Frustrated - Venting

[Lou Beach 14]

Well, I have been looking hard, really hard, the last two months for a used hot water rig to start with this spring and have been very frustrated with the lack of equipment up for sale.

I thought I would have a bonanza based on comments made generally about the availability of used equipment, but there has been absolutely nothing avialble on the forums and ebay close to me.

Everything that has been for sale that meets what I am looking for is too far away to attempt to purchase. For instance, there are two rigs for sale on ebay now, but there both a thousand miles away. I have found this to be the case consistently.

Where are the rigs in Maryland, NJ, Va, NC, Delaware, PA or Ohio for sale?

Its starting to get close to the beginning of the season and I have all my ducks lined up, except for perhaps the most important thing.

The equipment to do jobs with.

I am starting to think I may have to put my own trailer together or just start with a cold water unit out of the back of my truck.

I do not want to spend 10-12 thousand on a new rig just starting out, so I am hoping to find a used rig in the 5 thousand dollar range.

If anyone hears of a hot water unit, on a tandem trailer in that price range, that is reasonable driving distance from Maryland, please let me know.

I thought I would have tons of used equipment to choose from, but so far that avenue has been very disappointing.

Thanks for letting me vent!

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Hang in there Lou, when you least expect it, one will surface. Sometimes in early spring they pop up too. Keep watching. If I hear of one, you will be my first call.

Beth

[Chappy 138]

lou,

if youll go with used, check out the bargain trader. I see 1 or 2 in there every time I look.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Lou,

Whats your price point?

Rod~

[Henry B. 4]

so I am hoping to find a used rig in the 5 thousand dollar range.

If anyone hears of a hot water unit, on a tandem trailer in that price range, that is reasonable driving distance from Maryland, please let me know.

Lou, if there was a rig like that in the area for sale someone would have baught it before it was announced. You may have to do some driving to find a rig like you want but if your getting it that cheap it's still worth it.

[RyanH 14]

Buy your own enclosed trailer for $4k. Steal someone else's open trailer, offload everything into your enclosed, then dump their trailer, sans fingerprints of course.

Hey, it IS an option, albeit not a very ethical one. You wanted solutions, you got one. Personally, though, if I was serious enough about the business and had everything else lined up, I wouldn't let a nickel hold up a dollar. I don't know what you mean by "lined up," but if you already have seriously potential clients or know your potential for income, look at it as an investment and go for it. After all, if you are looking at $5k (which, after the research I did, is a little unreasonable considering the type of equipment you want), then really going up to $10k isn't going to hurt you in the long run. It may *sound* difficult, but is often a necessity. All investments have a pay-off period and rarely will you buy something and not have a period where you will feel some discomfort in having to pay for it.

Something you *can* consider is buying the washer and a cheap trailer and just load whatever extra crap you need in it and deal with the inefficiency until you save enough money to buy a better trailer. Trailers rarely depreciate much in value (which is why you're having such a difficult time finding one), so resell it and by a bigger one. No one ever has all money they need up front when starting a business, so start with the bare essentials, suffer the extra time it will take you to do the work, then reinvest in YOURSELF. If you are sincere in your effort to succeed, you won't regret it.

[Henry B. 4]

Good point Ryan,

Another thing to consider is if your the one out there working and your willing to work hard you can easily make 5,000 in a couple of weeks with a good setup. That's taking into consideration that your new but also that you will have a low overhead at first. I'd be willing to guess if any of us saw a rig like you want for 5,000 we would probably buy it ourselves if we had the cash. Because we know how much extra income it could make for us in just a month. Not to mention solving back log problems.

[Brad 14]

Does anybody have one of these, or know anything about them?

I saw one at a gas station, almost wrecked the van I stopped and

talked to the guy, he was just passing through,he was hauling it back

to Virginia from Oaklahoma (where they are made) anyhow the one he had

was sweet it had dual axel stainless rims (polished) and matching fuel and

chem tanks. He said he could sell it to me on the spot for 16,000 and by the end of the conversation it was today only 13,000 well, came home did a search and this is what I found.

http://www.powercleansystems.com/index.html?Body=/PowerCleanHead.html

I hope this link works,let me know if it does'nt

[Brad 14]

Try this bottom of the page, Tuff Tank Trailer

www.powercleansystems.com/index.html?Body=/PowerCleanHead.html

[Pams Pressure & Clean 64]

Lou,

Here's some help for a squeaky tight budget.. Take it for what it's worth, and if it's worth nothing..no harm, no foul..

