Mirrors..fold or no fold?

[BBE]

What's your policy on mirror folding? What do you instruct your employees to do? Fold every mirror, only fold truck mirrors, only fold oversize trailer mirrors?

We broke a ladies 03 tahoe mirror today. Guy on the passenger side folder the mirror, guy on the driver side did not. We obviously all need to be on the same page with our mirror folding policy, but first I need to establish what that policy is

 

[Washmee]

I don't fold any mirrors. If a customer wants to fold their mirrors it's OK with me but we won't do it for them. Our equipment is adjusted so we rarely break a mirror. The ones we do get are usually damaged from a prior incident or on an older vehicle.

 

[madstack]

Is the mirror still connected but flopping over? A cheap repair kit is available to replace a flimsy C-ring in that style of mirror. Do not turn in these mirrors by hand! It only weakens that ring until they flop over.

 

[twerkinatthecarwash]

We don't fold mirrors by default, but if a customer asks us we will fold them in for them, no problem. Also, if a customer asks if they should our default answer is "It helps, but isn't required. But remember that if the mirrors break we don't cover them." sometimes they want us to pull them in, sometimes they don't. We don't have an issue with broken mirrors (unless they are already damaged), but like I tell people, sometimes its better safe than sorry.

 

[hkim310]

We fold both mirrors on all vehicles that go through the wash.......

 

[Jeff_L]

For my friction IBA, I recommend they fold them in, but do not mandate it. Only a few incidents, and that's been because it was a truck and they went too far left or right and the gantry, not the brush caught it.

 

[rongieg]

We used to fold all mirrors (that could fold) and found preppers broke more mirrors than our friction equipment. We no longer fold them and have reduced breakage immensely.

 

[sudsurfer]

Is the mirror still connected but flopping over? A cheap repair kit is available to replace a flimsy C-ring in that style of mirror. Do not turn in these mirrors by hand! It only weakens that ring until they flop over.

Could not find this repair kit. Any help?

 

[TEEBOX]

We use to fold the mirrors be we discontinued to do so because of the same reason. They would break in the preppers hand. Now I rarely have a problem with mirrors. Most that do break have had previous breakage. The glue is the giveaway. Customers that purchase the vehicle used are unaware that they were glued.

 

[madstack]

Could not find this repair kit. Any help?

They were available at the dealership or a body shop afaik. We haven't needed one for years since we found out our Protovest Windshear was the main culprit. Mirrors stuck out far enough to touch side vents. Just enough pressure to break the ring inside. Turned it off for those trucks. Replaced the Windshear in November.

 

[hkim310]

When the mirrors broke when the prepper was closing them, did you all end up paying for the mirror? This has happened to use (rarely), but when it did we did not cover the mirror and explained to the customer that there has to be something wrong with the mirror itself to break when being closed.

 

[madstack]

Saying that after the fact won't win you any fans. Warn them beforehand of the danger and let them decide.

 

[rph9168]

If your wash is set up properly you should have little or no problem with mirrors. Touching anything on the vehicle other than taping a back windshield wiper is asking for problems.

 

[Emerald in NJ]

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 difference for us.

 

[sudsurfer]

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 difference for us.

Could you explain how you did this with your tunnel controller?

 

[Emerald in NJ]

Could you explain how you did this with your tunnel controller?

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 on as the front bumper is approaching so they get up and running before the front bumper makes contact, then when the car moves 3 or 4 feet down the line we fire the retract relay for 2 or 3 seconds, then turn it off. It's very subtle and it took some time to fine tune but it works great. I use very little air pressure in the retracts because I don't want the big wrap arms slapping around in there banging off cars, just enough pressure to take the arm back a bit but still leave the cloth in contact with car surface. After the retracts shut off the arms come back in on the second half of car and then the work around the back of cars. It'll take about an hour of adjusting your start and stop times and air pressures but it could save you in the long run

 

[sudsurfer]

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 on as the front bumper is approaching so they get up and running before the front bumper makes contact, then when the car moves 3 or 4 feet down the line we fire the retract relay for 2 or 3 seconds, then turn it off. It's very subtle and it took some time to fine tune but it works great. I use very little air pressure in the retracts because I don't want the big wrap arms slapping around in there banging off cars, just enough pressure to take the arm back a bit but still leave the cloth in contact with car surface. After the retracts shut off the arms come back in on the second half of car and then the work around the back of cars. It'll take about an hour of adjusting your start and stop times and air pressures but it could save you in the long run

Thanks for the info

 

[Ric]

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 on as the front bumper is approaching so they get up and running before the front bumper makes contact, then when the car moves 3 or 4 feet down the line we fire the retract relay for 2 or 3 seconds, then turn it off. It's very subtle and it took some time to fine tune but it works great. I use very little air pressure in the retracts because I don't want the big wrap arms slapping around in there banging off cars, just enough pressure to take the arm back a bit but still leave the cloth in contact with car surface. After the retracts shut off the arms come back in on the second half of car and then the work around the back of cars. It'll take about an hour of adjusting your start and stop times and air pressures but it could save you in the long run

What brand of wraps?

 

[sudsurfer]

What brand of wraps?

We have Peco wraparounds and use ICS tunnel controller.

 

[hkim310]

Sudsurfer, do you have one output for the retract on the tunnel controller for both DS and PS wrap around brushes or one for each? We have Sonnys' wraps and use ICS at our wash and when I contacted them about installing a bump out to retract around side view mirrors they stated that it would work best if each bump out/retract were on its own output as the DS and PS brushes do not come in contact with the side view mirror at the same time. We currently have 2 sets of wrap around brushes so that would require 4 additional outputs on the Tunnel Master Jr. We are running out of outputs so it would be much better if we could just have one retract for the DS and PS for each set of brushes for a total of 2 outputs for bump out/retract. Trying to get an idea if it would work out that way?