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Cleaning wheels

J

Jimmy Buffett

Active member
Well I removed my wheel scrubbers from my Softgloss. I don't regret that decision because they were driving me crazy. I'm using a stronger chemical now but do not think that I'm going to be satisfied with the results. Ryko cannot put their new wheel blasters on my machine, it's only on the new machines. Any thoughts as to how to clean wheels without friction that I can add to a Ryko Softgloss?
Thanks
 
I was at the last ICA show and they had a retro-kit available for that system in fact I have had my soft-gloss perform the motion for the wheel blasters after I changed the setup questions with my handheld just to see what it would do they just want you to buy a new machine that's all, what about the prewash option just need to change the option with a handheld and plumb in a high pressure pump I have wanted to toy around with this option but haven't had time.
 
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The Ryko rep told me that yesterday. He was going to look into some other options and get back to me. I'm certainly not buying a new machine.
 
Why would you? If you take care of your SoftGloss, it will clean a million cars (if you can find the customers).
 
well there are gatlin guns which spin and clean the wheels and rockers. Lotsa washes by me call that the underbody wash but it aims more at rims/tires/rocker panels.
 
You could make your own since it will have to be adapted to your wash anyway. Do you want the cars sprayed as they drive in or would you rather it to be one of the wash cycles? A stationary side blaster at the entrance of the bay would be the easiest and cheapest way to go.
 
RykoPro said:
You could make your own since it will have to be adapted to your wash anyway. Do you want the cars sprayed as they drive in or would you rather it to be one of the wash cycles? A stationary side blaster at the entrance of the bay would be the easiest and cheapest way to go.
Click to expand...

Doesn't mounting side blasters at the enterance cause the vehicle to get wet therefore making the presoak less effective?
 
Your wash does not need any dwell time since it is a brush machine. Dwell time is for the presoak on a touchless. I would just use high pressure. You could apply tire cleaner as they drive in instead.
 
Without the wheel scrubbers though the side arm brushes don't do much for the wheels. That's why I thought I might need some dwell time. If I did it as they are driving in couldn't I eliminate that whole first pass with the side blasters and speed up the wash process by about 15%? That would pay for itself pretty quick. Could I program it to use chemical on the higher end washes and just water on the cheap ones?
 
I have always put a prescrub bucket out in front of the automatics with a small wheel wizard brush. The people who love clean wheels will get out of their cars and do their own wheels and tires while they are waiting for the car in the bay to get done. It always worked for me.
 
You could spray the tires with chemicals as the car drives in and then use on board turbo nozzles to spray the entire side of the car during the wash. Lots of ways to do it.........
 
I was thinking more of a stationary high pressure that would get wheels and the rocker panels as they drive in. That would eliminate 1 whole pass of the gantry. The big question is would it clean the wheels any better than I'm getting now.
 
I guess if we sprayed it at the entrance there would be some dwell for the residual chemical. Wouldn't that be comparable to the wheel cleaning from a touch free? I know it won't be as good as friction but that ship has already sailed.
 
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