John T

Its 11:45 pm and I was wondering why there was not to many post here. Bummer but its for a good cause...

How sweet of a deal is this truck. It popped up on Ebay @ 5am and I closed the deal with the lady selling it before 8am the same morning. $13,500 for a Ford F550 diesel with so little miles and an aluminum flatbed to me was a steal. I've been searching the net for a few months trying to find a heavy duty flatbed to build a commercial set-up with a large water tank. Tried to make some deals but I couldn't get it done. Then this truck came along. My deposit was paid and tomorrow morning I get my 99 point inspection done on it(Better inspection then I get here at a garage). One problem..Still don't know how I'm going to get it since its 1700+ miles from my house and the guy who worked for me the last last few years who would also pick up my trucks has left my business and the country.I scared him out of the US but he was also a Hillary lover which now means JEFF has no competition for his real true love Billary errr Hillary. JEFF LOVES HILLARY MORE THEN LIFE ITSELF:lgbounces I may be stuck flying down there and getting the truck..I'm just wondering if I can drive 29 straight hours cause I need to get back here immediately!! eBay Motors: F550 SD/XL 14FT FLATBED.55K MILES**GREAT** (item 180100411122 end time Mar-26-07 05:07:22 PDT)

Where I live there are many paint Stores named Aboffs which I think is family owned. They did there annual Get together tonight where many vendors showed up such as Benjamin Moore, Cabots and around 20 others. This is the place I buy all my stain from and when you attend one of these shows by invite only you get free of charge a couple of 5 gallon Buckets, Around 3-4 shirts from the suppliers, Some other freebies and also Two free Bar drinks and a free buffet. The best part is you can buy your Stain at a great discount only at this show. I just bought 50 gallons of the Cabots Clear stain(Has a slight tint to it) for over 35% off there regular price. (Usually I buy over a 100 gallons a year here but I also bought another truck today so I am strapped for the moment:) ) Here's a couple of pictures from the show.

I just found Ken fenner's body double. He's hiding under the name Lance Winslow:lgsideway Lance Winslow - EzineArticles.com Expert Author Bio Lance Winslow for better or worse is an interesting indivual. After a night of hanging out with my friend and his wife, My wife and I get home about 1am..My wife goes right to sleep(This happens when you been married 14 yrs) So I break out my laptop and just scope the internet. After a little reading I decided to email Lance Winslow just to see if he would email me back. To my surprised when I sent that email out about 3 am and when I woke up at 6am he had already responded. Maybe he's another guy with sleeping problems...No wonder why Ambien is selling so fast. One of the links he sent me is above in this post. Lance told me to ask him anything that was on my mind. I will respond back just to see what makes this man tick . In one breath you hear how successfull he is/was then in another breath you hear he ran into all kinds of problems with his Carwash guys franchises etc. I've heard so much about this guy from when I first came to the net in the 90's that maybe I should see for myself what his real story it.. THis maybe interesting.

"Hugs & skirts" Then drop you keys and say excuse me as you go to pick them up. Or maybe since you shoes are so shiny you don't have to drop your keys.......................

Jarrod found a method that works best for him and he feels that it could work for many others and he's willing to share that info makes him a real generous person in this industry to do that. Some people pop on these boards that we never heard of and right off the bat they want to get paid to tell us something we may or may not know. With all of Jarrod's post I feel he's earn the right to take this to either direction...He's not a fly by niter business person or a fly by niter person with minimal post. Jarrod has earned the right to take this to any dierction that he feels best. Charlie being so young took his hits like a man and he stood up like a man to take what he felt was an attack on him even though us old timers here know that these boards don't show any expression so unless you know the person like we know Jarrod then you can take some of these post wrong.(I know all about this with the past PWNA arguements when I was painted as a "Bad Guy" in some of the post). Charlie you took it like a man and Just seeing how you reacted and then made ammends to make your point of view understood you are light years ahead of some of us older fogies who've been doing this business for years. I'm impressed by your attitude and the fact that your willing to branch out in business at such a young age and also attending college. I wish I did that when I was younger instead of taking the same route that Rick Petry did.lol Today I've been in the Powerwashing business 12 yrs, I started a secondary business on top of that and I'm still a police office whos has risen to my Union President along with serving as an Executive Board of Director of the PWNA Power Washers of North America - THE industry association for the power washing, pressure washing and pressure cleaning industry. Find Power washing companies, power washing contractors, pressure washing compnaies and power washing chemcial and equip. I've been decorated for serving this country in a war Zone in Beriut before you where even born...and with all of this I am truly impressed by your start in life. Your going to do good in whatever you set your mind to..and I bet I wasn't the first person that has told you that.. Now back when I was your age and getting chased by the law and...well we'll not go there. Welcome to our TGS community.. Oh yea that guy Jeff here the Condo KING is a screaming liberal just to let you know about someone here which doesn't make him a bad guy..so what he is a Hillary lover:lgbounces You see I just broke Jeff's nuts cause I know he is not a Hillary lover..and I'm pretty sure he is not going to come over here and beat me up..Probably because he knows I got a bunch of guns......