>>Prices are assuming a 7% sales tax rate and are roughed into the price listed.<<

New Tuff Cold Water 4.5 GPM portable machine 1500.00

New Tuff Hot Box 1400.00

Extra 150' of pressure hose 150.00

X-Jet 130.00

First round of basic chems 125.00 (enough to do several houses, but not 55 gallon drums)

Garden Hose 75.00

El-Cheepo used trailer 400.00

Spray paint for El-Cheepo trailer 40.00

El-Cheepo portable generator from the pawn shop $300.00

Down payment on proper insurance 1000.00

So far you are right at $5000.00 (give or take a few bucks)

Granted, this could be considered getting done on the super cheap, and I left plenty of stuff out, but hey..it fits the budget, and it's hot water...

You'll want other stuff as you go along, but it's a solution...

Cujo

[One Tough Pressure 580]

Is this the one?

[Mike Williamson 198]

Everything that has been for sale that meets what I am looking for is too far away to attempt to purchase. For instance, there are two rigs for sale on ebay now, but there both a thousand miles away. I have found this to be the case consistently.

What's wrong with 1000 miles? I drove from FL to IL to pick up my trailer. As long as you have the opportunity to check things out before you drive off, all you've lost is 2-3 days. I'd rather do that than work off a cold water machine out of the back of my truck.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Lou,

For what its worth, here is a brand new machine well under your price point.

http://www.dcs1.com/del/pressure-washers/rk-41.html

Talk to Larry and tell him we sent you :)

Rod~

[Brad 14]

That's the one, that model w/ a 250 gal tank starts at $7100

The one I saw was was 500 gal and completely dressed out

everyday people were stopping to look. It looked so nice it

sold it self. Would'nt mind draging that around town. And what

I mean by dressed out means hose reals and all, you can even

get it w/ ladder rack on one side and stainless. Just a really nice

looking rig if ya want to PAY!

[Steve Small 14]

Lou:

You may want to look at Ebay. They usually have some hot water units listed.

Steve Small

Liberty Pressure Wash, LLC

Frederick, MD

[Jon 533]

I have said it before and will again here so Lou hears it, those All American/Alkota and Hydro Tek machines on their own small trailers do not leave any room for growth or to add more equipment.

Alan can testify to this as he has one. I almost bought my first rig from Hydro Tek but when I tried to figure out where the surface cleaner and vacuum and other stuff would go it was either in the truck or buy a larger trailer and build it myself.

You would probably need an enclosed trailer due to weather back there but either open or enclosed buy much larger then you need since in time you will use all that space up.

The one thing you need to worry about is what the GVW if your towing vehicle is and is it set up for the size trailer you want?

I had a 14 foot tandem 12,000 GVW trailer and wish I had a 16 foot 14,000 as I could have used the extra room.

Electric brakes on all 4 axles is better then surge brakes. Heavy duty TRAILER TIRES are a MUST. Don't let them tell you the little 14 inch tires are ok as they are not.

Diesel vs. gas, can't speak here as I always buy diesel trucks.

[Scott Stone 604]

I found this on the Delco board. Yeah it is not in your narrowly defined area, but if it is in any kind of shape, it is probably a good deal.

Scott Stone

I have a sensation hot water washer 3000psi 5 gpm, plus hanahay reel,100ft hose,several guns and wands,20extend a wand,various tips,xjet,and accessories.Washer is 2yrs old with less than 100hrs on it.Is mounted on a 5x10 older trailer wich is optional.asking 3500.00 with trailer.will sell for 3200.00 firm without trailer.Only serious calls please! 1-765-679-1596 in Indiana.Selling because I am out of business and needing to fix my truck desperately. Can provide a picture.

[Degraffreed 21]

lou,

listen up. I too was in your shoes the first of last year. I kept saying to myself, I was only going to spend $5000.00 to start this business. I researched this bb and delcos, pwn and decided to go to the Delco school back in Feb 04, from reading all post for about 4 months I decided to dive in. I took my bonus check and purchased a 14ft inclosed trailer, bought a 2004 dodge ram 1500 w/hemi, always wanted the truck but found a reason to purchase for the business writeoff, Called delco and set up 5 day powerwashing school to learn the ins and out to powerwashing, even went out with different contractors the entire week.

My truck only had about 400 miles on it. Went to fitzgerald, ga to pick up trailer. One week later pulled trailer to Fort Worth, Tx and had everything installed while I was going to school. Friday came my trailer was ready to go.

I spent about $7000.00 before heading back to GA. The one choice I am glad I made was to get into this business. I have done approx. 40 residential and first restuarant, and I owe it to research and just going for it. Now I have everything on the trailer I need and my business name on my trailer. In affect a ROLLING BILLBOARD. This year was my learning year and I still have much to learn But you can learn on the way to the top. Quit procrastinating and JUST DO IT.

