Heavy Equipment Washing

[HotShot 34]

Received a call today, a contractor wants me to wash his construction equipment. Backhoes, forklift, loaders etc....

I have no idea what to charge, or frankly, how to clean them....any help?

[Larry B 55]

A lot of it depends on what the owner wants done. How clean does he want the equipment? Undercarriage, engines, joints etc. or just wanting them to look good on the outside.

One thing to consider is it is very difficult to get them shiny without 2 stepping. They are simply too hard to brush in most cases. A good degreaser is also a must.

[HotShot 34]

thanks Larry for the reply.....

He basically wanted it sprayed down, all of the leaky grease off of the outside. I used some degreaser and with the hot water it came right off. It was really easy. Nothing too extravigant, just a simple squirt of degreaser, rinse off of everything you can see and that's it. Easy money.

He said that other contractors are always asking him where to get their stuff washed also. He is an aquaintance of mine and he said that he will definetly get me some more business.

[Jimmy M 14]

A lot of guys want engine degreased and radiator washed out, meaning dust and grease buildup which causes it to overheat. use very low pressure and good degreaser and rinse straight through radiator if you have to do this being careful not to bend the fins . I usually charge by yhe hour when I go to a jobsite. Nasty work but it pays good.

[danster 15]

A lot of guys want engine degreased and radiator washed out, meaning dust and grease buildup which causes it to overheat. use very low pressure and good degreaser and rinse straight through radiator if you have to do this being careful not to bend the fins . I usually charge by yhe hour when I go to a jobsite. Nasty work but it pays good.

Jimmy is right on the money with what the clients usually want, you get the odd guy once in a while that wants it so clean that you'd think its out of the showroom but that's OK, you charge by the hour. I make good money this way. All my equipment washing is by the hour cause you never know how hard the equipment is going to be to clean. You may have one piece that can take you 2 hours one week and 5 hours the next because its so filthy. Just get ready to get dirty. We washed a baby like this one

www.cat.com/cda/layout?m=37840&x=7&location=drop

this summer. It came to the job site on seven flatbeds. It was 5 years old and never washed. It took us 3 days to wash and we could have used an extra day but we didn't have time. Just under the boom where it connects to the platform we removed about 2 drums of grease (no kidding) by shovel. This thing was huge, the top of the tracks was the height of the top of the cabin of a Cat D9 parked beside it. It was an impressive job site.

Dan

[danster 15]

I see the link I put in does not work, let me try this again

http://cmms.cat.com/cmms/servlet/cat.dcs.cmms.servlet.DynamicImageServlet?imageid=C070826&imageType=2

[Paul Kassander 26]

I have washed a few like that as well. It is kinda cool when you can stand underneath the equipment and wash the engine and radiator. It is also suprising how small the engines are to power those things.

[PowerPlay 14]

We do a lot of this work. We charge by the piece, however these are accounts we do both weekly and bi-weekly. You will need a good degreaser, hot water, roto nozzles, and a squeegee for your safety glasses.:lgbounces

It deffinetly depends on what kind of dirt they are getting into. Limestone, clay, standard dirt, and then there is that dirt / grease mixture. MMMM yummy.

We average the following:

Hauler / EUC $69

Loader / Dozer $49

These are weekly prices at a quantity of 10 or more. Takes about 30 to 45 mins (depending on the type of equipment) to remove the bulk of the dirt, grease, and clean the windows.

[Paul Kassander 26]

I'm suprised you can get that work weekly, most HE guys just do it for emergency or transport use, kudos to you. Oh ya I like the squeege idea for the safety glasses, I was thinking about getting a pair of those ones with the wipers on them...

[danster 15]

HaHa....I do agree on the squeegee on the safety glasses, boy you can get dirty real quick. And it is possible to get accounts to clean heavy equipment but they are hard to get at least on a weekly basis. I don't bother too much with it because my main focus is painting.

Your prices seem a bit low for heavy equipment though, but I guess maybe that's why you have the weekly account. Do those prices include the degreaser or is it extra ?

Dan

[PowerPlay 14]

Those are on the low end, the easy maintenance cleans. That does include the degreaser that when you buy in bulk isn't too pricey.

To speak from the other end of things. We do some very large cranes at the local recycler that only get done on an emergency basis. Over heated and broke down, now they need to work on it. We charge $350. I am convincing them it would be better to keep them clean all the time so they don't overheat, less repair. If he gave me all 6 on a bi-weekly, I would do them for $150 each.

Pricing varies largely from job to job and I probably shouldn't give my prices. Just have an idea of what your business needs to gross per hour to make you happy and stick with that.

[Paul Kassander 26]

Pricing varies largely from job to job and I probably shouldn't give my prices. Just have an idea of what your business needs to gross per hour to make you happy and stick with that.

That pricing sounds about right. I price my stuff the same way, Heavy Equipment is varys so much you have to do it that way.

[danster 15]

I charge $75/hour plus degreaser with a minimum 3 hours. So when they call me, they don't call for nothing, they will line up work for at least 3 hours or more. Usually most construction companies around here have there own PW rigs, but they do call when its a very dirty job or something they are unable to do themselves, or they are on a very tight schedule and they need bigger rigs to do it fast so they can get up and running again (time is money for them and for me..hehe)

Dan

[PowerPlay 14]

Danster,

I'm confused, you thought my pricing was too low. On maintenance cleans your looking at 30 mins on the small guys ($49 bucks) as stated in my original post.. I do six, which takes me three hours I am at $294 bucks. You are at $225 for three hours of cleaning. The degreaser is such a small amount of the cost I don't see why you would charge it out as extra. To do six pieces you are looking at like two gallons maybe. So what 10 bucks total degreaser cost. If you're going to go with that logic then why not charge extra for how much gas you use. Unless you are selling the degreaser like an auto mechanic sells parts. Up charging the hell out of it.