What do yo think of a flatbed type truck like this on ebay? I like the way it can fit three in the cab and the flatbed on it isnt overwhelming at 14'. I have a shot for a few 7-11 accounts here(Don't know if I even want them because there pretty cheap) and the other commercial accounts that I have especially the one in NY city I'm thinking that instead of lugging my trailer everywhere I can just pull in with this truck then bang out the job and get out. I've had van set-ups in the past, One box truck(That was a disaster) and a bunch of pickup trucks but the flatbed routine I never did and the more I look at a truck like this the more I can see it being a good way to role in,roll the hoses off the truck,start the machines, clean then roll the hoses back up and gone. Any thoughts?? eBay Motors: 2001 ISUZU NPR HD 14 FT FLATBED (item 230105661909 end time Mar-23-07 13:36:20 PDT)

New and Used Isuzu Trucks for Sale. These are two more carwash guys defunct franchise trucks that are for sale. If you can talk them down a couple of thousand especially the one with the two powerwashers on it that need probably minor repair and the vehicle is a diesel with only 53,000 miles on it that would not be so bad of a deal.

And I have been accused as a slave master and a slum lord..Well now it looks like there is a new slave master Jarrod in town..and I'm out of the slum lord business so somebody must have taken that title away from me here.... I think I lost all my titles...man do I feel GOOD!!!!!!!!!:lgsideway

Jon, This guy Wayne is a funny dude..You would have to talk to him to hear his humor...He's a funny guy and pretty knowledgeable about the IWCA...maybe he is an IWCA spy that has infiltrated the predominately powerwashing ACR Roundtable....come to think of I spotted a few IWCA guys there..hmmmmmm

Jarrod, There are some great post here and a great thread by you. Ken Fenners post #42 here explains a ton on the thought process and Rods and Tony's are hitting the nail on the heads. Your idea is great in a perfect world. What doesn't work IMHO is a few things. First thing..work environment. Your guys are always stuck going out alone so there work environment is going to suck because there heading straight into Job burnout..and then you'll lose them. The other thing is if they go sick then your truck just sits there not being used. With two guys you only need one set-up and if one guy goes sick this is when I would have the job tackled by the other guy as a one man crew. I have a small business. I usually have 3 guys counting myself go out. Sometimes all three of us would do one job together. Other times two of them would go out together and I would be the lone warrior because I'm a robot when it comes to this type of work..But I rake in the big $$$$ so I can work like an animal. A guy working by himself like your way will have a lousy work environment and you will lose him. What I have in one of my setups is two and three of everything such as two deck sprayers,powerwashers etc. This is the one that two guys take out or sometimes the three of us take out. Work environment is important. We take lunch breaks together and we strip/stain together. I think unless in a perfect world, your system is a system that will have a higher failure rate and more trucks sitting around. This IMHO so don't take it as me saying your wrong. Maybe your system works great for you but for me my guys work environment with safety being important is more important to me then having one guy go out and work himself to near death and then quit...Unless that one guy is me because I get paid the big bucks.

Jeff, I once had to use one of my cold water belt driven PWers to pull water from a pool from the pool deck which was about a foot above water level. This worked but it was only because we had to do it. The problem I see for you is that every time you go to start your Powerwasher it will start with the pump dry and to do this alot I can see you having problems eventually with that pump..alot. if you set it up with a pump in- between the Powerwasher and the tank that feeds water to the elevated powerwasher then I could see it working but to let the Powerwasher draw water that high all the time it looks like problems IMHO. The distributers here like Paul Kassandra(I probably spelt Pauls name wrong--sorry) could give you a more definitive answer about this.

Wayne..now I know who you are...You were at Toms Roundtable right??

