that doesn't work, drill and tap as suggested earlier. And if you call Whisper Wash, tell them two things for me. 1) The whole trigger mount was a really crappy design. 2) Fire the yoyo that put the QC connector high and to the edge of the machine.

Rodney, I think that's why the earlier post about mating an extension wand and a sprayer. Like youself, I have found that the potentcy of GZ (and other gutter products) drops dramatically. It's not the foam, but the chemical being consumed by the oxidized paint. Re-dips into the bucket taint the whole bucket, and it drops in potentcy dramatically as well. GZ is most effective when sprayed onto dry gutters. That said, I built and used an extension sprayer for GZ and it worked very well. I just drilled a 1/4 hole through a truck brush and ran a metal tube through so it poked out the back (non-bristle) side. This left the brush funtional and near the gutter when in progress. Anyway, 30ft of 1/4 tube, a ball value, and a salvaged pump sprayer and I had a 18ft gutter sprayer.

You and I agree that time is money, but disagree on proportioners. I do the same thing, but because of the proportioner I use one 5 gallon pail. No time wasted making three buckets and standing there filling buckets with water. Proportioners or not, the chem usage remains the same. The only thing that changes is how much the solution is diluted before Perhaps not while downstreaming. Or at least that's my impression which is why I am asking about it. Since I'm ignorant about it, please elaborate how/why it is slower. Proportioners slower? They only affect the amount of water in the bucket. Less water = less time filling buckets. i.e. proportioners serve to speed the process, not slow it down. 5 gal bucket w/ bleach, add chems, work from the same 5 gals bucket for the whole house and have some left over. If the house is a smaller ranch style house, you can often do 2 from one bucket. That's what I was doing pre-proportioners. That and a 15gal on a hand cart. Now I just mix one bucket and go. Citraclean is throwing a wrench into my process, hence the thread. Time to prepare/fill 3 buckets vs time to prepare one? Take your mix for example: 1 gal bleach @10.5% = 2% in the bucket. 2% thru the xjet = 0.66% TTW 0.5 gal CC 0.5 gallons other stuff. Now 3 gallons water. Repeat 2x. My thoughts (the reason for this thread): one bucket 0.5 gallons other stuff. 1.5 gal citraclean 3 gals 12% = 7.2% in the bucket. 7.2% thru a 10:1 proportioner = 0.65% TTW 7.2% thru a 6.5:1 proportioner = 0.96% TTW Add no water, do not repeat.

Beth, As best I can tell, that is a rumor started by law enforcement. The idea is that if we cannot convince people (particularly the elderly/ignorant) that the behavior is stupid, perhaps we can stop them if convince them it is illegal and may be a sting. That said, those of us operating online businesses need to know that in most cases it is illegal to offer a refund to an international customer because it violates the money changing provisions of the patriot act. Philip

And I'll bet you that same $99 that I can find that deal advertised withing the next 24 hours. Speaking of lowballers and silos, I have probably lost a bid for 2 silos 80ft tall and 100ft in circumference. I gave a reasonable bid, but there is a competing bid in at less than 1/5 of mine. I'd rather not say exactly how much openly, but suffice it to say that their bid was less than the lift rental alone...

I think this has a lot to do with the area and conventions regarding "dealing" in your locale. At $250-500, of course gutters are included. At $165 avg price, they are an add-on/upsell. I typically charge 50% of the wash price for gutter brushing, so a basic 2 story vinyl w/ gutters is $240'ish. Now, try and sell the $240 as a package (i.e. not line-item) and you'll lose too many bids to the $119 crowd. It just seems that 2x is just to wide a spread for the homeowner to grasp unless they feel they are getting alot of additional services that are not included in the basic package. Sell $165 premium care against their $119 and you can usually close the deal and 50% of the time you can upsell the gutter cleaning also. Include it and you're selling a housewash at 2x the price and only tossing in a free gutter cleaning. And since gutters are "free", they certainly doesn't hold enough value to warrant 2x the price.

I'm seriously considering it. I've been running 13:1 proportioner and washing a house with about 2-3 gal of 12% NaHClO. Works great. Put 1 gal of soap and 4.5 gal of 12% in a pail and go. If I'm so happy, why switch? My present soap does a good job, but leaves something to be desired with post-wash gloss, window streaking, and gutter streaks. Apparently CC handles all three of these well, so I wanted to give it a try. The biggest problem I see is that at recommended ratios CC drops my in the bucket ratio to 6-7.5% (vs 10.5 with my mix). Hence, I need a 8-10:1 ratio for a CC & bleach bucket (no water). Since the xjet only offers 13:1 (too thin), 6.5:1, or open, it appears that heavy buckets with gallons of unneccessary water and CitraClean are joined at the hip. Anyone know how to get 10:1 from an xjet at 5.5gpm? As you mentioned, I can downstream at 10:1 Why am I not already downstreaming? Ignorance. I've only done it once for about a week and the experience was abysmal. Ratio's too low, dial-a-guess numbering, long clearing times, corroded QC's. I'm certainly open to thoughts.

