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Truck Mounts: Slide-in vs. Van Powered

The introduction of truck mount carpet cleaning equipment dramatically changed the dynamics of running a carpet cleaning business. With these tools, a small or start-up business can offer ‘steam extraction’ or carpet steam cleaning services on par with the big boys. The focus now shifts back to the customer and who can provide the best service for the best price from the initial phone call to the completion of a job well done. These truck mount carpet cleaners (although most are mounted into carpet cleaning vans) come in two distinct configurations…slide-ins and van powered or direct drive. Let’s take a look at the differences between these two types and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

SLIDE_IN TRUCK MOUNTS
Slide-in truck mounts are so called due to their ability to ‘slide’ into a regular cargo van or box truck and bolt to the floor of the vehicle. They come with their own power supply  in the form of a gasoline or  propane engine. They also attach to separate water/recovery tanks thereby converting regular cargo vans into stand-alone, service ready carpet cleaning vans.

There are many benefits to using slide-in type truck mounts. The most obvious is that they can be installed in any type of van regardless of age, make or model. They come in a range of different sizes depending on the cleaning power desired.  Thus, the ability to match specific vans with specific equipment provides the flexibility to fit any  sized carpet cleaning business.

The ability to move the truck mount between vans is another key advantage. It’s not an easy process and is done only infrequently but it allows for upgrading your van and/or cleaning machine independent of each other. A start-up business could conceivably buy a used slide-in truck mount and a used cargo van to keep costs low while getting their new business off the ground. They could then upgrade their truck mount machine as their business grows without needing to acquire a new van.

Finally, some business use box trucks instead of cargo vans for their truck mount carpet cleaning machine. This is primarily for the additional space a box truck provides. Slide-in truck mounts are easily installed in these kinds of vehicles.

The biggest disadvantage of a slide-in truck mount is the stand-alone power supply. These are integrated with the carpet cleaning machine but require specific ‘care and feeding’. They are the equivalent of a small generator (some are rather large) and require the same kind of maintenance associated with any small engine e.g. lubrication, filters, tuning, etc. They can also be quite noisy and generate a lot of heat as most are simply air-cooled.

VAN POWERED OR DIRECT DRIVE TRUCK MOUNTS
Van-powered truck mounts use the vans engine to power the carpet cleaning machine instead of a stand-alone power plant. They do this by utilizing a ‘clutch-type’ device that transfers power to the truck mount instead of the vehicles drive train. As you might well imagine, this requires a much closer integration between the carpet cleaning vans and the truck mounts.

Van powered cleaning machines are strong and powerful yet quiet. A late model cargo van sitting at idle makes very little noise compared to the propane or gas powered engines used with the slide-in models. They are also relatively compact in that they
sit behind the driver and passenger seats using the console between the two for the installation of the clutch-drive mechanism. This frees up room in the van for the other equipment such as water tanks, hose reels, etc.

Van powered truck mounts are some of the most powerful available. You can get all the cleaning power you need when the vans engine is the power plant. Some models are even able to use the heat from the cargo van to help heat the water for the ‘steam extraction’ process without excessive heat buildup in back of the van.

The primary disadvantage of the van powered carpet cleaning machines is the limitations on the vans to be used. You will need a late model van, usually of a specific make and model, depending on the vendor you chose. With the van integrated so closely with the truck mount, it’s not possible to move into another van without considerable work.

Another disadvantage of sorts is that the van powered models are generally top-of-the-line offerings from most vendors. They do not lend themselves to start-up or small carpet cleaning businesses who are trying to minimize their capital outlays.

Finally, the fuel cost and efficiency between these two types of machines is difficult to estimate. You would need to understand the fuel consumption per hour per machine and then try to standardize that across different size machines. Regardless, it’s a good discussion to have with any potential vendor when considering either type of truck mount.

Truck mount carpet cleaning equipment is the great equalizer that gives a small business the same cleaning capability as a larger enterprise. Whether you opt for the smooth integration and reliability of a van powered model or the options and flexibility of the slide-in type machines, you’ll have all the cleaning power you need to provide a professional carpet cleaning service.

