Need More Space.......Ditching the Hose Reel

I'm sure, like a lot of you, my van is pressed for space. So my idea is to ditch the vac hose real and opt for just coiling 50' sections of hose, hanging 2-3 from the ceiling of the van, and likely put one more under those hanging on van floor. Since I can't remember the last time I needed more than 200' of hose, seems pointless to have a reel full with 250-300 hose on it. By doing this I figure it will easily and quickly enable me to remove all or some of hose to gain valuable floor space when needed.......for instance, when I need to haul a bunch of drying equip, or take away damaged materials from a flood job..........pickup the x-mas tree, whatever. lol

The disadvantage will be having to hand coil the vac hose, but I'm not sure that will be so bad?.....I'm thinking I can coil about as fast (I'm pretty good at it) as it takes to spin it onto the reel.

If I need more hose than the 200' I carry, I can just throw it in the van as needed....maybe once every 2 years at this point.

I do plan on keeping the solution reel though, and just mounting it to the rear van door, instead of the side of the vac reel where it is now.

My plan is, to make a bracket this weekend to hold the solution reel and coil up the vac hose and give it a try for a week or two, if I don't like it, I figure I can always put the vac reel back in.

Thoughts?

Anyone ever run without a vac reel before?

I know what you mean. Had a narrow reel(200'), But the base rusted out real bad. I replaced it with a wider reel. With the Sol and fresh water reel on the side; doesn't leave much room to crawl inside to the machine.
I hardly ever pull off more than 150' of hose. In fact I can only think of 1 time I had 200' laid out in all of '15.

Well in your situation it might work, if you're only doing 1 or 2 jobs a day, worse case scenario you'll be wasting 20 - 30 minutes, assuming it doesn't take you longer than 15 minutes each time you unroll and roll them back, but for me, that's a waste of about an hour a day ( 10 extra minutes per job ).
Not to mention with your height, you have to hunch down while carrying the hose in the van trying to hang them back in there.
I think you're going to hate it, I could be wrong though.
Why don't you try the ceiling mount kit ? It looks like a great idea, if it works and looks good then I'll buy some for myself ;-)

I'm with Dp on this one, I think you will hate it.

My van carries a 210 gallon waste tank and only a 150 ft reel, so I am always carrying extra vac hose. When doing jobs like the Zoo, I have pack in another 150 feet worth of loose hose and it sucks!

It takes extra time, the hoses develop splits sooner as they get crammed into the van, and it just plain sucks.

I don't think I would ever buy a van that wasn't an extended length any more and also why I like the box trucks / cube vans better at this point.....well, when the temperatures allow.

It's very possible you guys are right. But I figure I really have nothing to loose by trying it.

For the average cleaner doing several jobs a day and/or needing more than 100-200' of hose on a regular bases I can see it not working, but the way I've been running the last couple years I normally use 50-75-100' of hose on 95+% of jobs, and the rest are pretty much 150' max. Plus the advantage for me, with doing flood work I'm thinking will offset the disadvantage of no reel, by allowing me to have that additional floor space when regularly needed in just a min or so by removing the coiled up hose.

Thanks for the input.

Will see...........

There is only one way to find out and every business is different in way of what works, so give it a shot.

Space is always a premium, especially on water damage jobs. The concern I would have is how much can you really carry in a van for water damage...even without the reel? I normally pulled a 12x8 cargo trailer for water damage and it was full most of the time....still wanted more space.

The only expert on your business is you, the rest of us are quick to criticize and even quicker to spend your money for you. If your gut says that it will work, you are probably right...good luck.

Ha..ha... I told him about trailer too last night and he was quick to say, I ain't pulling a trailer in LA traffic, lmao.

The Griffin brothers got rid of their vac reel and solution reel and they swear its quicker and easier for them

Griffin brothers look like their from Alabama.

Well, they are right, it isn't "rocket surgery" (what-ever that is), but it does seem to work for them.

My biggest concern would be winter temps. Loading the hose like that in single digit weather would not be pretty. At least the reel allows you to purge some of the water left in the lines....their method would end with a frozen snake in the back of that van around here.

In a warm climate, looks like a system that can work. Of course, did they save space??? Looks like the entire cargo area ends up covered in hose didn't it?

Add 2 reels back there and you would have had some floor space open.

I agree, with several rolls of coiled up hose there really is no space savings.  But that's not what I was thinking, and my plan was to be able to easily and quickly remove the rolled up hose when I need more hauling room, like when I need room for drying equipment and hauling damaged materials away.

And is also the reason (van floor full of hose), was my plan to hang a couple of 50' coils, if I actually end up deciding to do this.  I've just got too much planning going on now, with the intentions of the full TM restoration in the works, to try it right now.

Thanks for all the input!

Matt; My carpet cleaner wrote:Griffin brothers look like their from Alabama.

Close.. but I'm pretty sure it's Mississippi. Looks like he forgot to clean the carpet.

They're actually in St Louis.

The only reason they do it that way is because they claim its faster than using reels.

^^^That's what I get for assuming. I could only see the M and I in the tag. Still pretty cool how they did it but it takes up too much room just laying it on the floor.

ya i dont think the way they are doing it would save much time. maybe a few seconds, but also with the wet ground here you almost need an electric reel so you can run a rag over the hose as you wind it

I'm thinking of pulling the narrower reel out of the shed and mounting it on the roof of the van. Then I can slide my wands under it , on the floor. And have more room to crawl back into the tm for servicing. I'm needing more space to wiggle in there to the tm.

Has anyone tried pulling a small trailer for added space?

I don't mean a large cargo trailer, I tried that for water damage and found that I hate pulling trailers, but maybe a little 4x6 trailer to hold hoses.

I am okay on residential, but when I go to the Zoo, I have to pack another 250 feet of hose and it is tough to cram that into a van. A small trailer might be just enough to keep the hoses outside without adding any negatives inherent to a trailer.

A small trailer might work good in some areas, but for me and the area I work in I think it would be a total nightmare. Most of the time I have to back into a driveway or park on street where usually I can just barely squeeze my van in........I just don't see it working around here.

BTW
I still haven't tried running without the vac reel, but may do so in the next couple weeks.

I think you will like it at first because you will see all the extra room, but it is hard to not have the reel.
I tried going reel less for a while when I was doing carpet and maintenance when I first started. It is doable but the hose reel was invented for a reason it just sucks at how much room they eat up.
Maybe were just noticing it more because we are just carrying more now. Tile,vtc,carpet,crbs, the tools of the industry keeps on growing and we just can't part with the old faithful stuff we have come to get used to.