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Float tank

Don M.

New member
I'm planning on buying a 10 gpm machine next year and was curious to see what size of float tank you think I may need. I'm trying to keep everything in a E250. Thanks.
 

Mathew Johnson

New member
I'm planning on buying a 10 gpm machine next year and was curious to see what size of float tank you think I may need. I'm trying to keep everything in a E250. Thanks.

200 will give you 20 min....

I have a 325 on my 8 GPM, but it is in a trailer

In my E350 I have a 5.6 gpm on a 100 gallon float and on some residential work I run out of water and have to wait for the float tank.
 

plainpainter

New member
Don - I've been experimenting with a double machine setup that puts out a combined 11 GPM's. And although I had a string of homes with anemic water supply - lately I can't empty a 35 gallon float with both machines going - go figure? It seems you either need really big or hardly anything. I wouldn't go bigger than a 125 gallon tank, especially when you are putting all the strain on a E250 axle - I think your maximum payload is about 3600 lbs - so deduct weight of driver, full tank of gas, the weight of all your tools, what's left?
 

plainpainter

New member
Don - I've been experimenting with a double machine setup that puts out a combined 11 GPM's. And although I had a string of homes with anemic water supply - lately I can't empty a 35 gallon float with both machines going - go figure? It seems you either need really big or hardly anything. I wouldn't go bigger than a 125 gallon tank, especially when you are putting all the strain on a E250 axle - I think your maximum payload is about 3600 lbs - so deduct weight of driver, full tank of gas, the weight of all your tools, what's left?
 

Ken Fenner

Active member
Don, I recently transferred my ten to a van. Here is what I did.

I needed a small footprint and searched until I found this tank:
http://www.plastic-mart.com/class.php?item=913

It has an 18" footprint. I wanted 150 gallons but two of those tanks mounted behind the front divider worked best.. didn't interfere with my tool shelves and still left enough room to get in and out easily with my hose reels mounted at the side doors (diagonally). You can drill two 2x4's through the floor as rails and use eye hooks and ratcheted straps to hold them in place.

As far as supply issues.. ten gpm is a big pump. I am lucky to have good municipal around here. About one out of every 50 jobs the tanks can run dry on a deck job. On house washes there have been no issues. It would be prime to have a bigger supply in the 200 gallon region but good luck finding something that doesn't eat up all your real estate.

Over the winter do some drawings of possible layouts and when you think you have one, make carboard cutouts and do a mock setup to make sure you will have the clearances you need.

PS: If you go with the multiple tank option from Plastic Mart, call them, they will cut you a break on shipping. I think I paid somewhere in the range of $290 for the two delivered and had them in 5 days.
 

Don M.

New member
I'm going to play with the idea of just another 5.6 machine and another 35 gallon float tank. Very rare I have supply issues. Just wanted to add another machine for a 2 guy operation.
 

Florin Nutu

New member
Don, I recently transferred my ten to a van. Here is what I did.

I needed a small footprint and searched until I found this tank:
http://www.plastic-mart.com/class.php?item=913

It has an 18" footprint. I wanted 150 gallons but two of those tanks mounted behind the front divider worked best.. didn't interfere with my tool shelves and still left enough room to get in and out easily with my hose reels mounted at the side doors (diagonally). You can drill two 2x4's through the floor as rails and use eye hooks and ratcheted straps to hold them in place.

As far as supply issues.. ten gpm is a big pump. I am lucky to have good municipal around here. About one out of every 50 jobs the tanks can run dry on a deck job. On house washes there have been no issues. It would be prime to have a bigger supply in the 200 gallon region but good luck finding something that doesn't eat up all your real estate.

Over the winter do some drawings of possible layouts and when you think you have one, make carboard cutouts and do a mock setup to make sure you will have the clearances you need.

PS: If you go with the multiple tank option from Plastic Mart, call them, they will cut you a break on shipping. I think I paid somewhere in the range of $290 for the two delivered and had them in 5 days.


Do you have any pics of your van setup?
 

Brian Wendling

New member
You Need to get a bigger truck we have the box trucks with a 12 gal. machine and a 5 gal. running at the same time and 250 gal. of water will go fast. We do a lot of houses and Town homes the first thing we say is I will talk to the customer you (the other guy on the truck) go find 2 outlets and start filling the tank. when we are done the last thing to reel up is the water. We do have a lot of wells that will not keep up and a lot of times we will only use 1 machine. I will be buying bigger trucks in the future so we can have 400-500 gal. tanks.

It depends on what you are cleaning but I think that the 10 Gal. is the way to go, once you start using it YOU WILL NEVER GO BACK. It works so fast, put a 30-40 0 tip in and you can shoot it 40-50ft high no problem.
 

Don M.

New member
I like the idea of 10 gpm or 2 5 gpm wands. We are becoming so diverse with a lot of wood cleaning where two guns would be
nice and roof cleaning is starting to take off. It would be nice to rinse with 10 gpm.
 

Brian Wendling

New member
With the 10 gal. you can strip (easy ones) decks with a soap nozzle, the black ones. We even wash 2 story houses with a 6ft. wand and that nozzle. I think I'm buying that machine from Allison that had 2 pumps 40 hp. with 2-10 gal. machines or 1 20 gal. wow it got me excited when I saw it in Orlando.
 

Chris Tharpe

New member
I run a 5.5 off of a 65 gallon float tank with no problems. I actually had to put a Hudson Valve on it to keep from overfilling it. I used to have a rig that ran two guys off of it at 16gpm but that rig had a 330 gallon tank and we used to keep two garden hoses hooked up to that rig in order to keep enough supply in the tank.
 

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I run a 5.5 off of a 65 gallon float tank with no problems. I actually had to put a Hudson Valve on it to keep from overfilling it. I used to have a rig that ran two guys off of it at 16gpm but that rig had a 330 gallon tank and we used to keep two garden hoses hooked up to that rig in order to keep enough supply in the tank.
Nice rig did I see a 35 and 65 gallon tanks looks like you have room to grow trailer but man that is nice setup did you make the stands your self on the end to hold hose reals
 
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