What is the best van?

Hey Guys,

We are in the market for a van for one of our projects teams who do carpet cleaning, floor stripping and waxing, window washing, etc. This team has used an suv and a 10' trailer to haul everything and that has worked out pretty well but we're trying to consolidate everything into one unit. Thoughts? Thanks much!

Sprinter van or something like that or Bx truck they give you the height to stand up and room for shelving plus a divider wall to keep you and the smelly things apart.

Personally, I would skip vans altogether.

I started out working from a 12 foot trailer with drop down ramp so that I could just roll everything out instead of lifting things all the time. With flooring jobs, you are dealing with heavy equipment (burnishers, 175's, and even walk-behind strippers) and you need to avoid lifting them.

The downside to a trailer is obvious....takes up a lot of space, especially a drop down ramp. You no doubt found this out.

If it was me, I would look for a small box truck with a lift gate. Even a 12 foot box truck would be about half as long as your SUV / Trailer set-up in use now and the lift gate would allow you to grow into the walk-behind machines.

You can find them pretty cheap....just as cheap as a good a cargo van. A good 3/4 or 1-ton van will cost you around 12k for one with 130k miles or so. My current box truck cost me 13k for a diesel and 92k miles.

I think you would be a whole lot happier with the box truck or even cube van than anything else. Just don't go too large, 12 footer is plenty.

I would go box truck with the slide out ramp,   you can find lots of them.  

The ramp is tucked under the latch on the rear roll up door,    it just slides right out.  

Life gates are nice for appliance delivery etc but too slow for carpet cleaning/floor cleaning imo  


Box truck is the way to go,   its really nice being separated from the TM heat especially this time of year.

ACpower1 wrote:I would go box truck with the slide out ramp,   you can find lots of them.  

The ramp is tucked under the latch on the rear roll up door,    it just slides right out.  

Life gates are nice for appliance delivery etc but too slow for carpet cleaning/floor cleaning imo  


Box truck is the way to go,   its really nice being separated from the TM heat especially this time of year.

Good point on the ramp, but it does add to the length needed to off-load. Lifts are pretty dang slow, but you should only need to lower it once if you plan well. They also fold up making it impossible to break into the back roll-up door which might be important in some areas.

Ramp trucks are cheaper and far easier to find, either way, box truck is the way to go.

It depends on where your business operates, metropolitan areas would be Vans, you can go to most underground garages, enables you to use TM for most apartments and condos.
Rural areas, box trucks or tall vans like sprinters, ford transits, etc.

Oh man, I would not want to deal with underground parking garages, that has to be a pita to work out of.

It is, but for me it beats having to lug portables up to the unit, especially if they're having us clean carpets and upholstery, having to stop 5 times and dump is not fun at all, having auto pump out us also a pita having to bring stinky hose and hook it up to the toilet, yuck.

Parking garages are a PITA, but sometimes necessary. I don't do the portable thing anymore, I'll let someone else have the job before I do that again.

Davey Cracker wrote:Parking garages are a PITA, but sometimes necessary.  I don't do the portable thing anymore, I'll let someone else have the job before I do that again.

Not even at $ 0.50 / sf or carpet and upholstery job totaling over $ 500 ??

No, im done with portables, no mater the job amount.

As is I'm approaching .50 s.f. for TM cleaning on a regular bases............did one 2 days ago for .50, and another earlier in the week for .46.

And Monday I'm doing a second floor condo for .50 s. f. ....with /TM or encap.

I pass off anything portable related, even if I can vlm it I just prefer to pass... hate those jobs and theres plenty of TM access jobs

btw you really should not be running a TM inside an underground garage Dp, thats super dangerous even with a propane machine

No propane here AC, heat exchangers only

AC, that's why around here, parking garages have big exhaust fans, to evacuate the toxic exhaust fumes, produced by cars or anything else.

Valid point about fume build-up AC, can you trust the fans Davey?

Like AC, I am out of the portable business completely, and really not interested in straight encap either. TM cleaning is easier and faster for me.

I couldn't agree more with Rob, my minimum charge for portable use is $ 150 and I'm thinking to raise that to $ 199 soon, if the job is not big enough, it's not worth the hassle hauling that thing out, I only do probably 1 or 2 portable jobs a month.
TM cleaning all the way for me.
Most underground garages around Pasadena are not really underground, they're like halfway underground, there are usually plenty of windows with bars that we usually use to slip the hoses through when we drop them from upstairs patio or balcony.

dp1 wrote:No propane here AC, heat exchangers only

what I meant was even with our tnt that runs completely on propane with 80% less emissions its still dangerous

They do have fans but with doors open into the building it can start drafting inside


Years back a guy was running his TM in an underground garage with doors open to the stairs going up. They found him passed out dead with his wand, also a mom and 2 kids were unconscious but survived

There is no doubt that gas can be dangerous, but until you experience it you may not understand how it sneaks up on you. You might think that you would notice it before there was a problem, but you often don't.

Years ago in college, I rented this really old house that used a gas stove. It was finals week so I was in the house studying a lot and one evening I started to get a headache.

I took some tylenol and went to bed. In the morning, I felt really nauseated and the headache was even worse. I stayed home from work that day as a result and figured I must have contracted a virus of some kind.

As the day went on, I kept feeling worse. I called my doctor who told me to just take some flu meds and get some rest as it was probably a flu strain. I ended that day feeling steadily worse.

The next morning, I was still miserable. The headache felt like a migraine and the stomach was on strike. I ended up walking out to the mail box hoping the fresh air might help and when I returned to the house, the garlic smell of the gas additive was obvious.....the stove was leaking badly.

I could have ended right then and there if I had stayed inside another day or two. I never noticed the garlic smell until I went outside and thankfully, the nausea kept me from trying to light the stove....that would have ended badly.

Don't get over-confident with any safety situation. Secure your equipment, wear gloves, protect your eyes around chemicals, don't expose yourself to toxic fumes, check your fuel lines every day, and be SAFE.

You do have an eye wash bottle in the van right?
First Aid Kit?
Fire Extinguisher?
Gloves?
Safety glasses?
Propane leak sniffer?
AED? (Okay, that one might be too far)