Jon

John T. Do you think we here in CA love spending all that money on reclaim equipment, NO and we also know most guys are only giving lip service to customers about doing it, even companies like Fleet Wash, they claim to do it every job, LOL yeah right. Sure I would rather not mess with it as it is a pain but I try to follow the laws best I can. I get asked more and more if I do reclaim or capture the water I put down. Companies are getting educated here by their trade organizations. The California Restaurant Association in their monthly magazine harps on it, month after month so most restaurants are well aware of it. Jon

Melissa, only the CLEAN ONES? Now we know for sure she WASHES them first:p So Email the dirty ones to me. Jon

Riftz, I can assure you that when one of those stations gets caught and fined $20,000 plus AND the pressure washer gets fined around $5,000 things will change. True some areas do nothing about the CWA, others do to much and some are about right, granted it is a pain, takes about 15 or so extra minutes to set up, and as I move down the job site I have to move the equipment too so more time. I reuse the water after it goes though the reclaim system, I carry no waste water, just reclaimed. What bugs me is what has been said, the employee's hose down the fuel area and the water goes down the storm drains, most cities seem to think that is legal since it is not high pressure hot water removing grease, oil, gas etc. How wrong can they be, if I do that same job I MUST RECLAIM or else I can get fined and here they are out at night checking. I have had them come up to me when drawing water out of hydrants asking to see my permit, really but most know me well enough to know I am doing so legally. Most just wave as they drive by. Same with reclaim. Fleet washers in some areas here have to demo their reclaim before getting a permit to wash and the fleet owner must have a copy of the pressure washers permit posted or both get fined. Now you mention you would end your business if you HAD TO RECLAIM, why not look at it from another point of view, be the first to offer reclaim, use it in your ads, talk about how your business does it's share to help clean the enviroment etc. Get a jump on all your competitors. Go to your local phone company and have them order you a few phone books from say San Diego, Riverside, Anahiem and Los Angeles and look at the ads. Those that offer reclaim or enviromental cleaning get the jobs more and more as companies learn they have to do their part to help. I understand Wal-Mart ask that very question before you even get to first base with them, DO YOU RECLAIM your water, say No and they say sorry we cannot use you, say YES and they ask for a bid. Might not be true for all states but here in CA it is. Jon

I have used a Shur-Flo pump almost from day one, tried a pump up and it would not reach far so did more walking, now I can stand and spray most of the area I need but I will admit I have 100 feet of hose attached to it for drive thoughs. One thing about those pumps, if your going to run chemicals though them be sure to get the proper pump, some cannot handle harsh chemicals. Jon

Showed this to my daughter and son in law today and both got good laughs out of it. Both have Masters degree's and are teachers. Post more good jokes like this gal, always worth a few laughs.

Simple reason, I know what the others are using, I have seen many of them. Does that answer your question, you sound defensive about a simple question about what brand reclaim and showing your set up inside the vans. Or are you not yet set up with reclaim? I am not trying to trick you, just interested in what you are using. Jon

Melissa which tire did your hubby put down? LOL Cute joke.

Rob perhaps you missed my asking you to post some pictures of your rigs with the company lettering etc. on them. You do have several rigs I take it, I mean you are in so many words saying that. Let's take someone who went to college and got a PHd,(any field) ok super he has all those years of schooling and book knowledge, right? Good we all agree, BUT what hands on experience does he have? NONE Point is you can spend all the money you want on equipment, advertising, vehicles, going to SCORE, taking classes etc. and have the best of everything yet still have NO EXPERIENCE. You can work for another company and learn their way, then step out on your own BUT again that does not make you an experienced business person does it Rob? Is that how you learned Rob? Is there a difference learning that way then starting and learning ON YOUR OWN from day one? Now back to posting that picture of your sharp vehicles, how soon can we expect to see them?

Rob how about posting pictures of all your professionally lettered vehicles? Your comment about getting business if one's vehicle is professionally done and in the yellow pages is wrong. As someone else said early on in this thread not all advertise, I don't, word of mouth and quality work do the advertising for me. I used to have my other truck lettered, I got a total of ONE call from that in 3 years so that shoots that remark down the drain. I can't count on my hands and feet how many unlicenesed, uninsured PWers live in my town. I have seen your picture of the Delco unit fo sale inside your van and would like to see a picture of all your vehicles lined up together, must be very impressive. Jon

OK Michael it is time for you to carry your very own HYDRANT, just shut off water main, remove hydrant there, reinstall yours and turn main back on. NOW your can use your adaptor to draw water. Just reverse process before going home and your all set till the next job. :thinking: :cheers: That should have on the floor laffin now. But seriously ever considered writing the state reps explaining the dangers of so many different sizes? I mean one major fire like we had with many many different fire depts. there could have spilled more headaches if each had different size threads.

Michael get the hydrant company name off one and call or write to them saying you cannot locate the proper size and offer to buy one from them. Bet they send it to you free! Talking about different hydrants, I have seen some with only one control and it is on the top, turn it opens all the openings. Instead of plastic covers they have metal so you only open the one you want to use. Then some cities now have those hydrants sensor adapted, open one and they will know and call the cops. I got a lot of very nasty stares this afternoon filling up since I am so close to the fires. Someone did call the cops and I welcome that since I have all my permits in order and with me. Had I not had it to show the cop I hate to think what would happen to me. Nosy people ought to mind their own business! Perhaps I should put a BIG sign up saying I have a paid permit to draw water from city fire hydrants so bugger off. LOL

Not illegal to sell them, just to use them without permits. Here we have to pay a hefty price as a deposit for the meter, $600 for contractors, I lucked out and was charged half price, then we have to buy our own back flow with a twist, they tell us what brands to buy. Then every 3 month we have to take the meter in for a reading and get a bill for the water used, between $1.00 & $2.00 per day even if you do not use any water. Have not seen the 4/5 inch size here. Michael I was not implying you did not know that laws, I think we know each other better then that. John T. said in a post that in NY you cannot get permits to use hydrants. Or something of that nature.

