Stupid mistake

[Jimmy Buffett]

About 2 months ago I made the mistake of commenting out loud that my auto had never been down more than a day. Since then I have had an ultrasonic unit go out on a Friday night and now I have a broken gear box that happened yesterday. Nobody has one so I can't get one here till Tuesday at the earliest. The casing on the gearbox is actually broken. It is for the front arm so I guess someone drove into it. I just want to publicly repudiate my statement about never being down more than a day and apologize to the car wash gods for making such a stupid statement out loud.

 

[soapy]

Knock on wood. Check out Kleenrite as they now have several parts for Ryko automatics.

 

[Jimmy Buffett]

Yeah I think they get them from Astromatic. I know the wheel cylinders come from there.

 

[Waxman]

Down till Tuesday? You failure!!!!!!!!!!!! JUST KIDDING.

I hope your repair goes smoothly. Don't pinch your fingers!

 

[Red Baron]

Since adding our 2nd IBA I'm learning that there is a advantage I hadn't anticipated. Most of the time 1 IBA is enough so I sweat it a lot less that 1 bay may be down.

 

[Waxman]

Good point. If I expanded a second IBA would be great. I'd likely add on to my wash with another SS at the same time so I still had enough SS bays.

This is a similar philosphy to 2 petwash tubs, multiple SS bays/vacs etc. One down doesn't greatly handicap the wash or p.o. customers/waste their valuable time.

 

[Jimmy Buffett]

Here is an interesting bit of news. Both gearboxes for my front arms are broken! The only way that I can think of for this to happen is if someone really hit the gas while the arms were washing the front of the vehicle. That would almost certainly be intentional. Anybody think of another explanation? Anybody have a better source for gearboxes than the usual suspects?
So far I'm not liking May very much!

 

[DiamondWash]

Jimmy-

I had a dumb@#$ come through my Softgloss with some sort of bracket that attaches to the front of a vehicle to tow behind a RV and it took out both of my front arm gearboxes luckily I was there and the brushes we're wrapped around it so he wasn't going anywhere, do you have cameras in your bay?

 

[Jimmy Buffett]

Unfortunately I do not have cameras in the bay. That may need to change though at some point. I've had a really good start to 2010 businesswise but suddenly repairs are killing me.

 

[captain cw]

I bought my camera system on line for around 2k. 8 cameras with digital recording and internet. Best investment ever. I had a lady claim I damaged her bumper. The video showed her trying to run over my tire shiner. She decided not to pursue the matter after I told her what I saw on the cameras. Make sure you put cameras in the bay and get good views of the license plates.

 

[washme1]

Since adding our 2nd IBA I'm learning that there is a advantage I hadn't anticipated. Most of the time 1 IBA is enough so I sweat it a lot less that 1 bay may be down.

Just curious... what percentage did IBA revenue increase since adding a 2nd unit? I've thought about it at times but, like you, don't seem to have that many days when it appears to be needed but often wonder how many customers drive by when they see two or more cars in line. Also have weighed the benefit of no down time against one less SS bay.

 

[Red Baron]

Just curious... what percentage did IBA revenue increase since adding a 2nd unit? I've thought about it at times but, like you, don't seem to have that many days when it appears to be needed but often wonder how many customers drive by when they see two or more cars in line. Also have weighed the benefit of no down time against one less SS bay.

So far we've seen a 47% revenue increase on the IBA(s). I'm certain that will jump a good bit as we're entering our busy time of the year and because out of our first 4 months with the new bay, 2-1/2 of them were absolutely miserable weather days with rain, snow, or blowing dust every 2-4 days for an extended period. I was worried that people would get out of the habit of washing their cars it was so bad.

The new bay was definately a good investment.

Surprisingly though, the customers still favor the old bay in spite of it having older dingy Extrutech, with the new bay having nice beige porcelain tile on the walls and brighter lighting. I planned on adding tile to the old bay's walls so that customers had no reason to favor the new bay, but that's not an issue so I may not mess with it anytime soon.

 

[Waxman]

maybe your old iba is easier to pull into or maybe it's just a good iba; folks like to stick with what works as well as they like new and shiny.

 

[Red Baron]

maybe your old iba is easier to pull into or maybe it's just a good iba; folks like to stick with what works as well as they like new and shiny.

Yeah they're creatures of habit, too. I went to great lengths to make the bays similar to avoid one being favored over the other - that's why I installed a new i5000 gantry and pump stand on my existing bay at the same time I added the new bay.

I gave up trying to figure out why people do what they do the first time I saw some guy washing his car in my self serve bay when it was 20 degrees, snowing, and wind blowing to beat the band. Some people wash their car on Tuesday come what may [shrug].

 

[Jeff_L]

I give up on trying to figure people out. They drive up onto my curb in the IBAs, and every now and then they try to back out of them too. There's no door on the exit side, not sure why they would back up, maybe they don't want to go into the light?

I just keep plenty of spare parts on hand to cover the mistakes that the, and I, can do.

 

[randy64]

I've seen what your talking about, with both front arm gearboxes getting broken. The front arms were not out far enough before the machine started driving in reverse and it broke both gearboxes. Make sure your rear trail air isn't above 10 PSI and your front high air in exaust valve is working.

 

[Jimmy Buffett]

Wow. I would have never thought that that would break the gear boxes!

 

[RykoPro]

I've seen what your talking about, with both front arm gearboxes getting broken. The front arms were not out far enough before the machine started driving in reverse and it broke both gearboxes. Make sure your rear trail air isn't above 10 PSI and your front high air in exaust valve is working.

This does not make sense. If trailing air were on, the brushes would be spinning. How did the spinning brush catch on the front of the car? If the brushes did stick in and were not spinning (like on a tri foam pass), I would be more concerned with the return air.