Mud from the bay pit

[Winchester car wash]

What's everyone doing with the mud that comes out of the pit?,,,,,,and also just wondering if everyone (carwash owners) are pushing away people that have heavy mud or what, I live in a small town at the bottom of the mountains and have a lot of four wheelers and mud and it seems I have to shovel pretty often, how long is it taking everyone else's pits to fill up

 

[cleaning up mud]

In central Texas we have it pumped by a service company, they dispose of it in a land fill. It has to be tested every two years.

 

[HCW]

Our pits are 5 foot deep 4 foot wide and we hire a company to pump them out. Our car wash is on the edge of town and most of our customers are farmers that commute on muddy roads. We have signs up stating NO HEAVY MUD DEPOSIT but no one pays attention to it. Our pits are pumped once a year.

 

[MEP001]

You can prevent a lot of mud from entering your pits by covering the grate with a solid piece of steel with a hole in the middle. I've had to do that at several washes and it makes a huge difference.

 

[MudMoney]

My motto is "Mud is Money".On the forum we as operators have different views on this issue.I'm in a town of 9500 with lots of dirt roads,I would not be in business very long if I kicked the mudders out.One wash here that I used to own went to banning muddy outfits,the bank owns it now & its closed.My pit size is 12ft longx2ft wide x 6 ft deep,I have 3 of them and so far this year they have each been pumped 7 times each.I have my own pumper and dry the mud in a lined pit.If I'm here I will give a mudder a shovel and wash tokens to clean it up, none have ever refused.

 

[2Biz]

My motto is "Mud is Money".On the forum we as operators have different views on this issue.

I agree. Although I'm not over-joyed when someone leaves me with a big mess! I treat it as part of the job. When I'm there and see somebody pull in one of the inside bays with a muddy truck or mower (grass), I politely ask them to use the outside truck bay to keep the inside bays cleaner for the normal customers and explain why. I also tell them the truck bay has higher pressure and that usually gets their attention. I've never received an attitude. It just takes some time to train them the way you want them!

Oh BTW, my pits are 16" wide, 8' long, about 2' deep. I shovel them out about once every 3-4 weeks depending on how busy the wash is.

 

[kentadel]

I haul the mud to a farm to fill low spots in lanes or fields. My pits are 16' long and 6' wide, 4' deep.
Almost all the mud falls directly into the pit. Easy to keep the bays clean.

 

[mmurra]

We have banned mudders (defined as 4 wheel drive trucks with big tires and mud on the top of the cab), from the wash. Our sign out front says Mudders are banned - violaters will be prosecuted. We try to be flexible but have mudder events in the area are must agressively respond to these violators.

 

[cdreed06]

Mud is part of our business too. Rural area. We have a ring o matic and clean the pits about once every 3 months. They are about 6x3 and 4' deep. The grease is what I'm trying to ban....

 

[HCW]

The only problem muddy trucks create is nobody will use the bays after they leave a mess. If your car wash is unattended, you'll lose lots of business from mudders.

 

[Dcalhoun]

I haven't lost sight of a couple of facts, I own a car wash, and trucks get muddy. Do I like it when someone comes in Sunday morning and stinks up a bay with mud, of course not. So, I tell people to come when the wash is attended so we can clean it up. This is our business, I would no more send a muddy truck away than McDonald's would ban a fat man.

 

[Greg Pack]

I guess it depends on your circumstances. Both of my washes are in the suburbs with no local place to dispose of mud. Both washes have short bays (not built by me) so muddy water runoff usually runs out one or both ends of the bays. 95% of my customers (from an income standpoint) don't bring muddy vehicles. I've seen how much mudders can spend but then do the math on subtracting expenses and place a reasonable value on my time when I calculate my labor to clean it up. I also knows how it sours my attitude to come in and spend an hour cleaning up mud when I should be doing other more productive things that will increase revenue on the entire site. I already spend 75% of my time at the wash cleaning up an area that is responsible for only 25% of my site revenue and I don't want that amount of time to substantially increase. Bottom line it's just not worth it to me.

However, if you have a convenient place to dispose of it and are paying cleanup labor to be there regardless of the amount of mud you deal with I see nothing wrong with it.

 

[Greg Pack]

This is our business, I would no more send a muddy truck away than McDonald's would ban a fat man.

I bet that fat man would be banned if every time he came in he trashed the place, and basically an employee had to stop what they were doing and go clean up his mess. That might be a poor analogy, but businesses of all types often refuse service to high maintenance "paying customers".

ETA: BTW, sorry for contributing to thread drifting off topic. When we do have mud we shovel all we can off the bay floor and put it in the dumpster. When our pits fill up we have them pumped at the cost of about $900 per site.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

For us a 6 bay will fill the 3000g pump truck and and every three months is about right. It then goes to our sewage treatment plant and dries out, and then to the landfill. About $800 every time. We have gumbo soil which really is a pain to even shovel as it sticks to the shovel so much. I tell the heavy mud ones to use the truck stop where they wash it for you- cost is $75-200 depending on mud. To get $20 from them and spend $30 for removal and labor is not smart business.

 

[cebo]

Boy this one never dies. This is just a typical occurrence for rural washes. Mud loving rednecks show on animal planet is a few miles down the road from me. Our pits went from 3 or 4 times a year to 6 times. Most mudders do the right thing and don't make too big a mess. The punks we eventually run off. I had a ring o matic pumper charging 750 to pump a 4&2. He dumps on some city land that is in the flood plain they are filling in, but now I have guy that lives down the road from me with about 200 acres and a septic business that does it for $400. We are the last of the holdouts I guess with little regulations. It's only bad for a few months in the winter and mainly during hunting season so we deal with it.

 

[Jeff_L]

You're right, regulations are loose at best. FC says you can't dump, but DNR doesn't know where you can dump. Every state seems to be different. I've been researching with my state and they didn't really have a solid answer as to where you can put the mud. Best answer I got from them was to let the water drain off back into the pit, then do something with the dry. Well, to let it drain back into the pit would require shutting down the pit for days.

The loose regulations just encourage dumping out of sight from others, but doesn't make it right. Local landfills won't take it cause it's wet. It's a catch22. I know, off topic...