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Pit Cleaning??

lilb93

lilb93

Member
Just wondering if you do the pit cleaning the old way with a bent shovel and a bucket. Or

do you use a vac system to suck it out?

What are the cost to have it vacuumed out?

I have 4 pits that have to be cleaned, called a vacuum company they said 600.00 for all 4.
They are 3'X4' by 40" deep. seems like a lot to me.

Does anyone just go but there own Vac trailer like Ring O Matic ?
Thanks
 
I have a Ring-O-Matic clam shell digger. I couldn't imagine doing the job without one, but at $150/pit....I personally would pay the company to do it. You have to factor in the cost of the machine, time required to actually clean pits and bays when done, and then the time required to take the dirt away. That's very cheap IMHO.

The nice thing about having your own machine is you're not reliant on another company's schedule and prices.
 
$600, you’ve got to be kidding me. I would gladly pay $600 to have my pits pumped. We have to have the pit water and mud tested every year, average cost per fish test $1000. Once you get it tested and it’s not contaminated you can get it pump by a licensed hauler/pumper, $1500 - $2000. Every state has different rules.
 
We are looking at a used Vactron Hydro Excavator with a 500 gal tank and a 250 gal water tank with a 3000 Psi 6 gal a min pressure washer. it a 550 CFM sucker. Can pick it up for 6000.00

Only tried it out with a 5 gal bucket of water, it sucked it up in 4 seconds.
 
I Handi-Clam mine onto the bay floor, then I need to let it dry out before tossing it in the dumpster. Wish I could afford an easier solution haha.
 
I have to pay between $1500 and $2000 to have a 3/2 pumped in a major metropolitan city.

$600?

That's a dream.
 
$600? For that price I wouldn't ever consider purchasing any type of equipment from clam shell, shovel, vac, whatever. I pay around $3,000 for my washes to be pumped- once a year. $600 is "dirt" cheap.
 
lilb93 said:
We are looking at a used Vactron Hydro Excavator with a 500 gal tank and a 250 gal water tank with a 3000 Psi 6 gal a min pressure washer. it a 550 CFM sucker. Can pick it up for 6000.00

Only tried it out with a 5 gal bucket of water, it sucked it up in 4 seconds.
Click to expand...

I’ve heard people that have switched from a clamshell to a vac type tell me they regret the switch. The guy I bought my clam from said the same...
 
Getting away cheap here, too. I pay $170.00 per 1000 gallons pumped. For my 4/2 washes it ends up being about $612 every time. I do all the bay pits, then one of the large tanks until truck is filled up--usually 3600 gallons. I alternate large tanks til they are all done, then start over. My busiest wash I am pumping four or five times per year.
 
Just had two sites pumped a couple of weeks ago, each wash takes one load. I pay $1175/load. One load will do two auto bays and the oil interceptor. We can go about 13-14 months between cleanings.
 
This time of year I have to pump my pits at least once per month due to heavy mud. If I had to pay someone to do it I would have to raise my prices. We have a ring o matic vac pump. Every few years we have to have a small backhoe do the bottom of the pits as black sand builds up and vac trailer has a hard time sucking it up. A clam digger would be nice but they are much slower than the vacuum trailer.
 
We have a ringomatic clamshell pit cleaner and my brother has a vac truck. It’s a pretty physical job to run the vac but the clam style ringomatic is just pulling levers and it’s so much simpler.
 
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We pay $500 for 6 bays (one truck) once per year. Septic company does the work. Guess we have a good deal.
 
Ron, you are getting a great deal. Sign a contract to lock in that price!

If anyone is looking for a Ring-O-Magic 850 vac trailer, I have one for sale. I went back to having a day job and no longer have the time to clean my pits. I’ll have to hire it out moving forward. Vac trailer is in the KC area.
 
I am cleaning our pit's way more often then what I see posted.
Six location's with two auto's and twenty eight self serve bay's that cost $6,000 a year if I have it pumped.
Are the pit cover's solid and you shovel more often daily or do you just not wash truck's that are very dirty?
 
So you are paying $1000 per location (for once per year?). Nice thing about this service is that it is a commodity service. Call a few septic pumping companies to get them to compete for your business. I have notice that no two car washes have the same size pits so that probably contributes to the difference - I have very deep pits (probably about 6' is my guess).
 
I recently looked at renting a small track hoe and dump trailer so I could get the black sand out of the bottom of some of my pits. The price to rent was pretty cheap. I can rent the track hoe and dump trailer for $1000 per week or the combo for $300 per day. If you have some property and your state allows it this could be a cheap way for some to clean their pits. I am sure most washes could be done in one day.
 
We pay a high school kid $250 to dig the mud out with post hole diggers than dump it behind our wash. Comes out to $50 a pit for our 4/1.
 
So I guess I'm another lucky one! I clean my bay (2 stage) pitts about once a month depending on how much its used. I have shallow (2ft deep) elongated pitts that I can shovel out. Takes me about an hour for 4 bays. I have a 3 stage outside pitt system that needs pumped out about once a year....I pump off the surface water to limit volume....I get charged $250! But I do help the Old Guy...Maybe he likes me!?
 
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