Jump to content

Dave Olson

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content count

    100

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Posts posted by Dave Olson

  1. Posted · Report reply

    Thanks for your kind words Steve.

    Over all of the years I've never really thought of it as being First Class. It's just the way I've chosen to do business.

    Yes I've spent a lot of money on equipment, but on the other side of the coin it lasts a long time. Our Red truck that we use the most only has about 85,000 miles on it and we've had it in service for 6-1/2 years. This truck has a lot of life left in it!;)

    Dave Olson

  3. Posted · Report reply

    Hello scoffman,

    I purchased this GMC 6500 Series new 5 years ago for about $30,000 (including the Govenor). Don't need a CDL to drive it. We haul 1000 gallons of water with room for a lot of other supplies and equipment. Both of our trucks have heavy front axles (11,000 pounds) so we can put our water tanks in the front of the box. I will post another picture of the inside so you can see what I'm talking about. It has an 18 foot box that I bought used for $2,000.

    Chassis has a 454 Gas engine. 5 speed transmission with a 2 speed rearend. We don't pass up to many gas stations :arg: since it only gets about 5 mpg!

    I was told that the increased cost of a diesel compared to gas that you needed to put on at least 30,000 miles per year to justify the extra cost of a diesel engine purchase and repairs.

    Dave Olson

  4. Posted · Report reply

    Hello John T,

    There is a large contractor in Canada that is union. Doug Latimer. If you are going to Dallas, I’m sure he will be there. His company makes the Latimat.

    We were forced to pay prevailing wages when we do state work. We were instructed to pay construction laborer scale. It is currently $30.79 per hour. Have some jobs that I need 4 guys to complete! Add another 25% for payroll taxes, etc. my labor cost is $154 per hour! They did not require us to join any union.

    Dave Olson

  5. Posted · Report reply

    Hello Jon,

    The tractor on the far left of the last photo that I posted is the one your thinking about. Actually we had tractors simular to all of these.

    Here is another photo loaded and ready to go to a local show last spring. The red one in front is the one that started all of this about 18 months ago! :rolleyes:

    White truck pulls em just fine. Good advertising at the show too!

    Dave Olson

  9. Posted · Report reply

    Hello stoppie101,

    In my Avatar is a picture of a plastic car that my wife and I have owned since 1985.

    I don't have the talent to work on it, but it sure is fun drive it around. I took it to a all Corvette show when it was 25 years old. We put it on a dyno.

    Here is a picture of it going up. That old guy on the left is me!:o

    Dave Olson

  11. Posted · Report reply

    Hello Melissa,

    Glad to see you back!

    Yes we went to the show in Nashville a couple times. Huge show for the really Big ticket stuff.

    What type of pump are you guys using and want a spare of? Do you guys do that much water pick-up to need a Vac-Truck?

    Dave Olson

  12. Posted · Report reply

    Here are a couple more things to add to this list.

    Fire Extinguishers – We carry one in the cab, crew cab, and in the back of our trucks.

    First Aid Kits – We have them in the shop, office, and on each truck.

    Dave Olson

  14. Posted · Report reply

    Here is a picture of the gloves that we have used for many years. They are made by Memphis. It has a 14" gaulant and we turn it up so liquids don't run down your arm.

    They are PVC with a jersey lining inside. We launder them several times before they get tossed out. By them by the case less. I should add these gloves have a sandy finish (less slip) on the fingers, etc.

    The white one on the left is worn it you want an additional layer to protect from heat or cold. Kinda tight fit thou!

    Dave Olson

  15. Posted · Report reply

    Hello Jon,

    This may be what Beth was referring too.

    There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

    The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

    Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, ‘You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there.’

    A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one. Friends are a very rare jewel indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, share words of praise and always want to open their hearts to us.

  22. Posted · Report reply

    Rob,

    I've never had a 4-5 gpm machine. With our equipment if we want less volume we just put in a smaller tip.

    Rick,

    The more you put down, the more you pick up. Somethings like fleet washing you will loose about 50% with blow-off & evaporation. But still the more you use the more you will need to deal with.

    The 100,000 sq. ft. floor that I posted about earlier was all inside so we had to pick up a very high percentage of what we put down and with both truck running we were putting down around 16 gpm!

    Dave Olson

  23. Posted · Report reply

    I've never done a time study. Would be almost impossible to do in the field.

    One more thing about higher volume. It will also damage things faster!:mad: Gotta know what you are doing or be working on a surface that you cannot hurt!

    Rob, if you want to feel and see the difference come on up and I show you what our equipment can do. Might help you decide on what to buy for your operation.

    Dave Olson

  24. Posted · Report reply

    Mike is right!

    High volume is hard to hang on too. When my guys use a single wand to move alot of trash, or just do cleaning much faster they will run a 2510 tip at 3000 psi. They complain how much it hurts and I remind them they could use a smaller tip (lower volume) and spend a little more time, they just smile and tell me "Yeh Dave but this does it better and faster!" :)

    When we need to run long periods with our blaster (10 gpm @ 8-10,000 psi) we always try to have at least a 2-3 man crew so they can switch off every 15 minutes or so.

    Dave Olson

  25. Posted · Report reply

    Hello Rob,

    Our primary unit puts out almost 10 gpm.

    Running two guns helps in many things that we do. Sometimes we run three.

    Also there are times that having the high volume on one wand really gets the cleaning done. We cleaned an old manufacturing plant floor using just wands. We did 100,000 sq. ft. in 4 days using both of our trucks and we picked up all of the water!

    As long as you can keep the pumps supplied high volume is the way to go. Our trucks are as big as they are just so we can carry a large quanity of water! Of course we have alot of other stuff on our Red truck too. It weights about 34,000 pounds fully loaded.

    Dave Olson

×