I have a doctor that looks like she can be in that show "Desperate Housewives" She is forever bugging me for one of my last PBA president cards(No longer any Union position--of a matter of fact no longer any position with any Union orgs etc). I see this Doctor probably every 4 months to get my sleeping pills that I've been prescribed now for over two years. I went to see her the other day to get another prescription as I always do. She is starting to sound like my wife telling me that I take on to much.... Then she looks me in the eye and says "John with your schedule do you think your going to make it another year?" I did one of those nervous laughs and she said she is serious. So now I'm looking at her thinking..yes not checking her out but just thinking...... a few years ago my doctor told me that something has to give with me cause my schedule is going to kill me. Every physical I take all my numbers and everything check out. Her point the other day is that the no sleep factor and working myself to exhaustion is....a very bad combo. She has been telling me this for years and once again I'm at that crossroads with her that something with me has to give. Starting another business(Swabby) continuing on with Clean County and still working nites on my "other job"..I still may need up to one more year because my "Other" job is giving me unlimited OT that is building my pension up alot.... Who knows............. The most I need is one more year. This is a classic do as I say but not as I do....Watch your Health!!

Anyone have a CDL license and does it cost much then a regular license..I'm debating on setting up another rig with a truck with airbrakes and of course a CDL license will be needed.

My thoughts exactly Dino

I'll second what Rod was saying about Toms class since Rod and myself were in the same class. Tom sure knows his pumps and just about every aspect of this business since he was a contractor first. I would recommend that everyone in this business take an equipment maintenance class thru Tom, Paul or anyone else you hear is good at teaching this type class. A must to have some knowledge of your equipment while out in the field.

I had a box truck but it was just to darn big and when one of my guys slammed the top part of the box into a overhead branch while cruising along I new it was time to sell that truck. It was just to big. When I buy on Ebay I use an inspection service to get a 100 point check on any vehicle that I buy. I probably bought around 7 vehicles on Ebay and had pretty much luck with most of them...Actually I felt like stole some of them because of the price that I paid... That Commercial Flat bed truck is a good deal but that CDL airbreaks has me concerned because if I buy it anyone who drives it must have a CDL lic. and that may be to much of a pain to deal with when it comes to workers...

Those smart phones are to small. I can't see them without my glasses on. A GPS screen thats full color and probably around 5 inches wide is a hundred times better then those phones. Once you get one of these GPS you have to have it...like when you first lost your........:) I bought my father one of these last year for around $500 then they went down to $400 when my wife bought me that for christmas. Now it looks like there under $250 and you never pay a service....Amazing...may buy a few more of these. Other Image Views

Buy a GPS for you truck and have the hot broads voice on it tell you when to turn..and all the while you can watch your vehicle move along on the roads thru your GPS..But of course keep you eye on the "Real" Road. A decent GPS system will cost about $400 and they are worth it. Never have to carry a map again And I havent got lost yet from NY to Florida.

I'd really like to build a set-up on a truck like this one but the flatbed is only 11 ft long which to me seems like it may be to short. But the truck is ideal. eBay Motors: 05 Ford F550 Crew Cab 11` flatbed [ more stock ] (item 220091301411 end time Mar-21-07 15:03:12 PDT)

How about a truck like this on Ebay. I'm tempting to build a full commercial set-up off a truck like this. It requires a CDL but I'm thinking the B type CDL may be enough...Any more thoughts on this?? eBay Motors: FORD F-650 FLATBED TRUCK BOBTAIL CREWCAB CUMMINS DIESEL (item 170091654863 end time Mar-24-07 17:56:32 PDT)

I don't know what the answer is here with the Dodge and the Fords. I have a Ford f-350 diesel that get about 13 mpg and about 15 highway..My Dodge Dually which has the cummins diesel and added high power injectors that gives it a 100 more horse power causing it to burn more fuel gets about 14 mpg and 18 mpg highway. My single bed 97 dodge dually 3500(Since sold) had the cummins diesel and I use to get about 16mpg and 20-21 highway. I always assumed I got more mpg from the cummins diesel because it was a 6 cylinder.

A huge factor is how much do you want to spend and where do you plan on keeping all of these vehicle and equipment?? You could get some great used box trucks for your first choices and set them up with what you need in there. For commercial flat work I would want something that can hold a lot cause you may need a large water tank in there for sites that don't have a water connection or they can't keep up with a 10gpm + machine. The second one I would go with maybe a Ford E-350 extended cargo van that can carry alot and keep it all safe from the weather and the bad guys(Unless they just steel Van). The last one is a tough one cause your looking for decent gas mileage yet you may be carrying 3-50 gal tanks full of stain so that over 1400lbs there and you still want decent mileage. I would look for a Diesel something with this. Maybe a good used Diesel pick up truck like a Ford f-250 or for even better gas mileage a Dodge pick up truck with the Cummins diesel. Since diesel engines go along way I would maybe think to buy one 10 yrs old and in good shape so you dont pay to much. Find one with a cap and you'll be even better off. The first place I would look to go to get some idea's on how much you need to spend would be eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

Ever wonder why I buy my trailers,trucks,and most of my equipment out of state??? Just read above..