Just wanted to give an update, which might encourage a few others in the early days of setting up their round...
I started off 4 months ago, doing WFP out of the back of my Fiesta. I had 6-8 barrels in the back, and the hose reel placed in the boot. (Seats down) I had put a pump and flow controller on a small panel of wood, and this would sit in the front passenger footwell against the seat, whilst my leisure battery was under the glove box. I had removed the front passenger headrest so my pole could sit over the top of the passenger chair. (I put two small metal rods in the headrest holes to keep the pole and brush in place).
Now I know many newbies have taken the back-pack route, which I think is an excellent way of doing things, but I wanted to build a system that would transfer over to a van fairly easily. I got the idea from a YouTube video by AEMackintosh where he interviews a young lad starting out who did a similar thing from his VW Polo.
The setup actually worked fairly well, even though it was a faff at times. As most of my early cleans were first time cleans, they would take quite a while, and quite often I'd have to stop round the back of a house, to come round transfer the end of the hose into a fresh barrel, then go back to finish the clean. I also would have a few pressure problems with my flow going up and down for reasons I didn't always understand.
After about 6 weeks of this I decided to take the plunge, commit fully and go and buy a van. So I've bought a small Vauxhall Combo, put a 350 ltr tank in the back (framed and bolted, I didn't want to take any risks), and transferred the rest over reasonably easy. It took a couple of long afternoons, and I'm still tweaking things, but I'm up and running.
The thing I'm enjoying now is having a decent working setup, and doing my second and third cleans. I did get a bit down sometimes, doing 5 or 6 first time cleans in a day, and then reading on the forums about ones doing 200 to 300 quid a day. After a bit more reading tho, I know it will take 2 or 3 years and a lot more work to get to this point.
Anyway, I've spent many hours reading on the forums and gained so much knowledge along the way. It's also given me a boost when I've felt a bit fed up or doubtful whether I can make this work. So thank you to many of you for all your posts, it's really helped me! Hopefully someone might read this and decide to keep pushing to get up and running.
Any questions, pls feel free to ask...
Cheers all.
I started off 4 months ago, doing WFP out of the back of my Fiesta. I had 6-8 barrels in the back, and the hose reel placed in the boot. (Seats down) I had put a pump and flow controller on a small panel of wood, and this would sit in the front passenger footwell against the seat, whilst my leisure battery was under the glove box. I had removed the front passenger headrest so my pole could sit over the top of the passenger chair. (I put two small metal rods in the headrest holes to keep the pole and brush in place).
Now I know many newbies have taken the back-pack route, which I think is an excellent way of doing things, but I wanted to build a system that would transfer over to a van fairly easily. I got the idea from a YouTube video by AEMackintosh where he interviews a young lad starting out who did a similar thing from his VW Polo.
The setup actually worked fairly well, even though it was a faff at times. As most of my early cleans were first time cleans, they would take quite a while, and quite often I'd have to stop round the back of a house, to come round transfer the end of the hose into a fresh barrel, then go back to finish the clean. I also would have a few pressure problems with my flow going up and down for reasons I didn't always understand.
After about 6 weeks of this I decided to take the plunge, commit fully and go and buy a van. So I've bought a small Vauxhall Combo, put a 350 ltr tank in the back (framed and bolted, I didn't want to take any risks), and transferred the rest over reasonably easy. It took a couple of long afternoons, and I'm still tweaking things, but I'm up and running.
The thing I'm enjoying now is having a decent working setup, and doing my second and third cleans. I did get a bit down sometimes, doing 5 or 6 first time cleans in a day, and then reading on the forums about ones doing 200 to 300 quid a day. After a bit more reading tho, I know it will take 2 or 3 years and a lot more work to get to this point.
Anyway, I've spent many hours reading on the forums and gained so much knowledge along the way. It's also given me a boost when I've felt a bit fed up or doubtful whether I can make this work. So thank you to many of you for all your posts, it's really helped me! Hopefully someone might read this and decide to keep pushing to get up and running.
Any questions, pls feel free to ask...
Cheers all.