cleaning undercarriage?

Check out this source:



Industrial Spray Nozzles Pressure Washer Tips & Nozzles



At the time, my parter (who owned the car wash my shop was next to) upgraded the tips when the original tips were clogged up. It basically changed the spray pattern to be more effective. I just spoke to a person in the car wash supply business and I explained to him the undercarriage wash system and he is confident about being able to reverse engineer this system for a fraction of the cost. I'll keep you posted with my findings.
 
David Fermani said:
Check out this source:



Industrial Spray Nozzles Pressure Washer Tips & Nozzles



At the time, my parter (who owned the car wash my shop was next to) upgraded the tips when the original tips were clogged up. It basically changed the spray pattern to be more effective. I just spoke to a person in the car wash supply business and I explained to him the undercarriage wash system and he is confident about being able to reverse engineer this system for a fraction of the cost. I'll keep you posted with my findings.
Click to expand...



Please do. It always seemed the WaterBrooms were grossly overpriced considering the materials and relatively low level of engineering involved.
 
Lived in Syracuse years ago. We kept a "sprinkler hose" and regularly would connect it and slowly drive the cars over it to help keep the salt accumulation down. We just had to be sure to disconnect it and let it drain or it would freeze solid. Wasn't perfect, but helped a lot and you didn't have to freeze your wazoo off when you rinsed the undercarriage.
 
David Fermani- Thanks for that link. Do you happen to know what the "degree" variations on those refer to (width of fanspray, angle off-centerline, etc.)?



Sorry to be high-maintenance :o



Mine had been a little clogged up, but since moving into the current house/shop with its soft water and boosted pressure they seem to have cleared themselves out. Still don't sound as potent as yours though.
 
You're using yours through a pressure washer right? I'm not sure if it was a 25 or 40 degree spray angle with a #4 or 5 orifice. Here's the chart for selecting the right tip for you machine's output. It goes by GPM & PSI:



Pressure power washer spray nozzles



Check out their undercarriage cleaner for $750.
 
David Fermani said:
You're using yours through a pressure washer right? I'm not sure if it was a 25 or 40 degree spray angle with a #4 or 5 orifice. Here's the chart for selecting the right tip for you machine's output. It goes by GPM & PSI:



Pressure power washer spray nozzles



Check out their undercarriage cleaner for $750.
Click to expand...



OK, thanks for the assistance Re the nozzles and what the angle refers to. Gotcha on that but then...uhm, you just lost me :think:



No, I don't use my American Waterbroom Undercar Wand through a pressure washer, I just hook it onto the regular hose. Are you using yours with a pressure washer?



I can't seem to find their undercarriage cleaner either...am I having a brain-pause or something :confused: Heh heh, sorry...I really did check out the linked site thoroughly, tried searching it too :nixweiss
 
Accumulator said:
No, I don't use my American Waterbroom Undercar Wand through a pressure washer, I just hook it onto the regular hose. Are you using yours with a pressure washer?
Click to expand...



Yep! I didn't think you could do it any other way. Imagine the force of 3-4 jets shooting 1500 psi's of pressure through each one? It's gotta be a huge difference?



How would you compare your pressure to that?



Go to their search bar and type in "undercarriage". You'll find it then.
 
David Fermani- DOH! Dunno how I missed that...I *had* tried searching on "undercarriage" but somehow missed that :o Thanks for bearing with me.



So you hooked the Amer Waterbr wand up to your pressure washer huh? My PW experience is limited to my (hideously unrealiable) Karchers...I take it there's no big trick to connecting a PW to the garden hose-size inlet on the wand?



We seem to be approaching this from utterly different perspectives as the idea of using it with a PW never ocurred to me...it's made to hook onto a garden hose and that's what I've always done. It *does* work a lot better with my boosted pressure (compared to "regular" pressure at the previous shop) but it's sure nothing like 1500psi!



That PW undercarriage wand is nice, but no way I can get by with 5.5" of clearance on the Audis, I have to jack up the S8 to use the Amer Waterbr wand (on those rare occasions when it goes out in bad weather ;) ). I dunno about spending that ~$750 to do the dog-haulers and I wonder about the overspray issue too. Hmmm....it *would* make quick work of the Denali XL though :think:
 
My washer was only about 8-10 inches high? It could fit under a Corvette easily? Maybe we're talking about 2 totally different washers? I'll have to do more research on this, because I'm not certian of the brand. BTW, I no longer have mine. One of my workers ran it over a while back & I didn't bother replacing it.
 
Mine was similar, but I could rotate the spray bar and it had a white trim cover over it. It looked like a typical spray handle that mounted to a ~4 foot pipe (high pressure line inside) that connected to a spray bar with 4 tips at the base. The base had 4 wheels/rollers mounted so that you could move it back/forth & on angle.
 
David Fermani- OK, sounds similar but different, and yours was apparently for PW use while mine is for a regular garden hose. NOW we're on the same page :D



It's sorta surprising how well mine works given that it's not PW-driven. Really does get all the salt off, but no, I bet it wouldn't do all that great on caked mud; as it is I end up crawling down there and doing a good scrubbing if/when I really want to do it right.
 
Just a heads up, watercannon.com offers the same pw-powered undercarriage cleaner as that other site for $250.00 less (still not a steal by any means). They also have the parts available so one could put it together for under $300.00 if you weld up your own chassis. For whatever reason the cleaner is not on the website itself but if you search their PDF catalog for "mud cannon" you'll find it.





David Fermani- Any issues with bearing wear in the rotating assembly during the time period you had it?
 
Accumulator, that thing is quite expensive, 399 for a bent pipe with 2 wheels on it. My Bosh pressure washer cost about 120€(180$) with the adjustable head included.
 
Mark77- Yeah, no argument about the cost of the Amer WaterBr one! They sure charge a lot for what it amounts to. Yeah, I paid less for some of my Karcher PWs too, but they're long-dead and the wand is still working fine.



I can honestly say that after ~20 years of use (and some of that was by employees when I had the dealership- can you say "abuse" :D ) I'd long forgotten what it cost and was just happy to have it. When they discontinued them I was truly concerned about what I'd do if mine died. Factored over the countless times I've used it, the price wasn't all that bad whatever it was.



Charlies02GLS- Thanks for the heads-up, I'll have to go check that out. Having the right stuff makes undercarriages a whole 'nother ballgame.
 
Wonder how long the handle telescopes and about its angle :think: It doesn't *look* like it'd fit under things quite well enough for me but that's just going by the pic :nixweiss



The wand I'm used to has a *long* handle and can reach far under any vehicle it's low enough for (which is most).
 
You can't tell from the photo but the handle is connected to the chassis with a hinge. I saw a photo yesterday of it in action but I can't find it in my history just now...here we go:

http://www.rvtradedigest.com/web/online/Industry-Product-News/Water-Cannon-releases-pressure-washer/3$3363
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top