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Useful Maintenance Ideas for Your Truck Mount Cleaning Equipment

Your truck mount carpet cleaning machine is the most important piece of equipment in your carpet cleaning van. Without it, carpets won’t get cleaned, customers won’t get satisfied and money won’t be made. It’s a simple equation. So it stands to reason that maintaining your truck mount should be of primary importance each and every day.

Truck mount repairs are costly and that’s not even counting for lost business. Like any large, stand-alone machine, a little preventive maintenance will go a long way towards keeping your equipment humming along and avoiding any nasty surprises. Let’s take a look at some of the things you can do to keep your truck mount in tip-top shape.

Read the Owners Manual

It is amazing how many operators don’t know the simplest things about their truck mounts. The single most important thing you can do is read the owners manual and keep it handy. Familiarize yourself with your machine so you understand how it works, learn where all the important parts are located and what kind of scheduled maintenance is recommended by the manufacturer. This step alone can save you thousands of dollars and untold hours of grief. Knowing your machine allows you to perform simple tasks and much routine maintenance by yourself. You’ll be saving your repair budget money for the big stuff that can only be done at a dealer or maintenance shop.

Keep a Maintenance Log

Keeping a log of all scheduled and performed repairs helps you stay on top of your maintenance plan. It’s too easy to forget or skip routine maintenance among all the other demands your business places on you. List all repairs and routine maintenance so you can be assured you are servicing your machine at the recommended intervals. This log should also include service for your carpet cleaning van as well. It’s a good way to establish a reliable maintenance schedule and communicate it to your employees so everyone sticks to it.

Do a General Inspection Each Morning

Perform a visual inspection of your truck mount every day when you first start it up. Check for loose fittings, oil leaks or other visual clues that something is not right. Listen to the engine. You’ll get used to hearing when it sounds right so pay close attention if something begins to sound different. This can often be an indication that a problem is developing and give you a chance to fix it before it turns into something worse.

Perform Routine Maintenance as Scheduled

As I mentioned before, it’s easy to skip routine maintenance in the hustle and bustle of running a business. It’s especially easy when things are going well and business is booming. Who has got time for maintenance when customers are waiting? Don’t fall into that trap! Perform your routine maintenance as scheduled according to your plan. This should include things like checking your filters and cleaning the ones that need daily cleaning. Inspect and replace your oil, fuel and air filters according to your user manual. Clogged filters are one of the most common causes of performance problems. Also, check the battery to insure you can get started every morning.

Finally, don’t forget to inspect your hoses and cleaning wands. Look to replace shabby looking or chafed hoses and look for holes in your vacuum hoses. Check the fittings on the wand to insure everything is tight and in proper working order. You don’t want a $20,000 machine running at half efficiency because a simple hose or connection was loose.

Keep Your Van Clean and Uncluttered

On a hot day, carpet cleaning van interiors can be 20-30 degrees warmer than the surrounding air and potentially cause the truck mount engine to overheat. Keeping it free of clutter helps improve the van’s air flow. You might need to install air vents depending on your setup. It also helps that you have the right size truck mount for your van. If it’s too big, it may not leave enough room for all the other tools and accessories you might need. It may also tend to run hot with limited room for air circulation. Finally, a clean and uncluttered van looks more professional and allows you to show-off your equipment to your customers.

Protect Your Equipment From the Elements

Where you park your van overnight is another important question. Just because your truck mount is inside the van does not mean it’s fully protected from the elements. Being able to garage your van overnight is the preferred solution to protect your truck mount from the cold. Truckmount engines are not as durable as car engines and more susceptible to damage from cold weather. Always anti-freeze your machine if it needs to be left outdoors in freezing temperatures. If you have to leave it overnight at a repair facility, ask how and where it will be stored. Finally, be careful when using heaters to warm your van and equipment overnight as power outages can leave them unprotected until morning.

Just as you can’t expect your van to run at peak performance without regular maintenance, the same applies to your truck mount. You need to be assured that everything is in proper working order every day. Given their critical nature to your business, taking the time to think through and build a maintenance plan is just common sense and good business.

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Search Tips For Finding Cheap Van Insurance

Finding cheap commercial van insurance is a goal every carpet cleaning company seeks. After all, keeping your expenses down is critical to any business, especially a small one. Cheap, however, does not mean inadequate. Cheaper van insurance may be a better way to paraphrase this goal. Your business is too important to be under-insured but that doesn’t mean you can’t strive the find the best policy at the best price.

