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Van or trolley ?

ECLM
WCF

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I'll almost certainly go with a van mount eventually, but don't see it as a desperate upgrade at this point, I have cleaned 12 houses in one day without problem with what I have, and by the time I got home my little 100gpd RO had overnight and during the day fully filled my water butts so I could refil my containers again.

I will for sure be upgrading everything I have, but for now, I can manage with what I have /emoticons/smile.png

 
I have a pure-freedom trolley. I carry 10 barrels in an estate. I got what I could afford, it does what it's ment to. But I think I will outgrow this by next spring. Get the best set up you can afford. one day I will have a heated van system, but some jobs will always be easier with the trolley.(I have my first winter to get through yet. So I best stop counting my chickens).

 
Have your arms grown any longer monkeyman having to hump all that water about?

Sorry I thought that was funny as that must make me seem like a right chimp now /emoticons/biggrin.png

 
I use the daqua trolley, I carry about 6-7 barrels in my vauxhall astra estate, I only do tops wfp, trad bottoms, but I would like to just go straight over to wfp top/bottoms, but not at the mo, think I would need a van mount to do that, I do like the trolley, as you dont have to wind up loads of hose all the time. Its all a learning curve. I think once I get older, then you get fed up heaving 25ltr barrels about, could be risky to the old back aswell. However when I carry the barrels I feel like I'm doing a world strongest man event arrrrrgggghhhhh, when I first started they weighed a ton, now I can carry two in each hand and one on my head, just for fun:zzz:.:whistle:

 
I know it's knackering for sure bud especially if like me you suffer from a dodgy back it certainly don't help. That was one of the mains reasons why I changed over.

 
My knees are also knackered too. It probably did not help much either when groveling to the mrs for a good tuffering when I was younger /emoticons/biggrin.png

 
Thanks again everyone, its all good points. I'm going to start part-time along my current job and the decent van systems seem a lot easier...ie:just fill up the van from your hose pipe and it does the rest instead of making up my own. Plus if it goes well I'm ready to move up

 
When I have the cash spare I will without a doubt get a van mount, but I can't see how it can be used all the time, I have quite a few larger houses, and quite a few I can't get my pick up near, so would end up using the back pack anyway.
Do you generally try and only take on new houses you know you can use your van mount on?[/quote

Even with 100m hose ?
Click to expand...
 
So if I buy a van set up with a long hose, you think I'll still need a trolley for certain houses ? I was thinking that would cover it on its own !!

 
Think unless you go with houses you know you can use van mount on 100% you will also need a back pack/trolley.

I have quite a few houses even with a van mount I know I would be pulling the back pack out to do them, but where I live is in the Cotswolds, a lot of big old houses and stuff, if you are doing rows of semis or something I am sure van mount would be used 100% of the time.

 
An example just off the top of my head is an old Chapel that has been converted, no drive, its a good 20 meters, maybe more before you even get to it, then the back is split into two so you need to go half of one side, then go round and do the other half, I would use the back pack for this even if I had a van mount, all that tube everywhere would be a nightmare, I get mine tangled up, caught on everything in sight as it is lol.

 
Daunting all this but I'm determined. I'm only really after 2 days work per week for a while alongside my current job. How long on average would it take to pick up this amount of work ?How many houses would you consider a days work ?

 
How longs a piece of string.

Ideally two houses for about £200 each and only taking about 10mins a pop lol

 
A lot of variables to answer really, bigger houses take longer and pay more, are you houses close to each other?

I aim at around 10 houses for a days work, but that is including some large houses, if it was all close together semis or something would probably do 15 or something.

 
I started off with a pure freedom trolley and to be honest it drove me nuts having to keep filling containers, humping water about also dragging the trolley around the streets all the time. They come in handy for the odd job but not really practical if you need to get through a lot of water (get busy) whereas using a van mount I find far less hassle myself. When I say van mount all I did was use the trolley static in the van feeding from a van tank instead. Then all I do is just attach a 100m microbore hose reel to the outlet. The pure freedom trolley has the same quaility 5 lpm 100 psi pump & digi controller you would find fitted to any good van mount. The only difference is that the leisure battery is alot smaller in the trolley so best to charge it up each night.
Regarding using an ro/di you have the option of a static home system with holding tanks or if this is not practical stick a 4040 ro/di setup in the van aswell. Be warned that if using a small ro they has a very low production rate so will mean will take upto 24 hours or more to fill a van tank depending what size it is so your van could be off the road for a very long time.
Click to expand...
@Smurf how do you find using it as a van mount? What size of battery is in the trolley

 
Correct me if I am wrong, but you only want to do window cleaning part time? maybe two days a week? if that is the case a van and van mount for several grand is going to be a long time to get a return on investment, seems a big outlay for something part time?

 
By the time you buy all the other bits you need then yes it all mounts up.

I bought new but there are always bargains to be had on fleebay if you know what you are looking for and don't go silly bidding too high

 

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