Cheap Water Box for TM

Made this cheap water box today. Took a little less than 1hr, works great








- 2 banjo fittings, 3/8 id
- 2 3/8 QDs open style
- 1 Float valve from grainger
- 1 female garden hose x 1/2in brass
- 1 1/2in x 3/8in coupler

This is for our Techno Viking which will be hitting the road again hopefully this week. Cleaned out the #3 LG, Rebuilt the pump with new cam bearings and new pump head seals/valves

Just got the lil better hoses from Joe plus scheiffer skinny, VT14, and RC99

Second van running for the first time, this one will be for carpets and upholstery/ mattresses... big van for carpets, hard surfaces, air ducts, and pressure washing

Ill post pics up of the express when its all set up with the techno back in and water box.

You are definitely all fired up these days, lots of passion....I like it!   

thanks Mil, right now were both working in 1 van.. so were going to spread out which will slow jobs down a bit but well be able to handle a little more volume overall.

Mostly will shorten the days and give time on each job for some add on services like tile. right now the days are so packed we cant even think about offering extra services, also hard to keep up on maintenance getting off so late.

Just throwing this out there, but if you are running that second van, you might want to consider doing what many are these days (Saiger, Dp, etc) and run both vans to the same job while adding a helper.

That should make the jobs go faster, less physical stress, and the ability to work on multiple services at the same time.

Once I get back to running the second van, I plan to give it go like that. It makes a lot of sense to me and only adds one additional employee.

Either way, give 'em hell out there!  

It is a good idea, Ive thought about it and will definitely try it on some jobs to see how it goes.

Our coverage area is kinda big so hoping that spreading out is going to make things faster, our biggest issue is traffic. Most all carpet jobs are right about 2hrs, that could drop to 1hr or less with multiple vans on same job

I like the idea of running a vac unit (cfx) and 2 lines coming from TM, tried it before on upholstery and it seemed to work really well. CFX hits about 300cfm so its great for upstairs areas with about 60-75ft attached, then if your running high temps the dry times work out well.

Seattle is increasing population by 30% in the next 6 years, and surrounding cities are too as much as 45%

Its really silly because our freeways just cant handle it, the whole city if you look at a map is layed out like a bottle neck anywhere you go.

Man, traffic is a killer. Working in San Diego and up towards Laguna a hundred years ago (at least it feels that way), I experienced lots of time sitting in traffic. Two hours seems like a very unacceptable number to be on the road instead of cleaning.

If the area is growing that fast, maybe you should look into relocating to the burbs and getting those 2 hours back while operating with far less competition? Not right away, but down the road.

Let's see, 2 hours saved x 5 days per week x 4 weeks per month = a full 40 hour week not cleaning. Go to the burbs and get a week off every month...or something like that.   

Actually I don't run like that, I always put 2 guys in the main van, whether it's my employee with myself or my part timer or a family member that's helping out and I'll get out on busy days by myself and work solo, can't do much jobs myself since I still have to pick the phone calls up and schedule jobs while working ( don't ask me how ) but I can still handle 3 medium size jobs by myself and the main van can do about 5 jobs, I will go to the further areas to minimize the labor costs of sitting down in traffic, by doing that way I also can return missed calls and schedule customers while going through traffic going to the next job.
I'm thinking to hire someone part time to pick up the phone and schedule customers, but as a worryholic, I'm worried that he / she is going to mess up in the learning process and not trying their best to get the customer scheduled, still thinking about this and looking for the best candidate   

dp1 wrote:Actually I don't run like that, I always put 2 guys in the main van, whether it's my employee with myself or my part timer or a family member that's helping out and I'll get out on busy days by myself and work solo, can't do much jobs myself since I still have to pick the phone calls up and schedule jobs while working ( don't ask me how ) but I can still handle 3 medium size jobs by myself and the main van can do about 5 jobs, I will go to the further areas to minimize the labor costs of sitting down in traffic, by doing that way I also can return missed calls and schedule customers while going through traffic going to the next job.
I'm thinking to hire someone part time to pick up the phone and schedule customers, but as a worryholic, I'm worried that he / she is going to mess up in the learning process and not trying their best to get the customer scheduled, still thinking about this and looking for the best candidate   

Sorry, got that one wrong...knew you split up 2+1, but didn't get the details correct.

Sounds like the best one to answer the phones and schedule customers is actually you. Maybe you just need to hire another tech to run your van instead?   

we usually spend 1-2hrs in traffic total per day and thats servicing all the good suburban areas.

In this area there are lots of suburbs close to seattle, 25miles or less. Beyond that is farm country and it gets really spread out.

Its basically a bunch of people packed in between water and mountains, then all farm country.

We really dont do many jobs in seattle city limits, a few/week. Most of the work is on the eastside

Bellevue, Sammamish, Kirkland, Redmond, Medina etc

ACpower1 wrote:we usually spend 1-2hrs in traffic total per day and thats servicing all the good suburban areas.  

In this area there are lots of suburbs close to seattle,   25miles or less.     Beyond that is farm country and it gets really spread out.    

Its basically a bunch of people packed in between water and mountains,    then all farm country.

We really dont do many jobs in seattle city limits,    a few/week.     Most of the work is on the eastside

Bellevue,  Sammamish,  Kirkland,  Redmond,  Medina  etc

Sounds like my area, minus the good scenery.  

I am about 45 miles from Omaha (Nebraska's largest city), but try to stay outside of it and service the smaller towns located less than 20 miles away from home....about 60k people scattered over 5 towns. I can normally keep my drive down to about 40 minutes round-trip daily.

So AC the electric pump on the Nordic needs a water box? Is it pulsating and cavitating?

its a pump tech 205v,     always have used a water tank in the past but space is limited in this van, smaller express, and seattle water is already soft water so just retiring the 70 gal tank for now. Save some gas, this express isnt really a cargo van so the heavy tank isnt good for the brakes etc.     

The pump just needs gravity fed water and a return line back to the water box or tank