The Internet provides an easy and convenient way to find and evaluate different insurance companies. However, the sheer amount of information available can sometimes be overwhelming and you can find yourself spending hours perusing websites that do not offer the type of commercial van insurance you’re looking for. Let me offer a few search tips for those who don’t spend a lot of time online to help speed this process and keep you from pulling your hair out.

The most important part of any online search is the ‘keywords’ used to tell Google ( or any other search engine) what kind of information you’re seeking. A keyword is a specific word or phrase that Google uses to find relevant sites to present as search results. Using the right keyword or keyword phrase will help narrow down your search and eliminate sites that don’t provide useful information on your topic.

For example, your first impulse might be to search for ‘cheap van insurance’. Sounds logical until you see the results. Most of the websites found are geared towards consumers searching for auto or van insurance for personal use. These sites collect information and submit it to multiple insurance companies to generate a list of insurance quotes for comparison. Unfortunately, these sites are not geared for finding van insurance for businesses. There are too many variables in obtaining commercial insurance that cannot be adequately addressed with a simple, generic questionnaire.

The idea is to narrow your search by using the keywords that describe the information you’re looking for without overlapping into other non-relevant areas. A more specific search using ‘commercial insurance’ would then eliminate those companies selling exclusively to consumers. However, it would generate results from companies that provide a wide variety of commercial insurance such as liability insurance, transit insurance, health plan insurance etc. We’re looking for specific companies that offer commercial insurance for our carpet cleaning van.

A better search would be for ‘commercial vehicle insurance’ or ‘commercial van insurance’. Both of these keyword phrases are specific enough to find the companies we’re looking for without having to wade through too many non-relevant sites. You can often tell just by the site names whether or note the search returned good information. If your search results are not returning major commercial insurance companies then you should try another keyword before starting to investigate individual sites.

The internet produces so much information that it’s important to narrow it down or you may suffer from information overload. Searching for information on the internet is a skill that can be honed to help provide the best information in the shortest amount of time. However, if you don’t have the time or inclination to do your own online searching then you can always do it the old fashioned way. Find a good insurance broker or independent insurance agent and let them do the leg work for you!

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The Flexibility of Slide-in Truck Mounts

Truck mount carpet cleaning equipment is the foundation for most residential carpet cleaning companies. The power of these machines and the ability to transport them to the customer premise makes professional steam extraction cleaning available to every homeowner. The slide-in truck mount is the most popular and widely used model. Let’s take a look at what makes this a preferred carpet cleaning machine.

A slide-in truck mount is so named because it slides into the carpet cleaning van and is bolted to the interior of the van. It comes with its own power plant and thus operates as a stand alone unit. This is opposed to the direct drive truck mounts that mount over the vans drive train and use the van to power the truck mount. The separation of the truck mount from the van gives the slide-in models an added measure of flexibility while still providing a powerful carpet [more]

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Carpet Cleaning Machines - Large Portable vs. Small Truck Mount

Carpet cleaning machines come in all different shapes and sizes. From the small do-it-yourself carpet cleaners you can rent at the grocery store to the largest multi-wand truck mounts, there is a size to fit every need.

Making the leap from a portable carpet extractor to a truck mount carpet cleaning machine is a big step. It has as much to do with your type of business as it does to the difference in size and cleaning power.

Large, portable steam extractors are very effective carpet cleaning machines. They can generally produce the 212 degree heat needed for steam extraction cleaning.  Where they fall short of truck mounts is the pump strength. The larger portables can get up to 500 psi but the smaller truck mounts easily run at 1000 psi.

Check prices for portable carpet extractors

But wait a minute…a portable carpet extractor is ‘run over’ the carpet to perform it’s steam cleaning [more]

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Truck Mount Carpet Cleaning Equipment: Size Matters

Truck mount carpet cleaning equipment is essential for today’s professional carpet cleaner. They are used by virtually all of the best known companies and most smaller outfits as well. Their ability to quickly and efficiently clean carpets has led to this wide adoption but, more important, is the ability of smaller companies to acquire and utilize this type of carpet cleaning equipment. Let’s take a look at the different sizes of truck mounts available for your carpet cleaning van and what those differences mean.

