Top winder

[WallyBalls]

New to car washes and am having an issue with this top wheel dropping to fast before it washes. Its really banging at the bottom. It’s starts from the down position but stays up when not used. The picture attached has got me a little lost as to what it does exactly.

 

[washnshine]

New to car washes and am having an issue with this top wheel dropping to fast before it washes. Its really banging at the bottom. It’s starts from the down position but stays up when not used. The picture attached has got me a little lost as to what it does exactly.

Sounds like your counterbalance weighting might be off (not enough weight). Or your air cylinder pressure is not right. What type of equipment/system is this? What material is on your top wheel?

 

[WallyBalls]

Sounds like your counterbalance weighting might be off (not enough weight). Or your air cylinder pressure is not right. What type of equipment/system is this? What material is on your top wheel?

The top wheel is called a “Top Winder” by Belanger. Today was my 1st time ever messing with one. The manual says it should have a “cushion regulator “ at the top wheel. But Its just a regula one there. In the picture I posted, I believe what goes into the cylinder first is maybe a check valve with a needle valve on top. You can see it was rigged at one time with a shut off valve there….I did make it work right, by taking the needle valve out at the wheel and pluging that hole. I then put the needle valve at the exhaust on the mac valve in the chemical room.. I’m not sure that’s a viable fix or just a patch It’s extremely hard to figure out why something is not working correctly when you have no idea how it’s supposed to work correctly.

 

[Earl Weiss]

FWIW AVW have a shock to temper the up and down rate of the cylinder . Have also used valves on exhaust to control eight / down speed of some top brushes.

 

[Just Call Ben]

The top wheel is called a “Top Winder” by Belanger. Today was my 1st time ever messing with one. The manual says it should have a “cushion regulator “ at the top wheel. But Its just a regula one there. In the picture I posted, I believe what goes into the cylinder first is maybe a check valve with a needle valve on top. You can see it was rigged at one time with a shut off valve there….I did make it work right, by taking the needle valve out at the wheel and pluging that hole. I then put the needle valve at the exhaust on the mac valve in the chemical room.. I’m not sure that’s a viable fix or just a patch It’s extremely hard to figure out why something is not working correctly when you have no idea how it’s supposed to work correctly.

This thread is old and I hope you've fixed your top wheel by now.

The Belanger unit uses a regulator mounted on the arch to control exhaust air from the cylinder. You set that in combination with the weights to get the right downforce on the vehicle. If I remember correctly, you set the weights with the regulator wide open and try to achieve about 15 pounds of force. Then you activate the Mac valve and turn the regulator down until you get just enough pressure on the top wheel to keep contact. Incursion is only about 4 to 5 inches when properly set.