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Mobile Car Wash Rig Set Up Designs

Most of our mobile washing competitors are the enemy. Not because they are evil, but because if you are also in the business they will do anything to get your customers. They will obviously be impressed with image if you have a classy rig and be little intimidated; you should use this to your advantage to keep them at bay. I can tell you that most of our mobile car wash competitors (I run a business called the Car Wash Guys), operate out of short bed pick up trucks can’t use 5.0 hp Craftsmen Shop Vacs or small 5 X 7 foot trailers. Either way there is just not enough room. If a competitor has a short bed pick up, he will be inefficient and clumsy, moving stuff around every time they wash a car. This will take time; time costs money. Being all discombuberated is also very irritating for the operator. This type of competitor fits our perfect competitor profile of $150-200 per day gross sales with heavy Friday and Saturday routes of up to $300-500. They try hard, but they can’t be too serious about their business in a short bed pick up truck. When all of the car washing equipment is close together things break. Such as:

Extension cord melts on exhaust of generator

Towels burn up on exhaust of pressure washer

When pulling out pressure washer hose it catches on controls of generator or linkage to engine ripping them off

Vacuum falls out of truck because tail gate is down while moving between cars

Vacuum hose melts on exhaust or gets smashed between truck and tank when going around corners

Brakes on truck are warn out due to the extra weight of water

Leaf springs permanently inverted due to over weight of payload

Front of truck smashed due to reduced stopping distance (due to violation of the laws of physics)

Inside of truck bed blackened and ruined from exhaust of pump

Front tires warn out due to alignment being off because of change in weight in truck

Bed of truck dents back of cab because water tank half full moves around too much

Towels fly out of truck on freeway, no space for them

Containers low on product fly out

Products get stolen at night out of truck

Gas cans (plastic type) one to five gallons tip over and get on towels and if present a bed liner. They stain and mix with water every time it gets wet. Towels streak windows.

Since our company has had all these things already happen to us we have designed our units so these things do not happen to him. If you are smart you will think about these things as you design your mobile car wash rig. We refer to Murphy’s Law when it comes to operations. “If it can break, it will.” It’s only a matter of time. And just because you fix it, it doesn’t mean it can’t happen again. Every thing needs to be in its space for a reason. It’s not that Murphy doesn’t live in our trucks too, he does. It’s just that he has nothing to do. So he sleeps all day. The best thing to do is to drive up next to a competitor real close and slow. Then Murphy can jump out into their truck. He’ll have much more fun.

Play it smart and realize that when you design and build your own car wash rig that you need to make sure none of these things can occur and build your rig to best service your customers. Make sure the signage, logo and colors all match, besides, if you put a competitor’s truck next to your mobile car wash rig, there is no comparison. It’s the ultimate intimidation; which will help you from having them attempt to walk in and try to steal your clientele at office buildings. If you do not take care of these issues they are major obstacles to overcome when you start your business. Think about these things as you design your mobile car wash rig and start putting a pencil to graph paper to insure everything will fit right and be efficient and easy to use.

Lance Winslow

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