Your Own Car Wash

[Industrial Toys]

I was just reading a thread about this evil brine they use for snow and ice abatement. It is destroying my truck!

I have a commercial pressure washer. None of this 2, 3 or 4 thousand PSI garbage, but about 1500 LBS with a good amount of volume. That's what matters!

But cleaning the underside of a vehicle is a very difficult matter.

What would it take to make a unit, that you drive over, slowly, to get this nasty brine off of the underside of your vehicle? My pressure washer is impressive compared to a box store unit, but would it have enough power and volume to drive, say, half a dozen nozzles?

A friend, once ran a car wash, and I was blown away at the power and water req

 

[bcp]

I wonder how a tractor, or traveling sprinkler would work, traveling slowly from one end to the other. You would need clearance for it underneath.

Nelson Rain Train Traveling Sprinkler, Model# 1865 | Sprinklers| Northern Tool + Equipment

Bruce

 

[Sysop]

You can actually contact the makers of car washes and buy the various rotating nozzles and sprayers. Local transit authority I do work for has a "bus wash" they created in house out of parts sourced from such places and just putting together what worked. It's only plumbing... They did have the city install a larger water line (2") to the facility to feed the wash an adequate supply of water, and they roll through slowly rather than the machine moving around and whatnot. Just hit a button when they pull in the garage to start the cycle, drive through slow, hit a button on the other end to stop it, go park.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I don't see that as the problem, as you can slowly move the vehicle. But can you get enough oomph to make the idea feasable? It would be a very cheap project. Some pipe and fittings, and some wood or steel cut on angles so you could drive over the pipe. Turn on your pressure washer and drive over this thing a few times.

 

[Sysop]

Considering the bus wash they built has something like 60 or so nozzles spraying from all around and you're just looking mainly to do the undercarriage, I think you could get adequate pressures and volume to do it well.

 

[NewfieDan]

When I worked in oil and gas they had a large ramp built. You could drive the whole truck on to the ramp. This would raise the front of the truck high enough to stand under the front bumper. Then you could use the pressure washer the way you bought it and direct the spray precisely where you need it.

With a little modification you could probably design a system into it to use it for repairs as well.

What about just placing a sprinkler underneath for a period of time? There should be little pressure driving the brine into the nooks and crannies. What you are trying to do is remove it, by flushing out right?

What you are doing is using volume to remove it, not pressure.

 

[chim]

I bet most undercarriage washing systems only wet the salt deposits rather than remove them. The spray is directed up, so any deposits that aren't in a direct line of pressurized spray only get wet. With all the nooks and crannies, holes in frames, etc. there can't be a lot of washing going on where it counts. Seems like more of a feel-good exercise than an effective one.

 

[Bird]

Way back in 1956, my Dad bought a Texaco service station that only had one service bay, and that bay had a lift and in the floor was a pit in which mud, grease, etc. accumulated. And there was the first pressure washer I'd ever seen. There was no "spray" nozzle, just a single straight line, pencil sized stream with enough pressure that you DID NOT want to get hit by it.

Some of you may be old enough to remember when cars and pickup trucks had grease zerks on ball joints, king pins & bushings, tie rod ends, universal joints, spring shackles, etc. So we thoroughly washed the bottom side of vehicles, then greased them.

Of course this was south central Oklahoma, so we didn't have much road salt, but a good many of our customers were farmers and the bottom side of their vehicles usually had lots of caked on mud and dirt.

 

[BHD]

I seen on northern tools,NorthStar Pressure Washer Surface Cleaner — 32in. Dia., 5000 PSI, 6 GPM, Model# FC AGRAR 32" | Pressure Washer Surface Cleaners| Northern Tool + Equipment sells a floor washer, and how it works is there is a spinning arm that has two nozzles on it, If properly counter balanced one may be able to use one nozzle, and thus covers a larger area, even if one had to drive over or pull it under twice. to cover the width of the truck/car. Pressure Washer Surface Cleaners
Pressure-Washer-Parts.com,

the way I see it one could drive over it, or one could flip it up side down and put wheels on it and a longer handle and push it under the vehicle. really would not need that long if when in from the sides,

could consider a under coating, basically a rubberized tar that coats and helps prevent corrosion, and some sound deading as well,

 

[motoman3b]

Living in Michigan we enjoy the lovely salted roads every winter, I've found the best protection is a good undercoating, I bought our jeep 6 years ago with minimal rust (think it came from out of state or was driven very little in the winter) wire brushed the whole frame and coated it with por15 paint, just touched it up again this year so I should be good for another 5 years or so