Please explain....

[Barry M 73]

Sorry for the hijack. It just looked like a good thread to ask this question. I had a painter, whom I know and trust, ask me to help him prep some tool and die machines that he is going to paint. We are suppose to use an in house steamcleaner. I know nothing about steamcleaning. How different is it from pressure washing? Do I still use chems? Is it better than pressure washing or is it a step down? Will I still end up with waste water? You can see I have a lot of questions so any advise is appreciated, thanks and sorry again for the hijack.

[itswillist 14]

What degreaser do you guys use ? and what ratio ? Where can you buy it ??? Not sure if your able to give brand names and such on here... if not please send me a private message about it ... Thank you guys so much, TGS has been good to me, saved me time and money ... You guys advice is Golden ... !!!

Woohoo, spring time is near !

[FullBlast 14]

I have tried a lot of different degreaser, and some seem to work not to bad, but go ahead and laugh at me, but the Mean Green that you can get at the Dollar Store just works pretty good.

You know how sometimes when you wash a greasy joint out and it kinda splatters the grease on the machine, sometimes that lil smear is hard to get off, a shot of Mean Green works great.

Works for me, and it leaves a shine too!!

Just 2 pennies...

[Classic_k 14]

Heavy Equipment Washing,

We have a new environmental Industrial Chemical on the Market from Canada. Have been using it for 2 years now. It has no Butyls or Acids in it and will not leave a film and will not discolor paint. It will not hurt hydraulics or burn your skin. It has been tested and now we are bring it to the industry.

Thanks

Ken

[Classic_k 14]

We have a new industrial degreaser on the market from Canada and it works great. Has no butyls or acid in it and is agressive enough to do the job and is safe for what ever you are working on.

Thanks

Ken

[jetstream1 18]

Danster,

I'm confused, you thought my pricing was too low. On maintenance cleans your looking at 30 mins on the small guys ($49 bucks) as stated in my original post.. I do six, which takes me three hours I am at $294 bucks. You are at $225 for three hours of cleaning. The degreaser is such a small amount of the cost I don't see why you would charge it out as extra. To do six pieces you are looking at like two gallons maybe. So what 10 bucks total degreaser cost. If you're going to go with that logic then why not charge extra for how much gas you use. Unless you are selling the degreaser like an auto mechanic sells parts. Up charging the hell out of it.

Please explain....

Buy by the bulk and its true you save in the long run.

I live in Florida and wash nothing but rigs,dump trucks, and the list gos on

if you are on a groove with them and they stay with the washing every one or two weeks and they are cake walk for the money.Or wait maybe not so fun after the rain but.Just did a job on friday in a feild washes 3 case 550 prep for painting filled up tank 2 times and 3 hr of work paid well

hey Know what I say keep on trucking ...make that money.

Jet Stream Pressure Washing

Heavy Equipment Washing,

[Christopher 102]

I have done a lot like in that picture along with the several hundred ton capacity cranes and dozers, etc.... I like the ones that you can walk under without bending over, makes cleaning a lot easier. I also have used the "Mean Grean", I have purchased it by the 55 gallon drum and it is priced better that way. I would use the white Tyvek coveralls because no matter how I try to stay clean the grease would fly everywhere. I would not charge by the hour but by the piece and just got faster. Sometimes they would have only 1 piece but some days 4 or 6. Get some cheap step ladders as sometimes you need a ladder to get to the engine cover in the back where the counter weight is and there is no steps and then another ladder to get higher to clean everywhere. I wish I had a helper back then to take pictures. Be Very Careful when rinsing the motor as a lot of times the crap will fly into the radiator and then you have to clean greasy dirt out and it is a pain. Heavy Equipment is great but not all the time down here.

[duner 14]

Hi Classic_K

Your chemicals are working great. I will send you some before and after pictures. The new chemical application process is working great. We did

12 pieces the other day, and our time had improved alot. The plant is sure happy with the end results. The shovels, wagners, and 950's are looking good.

duner.

[tcpmLLC 14]

Can you guys tell me a little bit of how you are reclaiming the water when washing on the job site (dirt). This is the main reason I started looking into pressure washing, but after reading the E.P.A. regulations, how do you guys reclaim the run off is whats confusing me.

Thanks in advance

[MMI Enterprises 289]

Some places may have a pad with their own sump or the washer brings their own. They are like burms and ya recover to tank with vac based recovery and dispose of as required. Sometimes for real bad greasey stuff a place will bring in a 3rd party hazzardous material carrier to take the waste which in such case there becomes more issue with how much water yer using or what chems. Last call I had like that was for a tunneling machine that was to be broke down all in parts and put on racks. They were gonna have 3rd party oversight present and it really sounded like a pita of a job. Not sure who did job or how it went down which might be best thing. If ya want low water usage and best results with or without chems then I imagine an actual steam cleaner be best. This thread is abit dated but to address what Barry was asking about steam cleaning here is a link that was on *** recently that talks about how they work: http://www.sioux.com/pdfs/broc_pdfs/WHY%20STEAM.pdf

In short they break down oil better and use less water and chems. They apparently clean by the water being accelerated by the surrouding steam rather than by the actual steam which only really happens the moment it is decompressed into the enviroment thus they use a different tip system and pressures to accomodate the process.

[ANRPressureWashing 14]

i clean heavy equipment im looking for a product that will turn the grease in to liquid so i can cut my time down thanks for any sujestions thanks lonnie greenwood 386-232-4388