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How many guys have 2 IBA's?

soonermajic

Well-known member
I don't think my area can support a tunnel, but new wash I'm buying ALWAYS has a line. It currently has a Ryko OHD.
If you have 2 IBA's, would you get matching IBA's or get a touchless & a friction? Why?

Looking at Ryko SoftGloss, WW Profile Maxx & PDQ Surfline.
thoughts on those...?
 
Oasis looks great, & luv their speed & ideas. However, I already have a touchless, & am looking at Frictions.
Was curious if other operators have 2 IBA's, & if they are touchless & friction... I see no advantage to having 2 identical IBA's. So if there is, maybe someone can help me as to why...
 
Sooner

I'm running a Ryko SoftGloss Maxx with everything on it less the undercarriage wash option. Does a great job on cars, small SUVs, and trucks (my Ford F-250 even fits in there). It does struggle on jeeps with the spare tire mounted on the back as the brushes can get caught up and shut the machine off. Additionally, the stop sensor pad installed on the floor should be about 8 inches wider because I have a few customers drive over and past it. Other than that, machine does a great job and is easy to work on (Ryko tech srvc is good but pricey!).
 
I have 2 IBA's at my site. A Soft Gloss XS2 and a Radius. I also have a EE and Flex serv about 3 miles from me. I do about 2x the business with my touchless. I've considered replacing both machines with touchless and working that "nitch". In my area we have a decent amount of large trucks, expensive vehicles and people who just don't want a brushed machines.

It is nice having both. I wish my SG could wash a dually tho.

I like that Oasis. Fast. I didn't know you could do the trifoam right onto the presoaks.
 
I have a site with a Mark 7 touchless and a Ryko softgloss maxx next to each other. In 2017 the Ryko friction washed almost 50% more cars than the Mark 7 touchless. Part of that could be that the friction was installed in late 2016 and the touchless is 13 years old, its also the only friction machine in our market while there are 2 other touchless. Prior to the install of the new Ryko, the touchless and friction ran similar numbers. Friction/touchless combo has been good to us overall though.

As far as the Ryko softgloss maxx we've been pretty pleased with it so far, it lacks in it's ability to customize your wash packages and its certainly no speed demon, but its been ultra reliable in the first 18 months. Be curious to hear a review on the new PDQ surfline if anyone has seen one in action.
 
I have 2 locations with 2 Ryko touchless OHDs. I have considered putting a soft gloss but my market is overbuilt with express tunnels by 3x more than market can support. I am sticking with my touchless niche and doing fine considering all my competition.
 
I never would have thought this many guys on the form have Ryko machines there distributor network isn't strong in the Carolinas pretty interesting.
 
I have a Ryko Softgloss and a WashWorld Razor side by side and our numbers were through the roof with the new touchfree so far, if I am to replace my Ryko Softgloss I want another friction but it has to be an overhead design for various reasons.
 
We have a 2 IBA running identical WW Razor Profile touchless systems. Have had great experience with the Razor, both minimal/minor issues as well as good customer support. When the depreciation runs down on the machines we'll sell them and refit the bays with new equipment. When we do this we'll be in the same spot as you considering whether to stick with two touch free or go with one of each.

I'm not set on either but lean heavily to keeping with the same set up. If I had 3 or more bays and planned to be onsite often I would definitely go with some combination of friction and touchless but two bays is a harder decision. I don't know from experience, but I'd imagine maintaining two different machines is going to be a little more time, money and headache since there will be different parts, different useful life of those parts, and different knowledge base of operation.

We've been open a little over 4 years and in that time have steadily built up a loyal customer base (as an aside we've seen 19% yoy increase since we upped our online game). Of course all of these people like the touchless. Having the two bays gives us the advantage during busy times. The challenge with an in-bay is time, you just can't get people through fast enough when the conditions are right and lines start forming. When the line gets to the street we lose customers. There is no where for them to wait so they drive away. So my fear with having two different systems is having two different customer bases and losing that advantage during busy times. For example if someone likes the touchless and they drive in and the line is long they're not going to go to the friction, they'll just drive away. In this case it's just like having a single bay. On the other hand I suppose there is a potential to increase the customer base who prefer friction to offset this. Would be great to see some data. good luck.
 
I have a site with three autos, 1 friction and 2 touchless. The single friction auto does 45% of the total automatic washes. I expect that to actually start increasing, because the friction was a Wesumat and spent a large portion of it's time being repaired. It was crashed out of service last year and replaced with a Mark VII Softwash XT. It has been running about 2 1/2 months without a single issue. My only service call was for a couple of broken fittings on the soap pickup tubes, which was due to overtightening by the installer.
 
This is a great thread and I am not trying to derail it. I have always wondered (what’s the number of cars you need to be washing a month consistently year round to support adding another automatic). I have asked so many people and it seems like nobody can answer it directly is it 1,000 1,600 or 2,000+? Does anybody have a solid answer on that and how much will the second one wash typically. Thank you. Thomas.
 
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I have a site with three autos, 1 friction and 2 touchless. The single friction auto does 45% of the total automatic washes. I expect that to actually start increasing, because the friction was a Wesumat and spent a large portion of it's time being repaired. It was crashed out of service last year and replaced with a Mark VII Softwash XT. It has been running about 2 1/2 months without a single issue. My only service call was for a couple of broken fittings on the soap pickup tubes, which was due to overtightening by the installer.

If the line for the friction is too long do customers stick with the friction or do they go to the touchless (and vice versa)? I'm curious how strong the "loyalty" to one or the other is when a line is involved. My hunch would be that people who like friction wouldn't mind going to the touchless if there is a long line but the people who like touchless would be less likely to switch to friction. If that's true then the set-up you have is right on.
 
We have 2 M.I.B locations, with each having one Autec friction AES 425 and a Oasis XP touchfree. There are benefits of both and a strong customer base for both. We want to provide our customers with a choice.
 
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