Having built hundreds of mobile wash rigs in my life I can tell that even though it may not look like rocket science well, it sure feels like it. There are thousands of things, which can go wrong and anyone of them can cost you a days pay. Why did our company build so many wash rigs you ask? Well we are the only mobile car wash, pressure washing, truck washing, auto detailing franchise in the United States and we had to build them to service demand. Much of what we learned was by trial and error and our friends in the industry like DeTrailers.com and here is an example of what happens if you do not use close friends and competent vendors in the market place to build your wash rig for you:

"Regarding equipment. I found the issue of water supply to be much more difficult than I expected. For our fleet accounts we sometimes need up to 150' of hose to tap into a water supply. That's a lot of bulky hose that is hard to maneuver in and out of the truck. I would like to see this replaced with an integrated hose reel-preferably electric. We could shave off up to twenty minutes of prep and cleanup time if we were able to solve this problem. Plus, the crews don't like this part of the work much and sometimes run the water out of the tank completely before tapping in. It would also look a lot better than what we currently have - a pile of hose in the bed that is usually in the way of something else."

Oh but that's not all here is another real serious issue, which we found out the next day?

"I like the way the aluminum diamond back looks, but it has been left with SHARP edges. I have cut myself on them. I hope no one else does. The paint on the beds chip easily and the metal begins to rust through. Don't like that and I am not sure what to do about it."

This is why you find a good vendor and you stick with them, but it is all water under the bridge now, but you can see the problems. When building equipment for high-paced usage, you need to pay attention to the details. You learn after each mistake. Maybe it is good that it is not rocket science, I would hate to have been responsible for our National heroes in the Columbia Shuttle. The devil is in the details when building mobile was rigs. Think on this in 2006.