Home build project

Hey Guys I wanted you say to you all, If you have that itch to build a TM I can tell you personally that it is a lot of fun.. some frustration is going to happen, but if you want to do it, it can and is very awesome when you turn the key and the thing comes to life.
Also remember it is your thoughts and your ideas, and not everyone will see it the same as you, it is in a way like a artists view and of your personality, if you can look at it that way.
So I set out on my journey to do this, I even told Joe back in the day someday I am going to build a TM I really want a monster I want to rip the carpet from the tack strips....not that you need to but you know what I mean.
So this is my creation and a little journey of it.


In this last video I have my new throttle down throttle when I lift my wand for a bit the TM will idle back down to save on fuel when I need to move hoses or furniture, when I start wanding again the throttle goes back up to operating speeds, has really helped save on fuel while I take my time to move things.

Looks great!
That suction looks very serious. You seem to have put a lot of thought into it and come up with some good ideas.
The mufflers you made are they just empty inside or what did you put in them?

l built myself a TM about 8 years ago and is still going strong with some improvements along the way. Will be building a new TM in the nest couple of years.

The best part about building your own that you know how to fix it if something goes wrong.

Thanks ej,
The mufflers are filled with a insulation, I have found another product I am going to use. I made them like a dirt bike muffler/silencer,so I can pop them open remove its core of packing and replace with new.
They are for blower air only and I have no blower hx or engine exhaust going through them so they stay fairly dry.
I did notice the other day that they are getting a little crispy probably due from the moist/humid air coming from the carpet itself.
When I built it I bought starter and alternator new both were well under 100.00 each. Both came with free lifetime warranty, that is the really cool part is you deal with a auto store and not a small engine/ tm distributor to get it fixed or parts....way more easy on the wallet when something does happen,needs fixed.

Did you do any decibel testing comparisons?

I raffled off an RC999 and I think Dave was going to do the same thing. Did you ever do that Dave?

Mo wrote:Did you do any decibel testing comparisons?

I raffled off an RC999 and I think Dave was going to do the same thing. Did you ever do that Dave?

I think Dave called me and wanted to do a demo if I would send him one for free, but I did not pursue it because I don't want to be liable for this type of product to many things are left up to the end user to make it right.
The biggest is not running any exhaust that builds condensation as I do not know how they would hold up.
Just to many things that could go wrong, I can say without a doubt they are better than car mufflers hands down for the blowers.

Mo wrote:Did you do any decibel testing comparisons?

I raffled off an RC999 and I think Dave was going to do the same thing. Did you ever do that Dave?

Only with my ears Mo, But it made a big big difference, maybe not as good as a staddard blower silencer but almost.

That's good to know I have a car muffler on the TNT

Mo wrote:That's good to know I have a car muffler on the TNT

Joes Rc 99 would be really excellent for it because of the end caps the back end is already drilled and secured to housing. the B cords would probably hold but if not 2 screws through side of lid into housing would work.
It is very very easy to do.
You would want 2.5 cool cuffs or ports = #4 blower is 2.5 in/out
All you do is go get some 1/2 galvy mesh from ace hardware,cut it so that it will reach from inside back to inside front, Say 19 1/2" long
Form it into a 2.5 - 3.0 Diameter tube, Then wrap some insulation around that tube, you will end up with a roll of insulation with a hollow tube right down the center, slide it in the RC99 housing if it is a little shy just pack some more insulation in there put lid on bang nice and quiet.
If you are running muffler...1/2 the noise level serious you will be shocked.
Oh and when you first start up you don't want to stand in front of it, it takes a minute or two to blow loose fibers out, you don't have to do this every time just the first time.
The key to it is the metal mesh tube needs to be very close to each end touching would be even better, but 1/4 gap is okay

If you did it on your TM if the Rc99 housing is to long you could just trim it down to fit with a cutting wheel. Just mark a clean line around housing and use a cut off wheel, then you could make it just the right size in length
I had to take van in to shop today dang it, just started missing this morning, so here I sit.

Having grown up with VW (my Dad was an engineer for them) I thought I had seen everything with those motors. I've seen them used in all types of vehicles and field machinery, but never thought about using one to power a TM....pretty good idea.

If anyone else is thinking about that, don't just consider that model of VW engine. Some of the Porsche made ones in the Square backs / Type lll would probably fit into a smaller footprint...just something to consider.

Oh, and stay with carbs....those fuel injection systems of VW kind of sucked. A good Weber carb on a VW will give you great performance and reliability.

It is working really good, they do have a wide foot print, but the horse power to dollar ratio is very very good.
The guy that is giving me some pointers guided me to put a double capacity remote oil cooler on it and put it in my fresh water box, it is cooling the oil down and pre heating my water to @ 145* my oil temps went from 200* down to 130- 180* depending on how much I use it.
My evo with 18 flow oil temps are lower, MY wp with 8 flow it is a little hotter but never over 180* now.