From the silence, I assume that Citraclean = open proportioner if you're using an x-jet. Any downstreamers using citraclean? How do you make it work with the 10:1 ratio most good downstreamers offer?

Precast Steps & Railings = if it's on the front door. Brick Steps = Yes. Deck Steps = Only with deck. Sometimes I'll do them as a "demo" if I didn't get the deck work and I have a reason for including them (like they touch a sidewalk I just did) Sidewalks = no. Concrete Pads = ~3x3 door landing = yes. larger = now Splashblocks = sometimes. If they are visible, obvious, and make an impact on the house look = yes. Just because = no. Chimneys = yes. Bottom line: If it's attached to the house and the job needs it to look right, yes. Unless it's large enough to constitute a seperate bid like a deck, 10x10 patio, etc. That almost always includes brick steps, and almost never includes sidewalks.

If you would stop complaining about *&^&*^&*% low ballers and get off your a** and do some actual work, then they wouldn't a problem would they?!? :lgsideway

Because people like me needed to learn from your experience.

Check all your pipes. Up until two weeks ago I was convinced that all of Fayetteville was ~5gpm and 1 in 4 houses was provinding less than my 5.5 needed. It wasn't a problem because of my tank, but was worthy of consideration because I was debating dropping from a 300 gal tank to a 125. Anyway, at one house I was getting about 2.0gpm. To help things along, I unhooked the hose and dropped it directly into the tank so I would pull the 2nd length to faucet #2. Two things were learned. 1) Front faucet, ~3-4gpm. Back faucet, 8-10gpm 2) Hose into tank = full flow. Hose thru rell into tank = 50% flow. The moral? If you're getting less than 7-10gpm from a house on "city water", check out the situation closer.

FYI: http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/FactSheets/artfungus/artilleryfungus.htm

I have found that almost 100% of my customers with artillery fungus are using recycled mulch that comes free from the dump. It's made from ground waste shrubs/trees and allowed to decompose until it gets a nice blackish color. I first made the link when I washed a house with bad artillery fungus. He used what looked like the free dump mulch, and I suspected it was the culprit. Later that day, I washed his sons house about 50 miles away. Same problem, same mulch. I asked the son about the mulch, and he said that his dad gets it free somewhere and just brings loads and spreads it for them. Just this past week, I washed a customers driveway and noticed that I had blown crap all over their car. When I rinsed it, black specks remained. I feared oil or even worse chipping. Upon closer insepection, it appeared to be AF spores. Then I noticed compaction marks in the grass next to the mulch/shrub bed (same looking mulch). Asked the wife, and they said they usually parked that car 1/2 on the drive, 1/2 off because of parking issues. Mulch bed side had AF spores, driveway side had none. Mulch origin unconfirmed, but looking at it I'd bet it's free dump mulch.

Ditto for me. Unless it's chalky blue/grey vinyl already. Then I budget for a full gutter-ground fan down.

I'm ok with the mix ratios. It's just the no proportioner (i.e. lots of solution) that I don't like. Wide open, you're looking at 2-3 buckets (10-15 gal) per house. With a 15:1 proportioner I make one 5 gal bucket of 12% and use about 1/2-2/3 of a bucket per house.

I bought a second hand skid and salvaged a 1.5hp motor, a 100-250 psi regulator, a 22gpm roller pump, some gauges, and a 14" summit hose reel.

Personally, I used Zyban to get the smoke off, but I hear many people use nothing at all. Oh, not smoking? Nevermind...

From the same state? You guys are so 'wannabe'. I got one from my town! Go Parris Bennett! Anyone remember Diana DeGarmo? We lived about 5 miles apart before she was famous. Alas, the relationship was doomed. Restraining orders make it so difficult for a relationship to last.... JK ;)

Did you look at the pump? Many of these rigs run 1-200psi/11gpm roller pumps running of a 110V/1.5HP motor. That said, my garden hose (10gpm /60psi) will darn near do that with a solid brass nozzle with a 1/8in (ish) orifice.

I have a 40#box unopened. Anyone wanna share a recipe for using the stuff?

I had a 27" that I used with my 4gpm machine. It worked, but you had to walk SLOOOW... If I had to do over again, I would have gotten a 16" and gotten more work done. I now use a 30" big guy witha 5.5 machine.

I bolted a piece of 3/4 plywood onto the back of a handtruck and placed a low shelf for the battery and the shurflow mounted up top. I can use it with anything I can handtruck up to 55 gal (not practical). Realistically, 5 & 15's are easy and I use 15's of bleach for roofs regularly. In the 2nd incarnation, I put hooks on the board and I can use it with almost any hand truck. And, it hangs on my wall when not in use.

I had similar thoughts. But, why not use 4 - 16in bars overlapped running in unison like a mower deck. MUCH less rotational energy, and all that would be required to sync them is a small drive chain.