You will need room as you grow and the equipment to do any job that comes to you. So go ahead and have room for growth and stop looking at $5000.00 as a starting point. I dont think it is possible to get into this bus and be competitive with that price range. I have pic of my rig. If someone can tell me how to post it here on the board, from my digital camera. Just go for IT ....... No Risk No Reward.

Degraffreed

[Mike Williamson 198]

You will need room as you grow and the equipment to do any job that comes to you. So go ahead and have room for growth and stop looking at $5000.00 as a starting point. I dont think it is possible to get into this bus and be competitive with that price range. I have pic of my rig. If someone can tell me how to post it here on the board, from my digital camera. Just go for IT ....... No Risk No Reward.

Degraffreed

Great advice!

Reply to this post, and a little ways below the window where you type, there's a button that says "Manage Attachments". Click that, and browse to the picture you want to post. Click "open" and then "upload". When it's done uploading, click "close this window" and then "submit reply" as you normally would.

If you have any problems with uploading it, or with resizing it, email it/them to me at mikewilliamson@bellsouth.net and I'll post them for you.

[Lou Beach 14]

Hey everybody, thanks for the input and keep em coming.

I will look into some of the specifics suggested in the various posts, lots of good advice here.

thanks for letting me vent my frustration here.

I would love to be able to pick up a used rig with the basics (hot water machine, water tank, tandem axle trailer, some guns and tips) to start out with, but so far that has not happened. I was losing confidence that I would find that, but will keep looking. I will look into some of the alternatives suggested on this thread.

Here is an example of what I am trying to purchase, this is listed on Ebay, but of course it's in freakin Colorado, and that is my frustration. I see these rigs a lot on Ebay but there always so far away. As I said earlier, how come none of these rigs are ever local to me?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=46536&item=3869483982&rd=1

Hopefully something like this will pop up locally.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

I think there was a rig on here yesterday too Lou...

beth

[John Doherty 126]

Lou,

I feel your pain, a while back I was looking at used units and they all seemed to be on the East coast! I have an automated search set up on ebay where I get an email with all the PWs as they are posted, the search is titled 'pressure washer trailer', it cuts down on me having to go to ebay and sift through lots of junk.

I suggest you try to stay patient, and as an ebay strategy email the seller a question about the rig and save their email address from the response. People put used units up with almost retail price expectations and reserve. You will see these end and no bids or reserve not met, and you still have access to the seller via email.

To anyone considering a used unit in CO, I'd be happy to look at it or take it to my shop that I trust to have it checked out for you.

JD

[Mathew Johnson 123]

that rig on ebay looked pretty good on the surface...

[tidyjet 14]

lou,

You will need room as you grow and the equipment to do any job that comes to you. So go ahead and have room for growth and stop looking at $5000.00 as a starting point. I dont think it is possible to get into this bus and be competitive with that price range. I have pic of my rig. If someone can tell me how to post it here on the board, from my digital camera. Just go for IT ....... No Risk No Reward.

Degraffreed

Unfortunately many of us newbies' don't have $36k in venture capital lying around (like you evidently had) to launch your business. For many, sound fiscal responsibility is to not go into debt. I believe it's possible to launch a competitive pressure wash business with a good clean used vehicle and pressure washer.

I don't know what all the fuss is with all the fancy equipment. I know of a gentleman very successful at this, been in the business for 13 yrs. He used to have a big trailer with w/what have you in it. Through the years he's learned to become very efficient and now operates out of a 1-ton pu. Less equip to monkey around with has meant more money for him because he's able to focus more on washing and not on equipment.

my 2 cents,

paul

[Celeste 341]

I think the diversity of what we all use combined with how we all got started is what makes this such a good place to learn. We personally started out with little capital and have doubled our capacity in just over a year. I know others that started out with debt in a big operation and have paid it off already. Then there are others that had money to start but didn't know what to do with what they had and now they're gone. There are far too many factors involved for one to be able to form judgments about others....logistics, competion, demographics, capital, motivation. We were encouraged as brand newbies just over a year ago and we listened, asked, learned and have been successful thus far although still are considered newbies by many. We're also still learning something every single day.

You can ask for all of the advise you want and you will get good and bad - you have to learn to disseminate the good info from the not as good, press on and make something from what you have. Pick your cheerleaders carefully and go for it.

Best of luck to you!

Celeste

[Celeste 341]

Hey Lou,

Evidently you're not washing yet...do you have a regular full time job that won't let you go very far to pick up a rig if you were able to work out say the one in Colorado? Point I'm getting at.....if you had a rig, could you be making money? Why would it not be worth the couple of days travel time to go on over to get it so you can start making the money?

I know how long you've been huntin' - our offer to check out anything around us still stands if you find something in the NC area.

Celeste