There are many companies that make truck mount carpet cleaning equipment so new features and functions are constantly being introduced.  Different companies also market many different size machines so the definitions of large, mid-size and small are not specific categories but general groupings to help understand their different capabilities.

However, it still boils down to engine size, water pressure and vacuum pressure when looking at different sized carpet [more]

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Nissan Unveils a New Carpet Cleaning Van

We’re finally going to see some real competition in the cargo van marketplace. Nissan is entering this market with a new series of cargo vans dubbed the Nissan ‘NV’ series. This market has been dominated over the passed several decades by GM and Ford with some limited contribution from the Dodge RAM van (now discontinued and replaced by the Dodge Sprinter van from Damlier). Nissan is a new entrant to this marketplace and is looking to be serious contender for any cargo van comparison. Your choice for a new carpet cleaning van is about to get a lot more interesting.

The research folks at Nissan found that commercial cargo van owners were one of the most dissatisfied groups of vehicle owners. With that information, they set out to created a new van ‘from the ground up’ to take on the entrenched market leaders. The result is a new series of cargo [more]

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Best Sources for Used Carpet Cleaning Vans

Used Cargo Van

Finding a good, used cargo van for your carpet cleaning business has gotten a lot easier with the use of the Internet but still requires some time and effort. The Internet expands the options available so it takes more time to sort through all the available information.

The good news is you’re much more likely to get the van you want at the price you want if you’re diligent and patient. A reliable carpet cleaning van to pair up with your truck mount carpet cleaning equipment is critical for your business success.

Auto and truck dealerships and classified ads are still the dominant ways of finding used vehicles. They’ve both adapted themselves to the web to the benefit of consumers. Let’s take a look at these two options and how best to leverage their online presence for finding your next carpet cleaning van.

Auto and truck dealerships are where you’ll [more]

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Should My Business Include Carpet Water Damage Restoration?

Carpet water damage poses unique challenges and opportunities for carpet cleaning and water damage restoration specialists. The need for immediate response to prevent irreparable damage requires a team and equipment be available 24×7. Customers usually have to make quick decisions which puts a premium on your companies visibility and your relationships with insurance companies.

This is a good business with which to leverage your carpet cleaning van and truck mount carpet cleaning equipment but it requires a commitment in time and resources. Let’s take a look at the different kinds of carpet water damage and some of the issues you’ll face if you want to add this as a new line of business.

The ability to fix water damage is directly dependent on the level of contamination in the water. Restoration can only be considered if the spill or leak consists of clean water or “unsanitary” water (water that is only slightly [more]

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Commercial Van Insurance for your Carpet Cleaning Van

Commercial van insurance is imperative for any carpet cleaning business that owns a commercial van. In fact, even home based carpet cleaning businesses, where a personal van is used to transport you and your carpet cleaning equipment to customers, will need to take out commercial van insurance in order to have proper coverage while using the van for business. While it can be confusing knowing what type of policy to get if you have never had to get one before, it really is a simple procedure to insure your van.

There are several different policies available when it comes to insurance for vans, with prices depending on the type of policy or policies you take out.  If you have several people driving the van, you may want to take out as comprehensive a policy as you can realistically afford. You will probably want to add collision insurance coverage to your policy [more]

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Dry Carpet Cleaning vs. Carpet Steam Cleaning

The debate on dry carpet cleaning vs. carpet steam cleaning (or extraction cleaning) continues to rage on among carpet cleaning professionals and consumers alike. The chorus of questions goes something like this:

Which one provides the most thorough cleaning
Which uses the least amount of water
Which one dries the fastest
Which one is safest for the environment
Which one is safest for my home
Which is best for commercial or residential cleaning

These are all good questions but sometimes difficult to answer due to the complex nature of the cleaning process and the ever present marketing hype that surrounds this topic. Let’s take a look at these two methods and see if we can’t help clear up some confusion.

Dry carpet cleaning is not a single process but a collection of different products and techniques for cleaning carpets with a minimum use of water. They can be grouped into two basic [more]

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