Has anyone converted their long IBA to a mini tunnel?

[Blanco]

I think you could shorten the Eclipse model by 20', by removing the wheel scrubbers from the front. Take out inside door, & put the CC/Wax arch & RO Arch in its place, then Tire Shine w/ outside dryers (or inside stand alone). IMHO

The "eclipse" is just the drying bay. The tracks the bridge runs on are 30ft. A standard I5 without eclipse dryers can fit in a 40ft bay. A typhoon in a 30ft bay. The inside door like washnshine said is for guidance/throughput but most importantly separating the washing/drying bay from overspray/wind. The door allows two vehicles to be in the same bay simultaneously. Speeds up the process.

Stand alone wax/ro arches are a terrible idea from manufacturers. You have to try one to know what I'm saying and ask your self how many people are going to run into this and use these correctly. Driving through a arch spraying water/chemical on your windshield is difficult and a huge liability. You will need spare arches in the back room plus keeping pace is a big issue. Autec and Istobal both offer them. Its there way of making a slow machine "faster". Another marketing gimmick. Your not saving any time. The 30sec it may take for two passes on the machine for CC and SF is the same amount of time if not less it takes to drive through two stand alone arches. Why not let the machine do the work and not rely on the customer. The goal is to minimize customer mistakes. Thats the whole point of the eclipse vs off board dryers. The customer sits there while the machine works which results in the best dry and faster processing since there in two separate bays. Off board wax/SF arches will have customers drive too slow and the arch timer will time out or some will drive too fast and not get enough coverage. Soap will be left on there car and then you'll receive a bad google review about how your car wash does not clean.

Down side to the eclipse vs regular stand alone dryers though is not only price but it is a machine and not a stationary drying set up. That means sensors, maintenance, and the igus tube that houses all the power cables (high voltage and low voltage) will have to be replaced every 2-6 years roughly. You can probably get about 20 years out of a stand alone dryer set up wiring since they do not move.

 

[John J Spokas]

I am actually trying to convince some mini tunnels to convert to IBA's. If you do not dedicate an attendant to any tunnel, getting customers to load themselves onto a conveyor is very inconsistent and often people get stuck due to not understanding how to properly load. Full time carwash attendant will cost between 50 and 75k a year divided between two or three employees who only work the car wash.

 

[OurTown]

I am actually trying to convince some mini tunnels to convert to IBA's. If you do not dedicate an attendant to any tunnel, getting customers to load themselves onto a conveyor is very inconsistent and often people get stuck due to not understanding how to properly load. Full time carwash attendant will cost between 50 and 75k a year divided between two or three employees who only work the car wash.

I would say at the very low end would be $75,000 but probably more like $100,000 depending on pay and hours open.

 

[Mr. Clean]

I feel like my area is in the minority. A majority of C-Stores with car washes here are unattended chain mini tunnels, and haven’t really seen people have troubles with them, though it could be due to the area being more rural and people are more used to conveyors than IBAs.

People north of the border are somehow better equipped at handling these kinds of situations.

 

[John J Spokas]

I feel like my area is in the minority. A majority of C-Stores with car washes here are unattended chain mini tunnels, and haven’t really seen people have troubles with them, though it could be due to the area being more rural and people are more used to conveyors than IBAs.

Do you have direct knowledge about the volume of car washes at these unattended tunnels? Also do you service any of them or operate one?

 

[soonermajic]

On the Eclipse model, how bout this idea?
Remove inner door, & next section is just Tire Shine. Stand alone dryers are outside & come on w/ a photo sensor as your entering the Tire Shine portion?
Poke holes in it...

 

[washnshine]

On the Eclipse model, how bout this idea?
Remove inner door, & next section is just Tire Shine. Stand alone dryers are outside & come on w/ a photo sensor as your entering the Tire Shine portion?
Poke holes in it...

I think eliminating that inner door is probably attractive as it will eliminate one moving maintenance issue, and also perhaps allow a shorter bay. I still think there is the psychological issue of many customers not entering a bay, no matter how open it is until the previous car clears. Your suggestion certainly could work, coach - it eliminates the mechanics of the door and the moving drying apparatus. But unfortunately I think you’d run into those who are hesitant to enter a partially occupied bay. That inner door puts the previous car “out of sight and out of mind” so it becomes a non issue with the next car entering the bay. Just my thoughts after observing how people react to the IBA atmosphere. Also with your suggestion, if the next section is just tire shine, people might floor it to get to the blower. Tire shine under or around the blowers keeps people moving slower because they are getting dried. An open area leading to the blower might result in your tire shine units getting damaged and/or not properly applying the chemical due to the potential speed people will be driving at that stage of the wash.

 

[GreenMachine]

How did you come to this conclusion?

Express exterior washes run with 1-2 employees. Why would a mini tunnel need more?

So do you have it figured out? If so, why not share how to do it?

If you are open 84 hours a week (12hrs a day) and not pay overtime I guess you could run a skeleton crew but employees get sick or don’t want long days or work on weekends a day off for something or another or jus plain get sick. Minimum you need 3 but I say 4 because all the express washes I have seen have at least 4 employees and that’s just the small ones. They don’t have to be full time but when you need the extra help to fill in for somebody you have options. The large ones have 8+

 

[GreenMachine]

How did you come to this conclusion?

When you see somebody prewash a car at a mini tunnel or even a express are they doing a extra service that’s not really needed or are they washing it because the tunnel will not clean bugs off very well so they have to do it so it does a better job? some Tunnels are great and don’t need it but most do.

 

[washnshine]

About 15 years ago, there was a gas station in my area that opened up and had an unattended touchfree mini tunnel. They had a standard over under conveyor, paystation, 2 presoak arches, top oscillating hp manifolds, bumper and rear hp manifolds and side hp manifolds along with the usual trifoam, sealer, rinse arches sfr and blowers.

It seems like that would strike a balance between increased cars per hour and minimizing damage claims with to friction components, but people still did not like self loading onto the conveyor. I also do not believe you can get adequate dwell time with this set up. This must not really be a feasible model because that was the only one I have ever seen, and the entire gas station has since closed. Maybe it works in other places.

 

[John J Spokas]

About 15 years ago, there was a gas station in my area that opened up and had an unattended touchfree mini tunnel. They had a standard over under conveyor, paystation, 2 presoak arches, top oscillating hp manifolds, bumper and rear hp manifolds and side hp manifolds along with the usual trifoam, sealer, rinse arches sfr and blowers.

It seems like that would strike a balance between increased cars per hour and minimizing damage claims with to friction components, but people still did not like self loading onto the conveyor. I also do not believe you can get adequate dwell time with this set up. This must not really be a feasible model because that was the only one I have ever seen, and the entire gas station has since closed. Maybe it works in other places.

And still the biggest difficulty is customer self loading onto a conveyor. If you do not have an attendant full time the potential for more volume than an IBA is lost. And many of these fuel sites that try this have very compressed layouts making just getting into the carwash entrance tough for the customers. A major component of high volume express washes is how easy it is for a customer to find their way around the site.