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New to Friction Machines where to begin?

Our new Tandem bay has been open now for ~3 weeks and so far I am very happy with it. I looked at some of the other machines, and there's a Freestyler near our wash that is down more than up. Overall our customers are raving about the quality of wash that they are getting from the Tandem vs. the LW360 Touch Free bays that I have. I've heard many operators say that they would never build a site without complimentary machines (Touch and Touch Free) and I'm starting to agree with that concept.

I was concerned about the adoption of this touch environment given that we had promoted touch free for so many years, but it's no different than when I tell a person to use the foam brush in our SS bays to remove the film that touch free machines wont remove. Same wth baked on bird droppings, tree sap, etc.

The Tandem is an open bay concept, wheel scrubbers are a hit, but you're not going to wash 11-12 cars per hour in one of these. It appears that 7 - 8 cph is the tops. What really slows the throughput down is longer vehicles (pickups - SUV's). Our bays are 42' long and if the customers don't pull in, then creep forward during loading, the side brush wont have enough room to go around the back of the vehicle, so it will do a "U" wash. When this happens it adds a good 1:00 to 1:15 to the wash. Anytime I see a truck parked at the pay station I tell them to pull in and keep going until the machine tells you to back up. Then back up slowly and stop as soon as the red X comes on. That will allow the machine to go around the back and prevent the U wash.

I can definitely see myself buying more of these and placing them in sites where old IBA's are being removed. I just hope that they hold up as well as the old L4000's.
 
ScottV said:
Our new Tandem bay has been open now for ~3 weeks and so far I am very happy with it. I looked at some of the other machines, and there's a Freestyler near our wash that is down more than up. Overall our customers are raving about the quality of wash that they are getting from the Tandem vs. the LW360 Touch Free bays that I have. I've heard many operators say that they would never build a site without complimentary machines (Touch and Touch Free) and I'm starting to agree with that concept.

I was concerned about the adoption of this touch environment given that we had promoted touch free for so many years, but it's no different than when I tell a person to use the foam brush in our SS bays to remove the film that touch free machines wont remove. Same wth baked on bird droppings, tree sap, etc.

The Tandem is an open bay concept, wheel scrubbers are a hit, but you're not going to wash 11-12 cars per hour in one of these. It appears that 7 - 8 cph is the tops. What really slows the throughput down is longer vehicles (pickups - SUV's). Our bays are 42' long and if the customers don't pull in, then creep forward during loading, the side brush wont have enough room to go around the back of the vehicle, so it will do a "U" wash. When this happens it adds a good 1:00 to 1:15 to the wash. Anytime I see a truck parked at the pay station I tell them to pull in and keep going until the machine tells you to back up. Then back up slowly and stop as soon as the red X comes on. That will allow the machine to go around the back and prevent the U wash.

I can definitely see myself buying more of these and placing them in sites where old IBA's are being removed. I just hope that they hold up as well as the old L4000's.
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Scott,

Is your Tandem site unattended?

Mike
 
Mike,

Sure is, as are all of my sites. I have retired guys that stop every morning and clean the bays, lot, etc. I work during the day, but spend my nights and weekends checking up on things.

Scott
 
The tandem to me was a great wash experience, however tell me more about this U wash issue? Are you saying it wont go completely around longer vehicles? Thats pretty much all I have, huge SUVS and trucks all extra large, So much so that 26 foot rails on 4000's is sometimes not enough for machine to clear rear of trucks especially with hitch? I can't see spending this kind of money on machine for 7-8 cars an hour? Speed is a major issue here? Thanks for the input
 
I'm still learning about all of the adjustments that can be made to the Tandem, but I understand that my distributor originally made a number of them to lengthen the loading position and increase the wash envelope. This machine has 2 bridges. The back bridge has the wheel scrubbers and top brush, and the front bridge has the side brush. The problem we run into which causes a "U" wash, is when both bridges are at the entrance end of the bay and the vehicle is still too long for the side brush to get around the back end. It cant go back any farther because the back bridge is sitting in the home position.

I have the same issue that you mention with the L360's for vehicles like crew cab long bed trucks. And if they have a ball hitch sticking out of the back, were screwed. At least the Tandem is smart enough to recognize this size issue and works it way back around the vehicle in the opposite direction. The back end does get brushed by the top brush, but it's not as thoruough as what the side brush would do.

I might have made more out of the problem than what it really is. Looking at my wash report for yesterday, we did 70 cars in that bay. 4 of those washes were 8mins, 4 were 7mins, 35 were 6mins, 20 were 5mins, and the rest were under 4mins. It's a combination of the vehicle size and which wash package they purchase. Overall the customers that provide feedback absolutely love the wash experience and the cleanliness of their car. What I need to figure out is if I've canibalized some of my touch free volume, or if it is incremental volume from the competitor down the street with the Freestyler!
 
For my .02 worth I believe that putting in the Softgloss was the single best and most important decision that I made in opening my wash. All of my competition is touch free. I am in an area where there are a number of experienced Ryko techs. That is extremely valuable for a dumba$$ like me. It's probably wash 200k cars so far.
 
Use Machines

RykoPro,

Where can you get a used Ryko SoftGloss Machine?

Any Ideas?

Thanks

Marc



RykoPro said:
The trio is no more and have not seen the new wash yet. I would go with the Softgloss if you have a bay big enough. I just sold a used softgloss with a code a wash and AMTT coinbox for under $25,000. This did not include installation. It was to a customer who has had a Voyager for over 20 years so I had no problem giving him such a good deal. Used machines are great if reinstalled properly.
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