Recent content by Emerald in NJ

I'm curious what some of the experienced operators on the forum view as a reasonable rent if you own and operate a full service tunnel wash on real estate that you lease from a landlord. Is there an industry benchmark for rent as a percentage of gross revenue? Thanks

I guess it depends on which controller you have and which wraps you have but here's what I do: I have 1 function on the computer that turns the wraps on and I have a second function on the computer that fires air cyclinders that retract my wraps. I programmed the wash packages to turn the wraps...

We used to fold them in but stopped. Like a few others already stated, sometimes touching them causes more problems. We programmed our tunnel control to "bump" our wraps so they aren't leaning into cars too hard for about 2 seconds around the time the mirror is passing through. Made a great...

I charge $1 extra for small SUV's and $2 extra for minvans and large SUV's (3 rows of seats)

I own and operate a full service conveyor wash in the Northeast. I like to visit other car washes all the time to get ideas, check pricing, etc. I recently visited a new construction, full service conveyor wash about 45 minute drive from my place. A mutual friend introduced me to the owner...

I have a TimeTrax time clock. The one I have uses the magnetic stripe cards like a credit card. The company makes a lot of different models, definitely one with the biometric functionality. I'm not sure about Iphone connectivity. I've been using this for years and it's great. Easy to use...

Earl, I am in agreement with you. You have to put a value on your own labor. When you asked me, "Does that rate somehow value your own labor that needs to be expended?" I said yes. I figure return on investment= income/investment. So if a hypothetical car wash makes 100k per year divided by...

Yes. If I work less and therefore have to pay a manager then my rate of return would be lower because of the added labor expense.

I have 1 question regarding this method. If you value the business with a cap rate of say 11-13%, are you using the resulting value just for the business and then adding in a fair market appraisal for the real estate? Or do you build the carry cost of the real estate into the expense portion...

I can't help with question #1 because I don't operate in NY As for question #2. I'm a little confused. Is the current wash operator you are buying the business from also the landlord? If I understand correctly it's 1 person and he wants to you to A. pay to buy the business, B. pay $200k to...

Hi, I have a full serve conveyor wash. We leave the cars running in neutral when we feed them into the tunnel. We have noticed that the doors have been locking up on the new 2013 Fords. Has anyone figured out a way around this? I have been telling my crew every day to make a guy ride through...

Depending on which tunnel controller you have you might be able to accomplish this without needing to buy the additional module. I have an ICS WBC controller and I have it programmed to do a "mirror bump" on every car. I have an old set of Sonny's wraps with air cylinder retracts. The wraps...

I also have PECO dryers. I am curious if you decided to install these. I just sent my distributor an email asking about them but kind of want to hear from someone who actually has them. thanks

I just had a guy come in with a 10+ year old car. He has a power driver's seat. My employee moved the seat up to vacuum, then goes to move it back and the button doesn't work. I don't have a great view from my video cameras but I can see my guy vacuuming and he doesn't seem to struggle with...

I am very curious about this. I am trying to cut my electric bill down every way I can. Is anyone familiar with this device called a Black Hawk box? http://blackhawkenergysaver.com/ This sounds like it might be a capacitor like Sparkey is talking about but I am not an electrician and...