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Long Bay Petit

Most touch free bays with dryers inside the bay are 40' (including ours). You could get by with that length. That said if you can build 50-55' without major issues I would. Gives you options for the future (say buy ups like a rain arch) or at minimum it reduces the spray that hits the roll up doors. Our 40 bay doors do not stay clean for long since the undercarriage spray is nearby.
 
soonermajic said:
That Eclipse model looks Bad A$$! Of it does what they say, that is a GAME CHANGER!
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It is sweet. It will give you the absolute maximum throughput. It does away with customers mistakes of driving too slow or too fast through your dryers. It literally gives them the best dry. You can set how many passes you want it to do along with other things like open bed trucks. It saves the measurement from the wash and sends it to the eclipse to know how far to roll the dryers back and forth. I really dont want to compare it to stand alone dryers and I shouldn't but if I do I would say the only disadvantage to the eclipse is that it is a machine meaning more moving parts and sensors then a stand alone unit. However it is pretty simple and nothing like a full automatic. If anyone had a bay long enough it's a no brainer.
 
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Etowah
My lot is weirdly shaped but I own it outright so it's going to have to suffice. Here is a preliminary site plan for double long bay petit.I'd like to have more stacking but it is what it is.IMG_2707.jpeg
 
I'll admit that I haven't re-read the complete thread, but why do you want the bays so long? The best location for the dryers are outside. That gets them out of the harsh touchless IBA environment, eliminates drippage from the door edge or whatever else droplets are clinging to, is much less bay to keep warm, increases exit turning radius, not to mention what it costs to build that unnecessary area. Am I missing something? Why do you want the dryer inside?
 
I.B. Washincars said:
I'll admit that I haven't re-read the complete thread, but why do you want the bays so long? The best location for the dryers are outside. That gets them out of the harsh touchless IBA environment, eliminates drippage from the door edge or whatever else droplets are clinging to, is much less bay to keep warm, increases exit turning radius, not to mention what it costs to build that unnecessary area. Am I missing something? Why do you want the dryer inside?
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Longer bay will help increase throughput. Also benefits from increased drip time and lastly the dryers are far away ( usually almost in another room) from the chemicals of the dryer.

I would never put the dryers outside unless I had a serious space crunch. Louder for neighbors and totally exposed to the elements.
 
@Danpelligrino
Thanks for your reply. I'm going to build two bays and equip one for now. I keep hearing the same thing you just said and I'm trying to future proof the sight as our town is growing.
 
Rapidoil said:
@Danpelligrino
Thanks for your reply. I'm going to build two bays and equip one for now. I keep hearing the same thing you just said and I'm trying to future proof the sight as our town is growing.
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It's tough to know for sure. There are so many what-ifs in this industry. We only need the second bay at peak. The rest of the year one bay is enough. And obviously, it would be nice to have a second bay for when the first bay breaks down.

One thing that sucks for us is that we used to be able to do one pass of soap, and we could push through 20-22 cars per hour. Now I can't find a chemical that I'm happy with on only one pass. So I'm doing two passes of soap and I also added a wash package with ceramic wax two years ago. This increases wash time significantly. We can only do 16-17 cars per hour now.

Add on to the fact that I had to start a wash club to compete with the new tunnels. 75% of our members are on that top package. So 75% of the people are increasing the wash time to its maximum extent. We're right around 3.5 washes per member per month. You can see how that really hurts the bottom line. People really take advantage of you with this new car wash model. Even with license plate readers.., we're still at that 3.5 washes per member per month. When its not busy season, it sits around 2.7, and at the busy season its 3.7.

To have a second bay to be able to service more full-paying customers at peak would be a godsend.

Good luck to you. Looking forward to seeing pictures.
 
@Danpelligrino thanks for the feedback. I'd love to know more about your chemical journey. What soaps you tried and what did you eventually land on etc. I get that it's not going to be a fairy tale with this petit in terms of CPH. Im trying not to be niave about it and have asked a lot of owners what their real world number are. I have my eye on synergy chemicals but also will be looking at blendco, these are the two soaps my distributor suggests. Curious what your bay length is and what real world numbers you are seeing?
 
Cph can be just about as fast w/ deyers outside. You just gotta put em 10' outside the doors. If u don't have neigibors, that's a no-brainer. Gets em away from harsh chems.
Also, you have to be in the Snow belt, have warm Sunny day (after a snow) to get 300+ cpd.
In the South, no way in hel u get those kinds of #'s! You gotta have 2 passes of PS & dwell time. My top pkg is 3:20,& that is a FAST Southern touchless wash.
Only the Typhoon will wash faster. I know, that's gonna trigger some folks, but it's true.
 
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