They say they make @ 55-60 hp for a dual port 1600 I don't know if that is taken from flywheel or rear wheel but it is doing really well.
Long live VW yeah I am a vw fan would love to have a bug to cruz again

Mo wrote:Did you do any decibel testing comparisons?

I raffled off an RC999 and I think Dave was going to do the same thing. Did you ever do that Dave?

No, although that was my plan. I ended up giving it to Bill so he wouldn't have to use a pool filter anymore.

SCCC, Cool stuff and videos.

Thanks Dave,
I was hoping you would try it Joe's filter would work really good for it, not just as filter but also the way it is set up would be very easy to convert it to a siliecer.
If you guys are needing a way to solve a noise issue the cost of the Rc99
is really a good route.
This is also another point, some of you work at night if you made a filter conversion and was some how able to hook it to blower exhaust that you have already it may even make you ninja.
It is a very free flowing muffler so it would not hinder the performance in any way you wont even know you added it.
I was going to try and rig one up so I could hang it off the front of my TM when were working on some night accounts, It was right next to motel and the people would complain...I don't blame them it was like 2:00 am
We don't do the work anymore so I didn't need to do it, and I ran out of prototype housings
But some of you may need or want a little more noise reduction may be something to look into.

I was kind of excited about making it too, as I have some good ideas by using a proper baffle tube and the type of silencing material used in hand built race car mufflers.  But I'm not so sure it would be any quieter than the blower silencer I have now.
Plus I have a lot of experience with motorcycle silencers and the way they work.  Long time ago I use to make exhaust pipes and silencers for my two stroke race bikes.

But it was just sitting there and Bill (Sixshooter) really need it.............Figured I could always buy another if I decided to make it.

I don't know if it would work as well for you TM with a VW engine but it made a huge difference in the noise level when I connected the diesel exhaust down stream of the blower exhaust on my old Bates. When I did it I was concerned that the blower might cause back pressure on the engine. It didn't. In fact it actually created a negative pressure which sucks the exhaust out. No more soot inside the truck.

How did you connect the engine to the blower?

Rainbow Rider wrote:How did you connect the engine to the blower?

The first video at 26 seconds you'll se the engine with a 2 groove pulley I belt per blower

When I bought my motors (2) for 500.00 bucks they each had that pulley on them, the motors were used for a dredge machine, you can get pulleys from the dredge manufacture, I took them to my fabricator and he cut two more 1/2 grooves in it, now has four belts two per blower, this really helped not having to torque on the belt tension.
The cool thing is the motor crank shaft has "0" tension on it because each blower neutrals the other out.

Thanks for clearing that up SC.

So I broke my Vw tm a while back, I tried pulling 20 hg's I don't know if I hit 20 or not but I broke my custom pulley broke the center right out of it, So I had to come up with a different way to do a pulley, now I have a regular pulley and bushing setup.
I ordered a 5 1/2", 5 groove pulley, I am going to try and run a pulley pump out set up off the extra groove.
So today I had 5 2 door set up then 2.5 to a short 12 foot whip of 2.0 to my wand. With my wand hooked to hose at cleaning rpms the lift was @ 13 Hg this thing has some serious suck I love it.
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I was only going to take her to the first job but she did so good I worked with her the whole day, this was on the last house Photobucket I don't think is very good for video redo on you tube

Awesome stuff Tom.
So if using a rc99 as a silencer, is there any material inside? Or empty?
In one of the videos, I think I could hear the tm ideal up and down based on the wand on or off the carpet.

There has to be silencing material inside if it's going to reduce noise........built just like a motorcycle silencer.

Matt; My carpet cleaner wrote:Awesome stuff Tom.
So if using a rc99 as a silencer, is there any material inside? Or empty?
In one of the videos, I think I could hear the tm ideal up and down based on the wand on or off the carpet.

For Rc 99 you will need 1/4" square mesh wire you need to make a roll about 3" dia and it needs to go from back of Rc99 to front of Rc99
This tube will be the channel that allows the blower air to pass through the center, now that that is done and test fit all you need to do it go get some pink insulation and wrap the wire tube then slip it down inside of the RC 99 housing.
THIS IS FOR BLOWER ONLY...NO ENGINE EXHAUST you will need a different products that is a higher heat rating, and engine ex produces a lot of water, no biggie just have to repack the silencer sooner.

As far as idle down....YES my TM does that, if you lift, or lay down wand the machine reduces rpms back down to a lower setting, so you can move furniture, talk to someone, work on a spot, just pull hose out of the way.
Then when you set wand back down trigger the solution it makes a nice seal and the throttle is pulled back up to cleaning rpms.
I am still tweaking on the throttle, it works really well but I want to be able to drop down to like 1100 rpms any lower and the two blowers almost kill the motor.
Right now it bumps down to about 1500/1600 rpm

I like the idle design....kind of like butler uses when running on "Mach" setting. It will lower the idle when the load is reduced and then bump back up when needed.

It still remains around 1500....not much lower than that due to the blower needs, like you point out.