Unless your state uses odd ball sizes they are all of two standard sizes, small and large. The small adaptor is easy to find as the tool is, you can order them from almost any hydralic hose mart, Beth, Delco, and a few other places. Some of them over charge for the tools, I think I paid under $30 for both the fitting and tool to turn it on. If you want I can get for you and ship have them ship and bill you. Or make a buck off you getting it and shipping it. LOL. By the way are you planning to get a permit to use that hydrant?

I sure under estimated time for this job, figured about 4 hours and took more like 7, was ok except for area I could not brush. I do need a way to reach the end more, was using 0 nozzle to spray soap but still not happy with outcome. Customer said it was ok, just OK, not SUPER or GREAT and that does not sit well with me as I was not happy either. NO I did not tell that to the customer. Thanks all for your suggestions.

Paul B. says you can always rent a truck and pw, not out here in CA, when my truck was in the shop not one rental has a super duty pick up that could tow my trailer and insurance would not pay for a bob tail or any commercial truck. I did get lucky and had the body shop put a priority on my repairs, in and out in 5 days. As for backup, no truck or second rig although I have looked at some and when the right one at the right price comes alone I will buy it. I do carry extra parts and should add to that a back up pump. Jon

Not only is it impressive but it is not about the war in Iraq, it is about those that gave their all so we can be here enjoying life as it is now. Thanks Dave for posting this, always a nice reminder of what those not here today went though. Jon

Thanks Rick, I think right now I would rather deal with gators and crocks then fires. Smoke is getting thicker as the winds shift towards us. Cough cough! But seriously it is bad here and the best sound this partly deaf guy hears all day today is those heavenly loaded fire fighting planes, one after the other coming in and taking off. I am in the flight path of the old Norton AFB. Lovely sound to me too, deep rumbling, those guys deserve tons of credit. I remember a movie a few years back about forrest fighting planes and all but can't recall the name. I think it's star was Mel Gibson. Anyone remember that movie, well to see these planes and helicopters in action up close gives you a good idea of dangerous work. To all who are interested, Alan and I live a couple hours apart but are both in hot fire area's. Alan called it a ring of fire, I call it a state on fire!

We are pretty much shocked our whole mountain area is about to be bare of tree's, homes and summer cabins. Words cannot say what even those pictures Alan posted say and that is not saying enough. Our home has been kept shut with the AC on 24 hours a day, air is full of ash and smoke. The fires are close to us, about 20 minutes from us at the lowest point. No time frame yet as to when the fires will be out, not much they can do to get into the area most are in, very rugged, no fire roads and not way to escape if the fire and wind change directions. I feel deeply for all those families that lost anything it all, and more so for those that lost it all, nothing but memories left, very sad. --------------------- Now is the time for everyone to take pictures and serial numbers of all the things in your home (s). One fire can wipe it all out and you need that information to speed up replacement with insurance companies. Put your VIP papers and things in one place so you can grab them if ever you need to. If you have a safe remember a fire such as the ones we are having are going to melt what is inside that safe since the fire ratings are not that high. ---------------------- I also worry that we will now have some very tight water restrictions and they might even put them on all of us PWers here. That and some customers might cut back or cancel for the same reasons, to conserve water. Not a good time to live in So. Ca.

Morgan you have always been welcome here so make no mistake about that. If ever your in doubt as to whether you should post something or not feel free to Email Beth asking first if you don't want everyone to see you asking in a post. She won't bite you, trust me. Rod does the dirty work!

Who out there does Awnings? Would like to see some post here on different types so others that are new can learn. Also do you guys who do them do windows at the same time? Jon

Alan if I can stop laughing long enough to make an offer to do business with you and if all the FIRES up there in Orgeon are out first you shall hear back from me. ROFLMAO triple time, means CA earthquake.

Morgan make one small change to it, where you have contractors grade chemicals change the word "chemical" to cleaning "compounds". Reason being the word chemicals and acid sounds harsh, people get scared or ask a lot of questions when they see that word. I never say I use degreaser or acid, I always say I use industrial strenght cleaning compounds or cleaners. I seldom get asked if I use acid and when I don't say no or yes, I say I use industrial cleaning supplies, not the same as the things people buy at HD. Works wonders even it there are acids in it, I don't like, I don't mislead, I simply use words they want to hear to feel SAFE. I do carry all the MSDS with me for what I have on my trailer and more. Jon

Hey how about me too, I use QuickBooks Pro and Excel so send both. Jon

You did take before and after pictures right, and you are going to POST them for we can all see your first job. Don't worry how it came out, everyone knows the first couple jobs in a new field are not as perfect as the next one and the one after. Just post the pics please.

I'm not much of a mechanic but I would think you need to adjust the air/fuel so it gets more air into it to run correctly, not just the burner but the motor also. Just like your cars and trucks, they need different fuel ratio's at high altitude. I would check with a local PW dealer in your area. I have in the past seen a few post from guys in your area but like you said not many. Jon