accelerated cleaning TM what a piece of shit!!!!!

[steve g]

today I was, well I will not say where, anyways I was closely looking at an accelerated cleaning truckmount, the front cover was tipped forward and I noticed that the basis of the machine is 3/16" sheet metal that is bent into a box shape that is open at the bottom and sides, there is NO bracing under the engine or blower, upon closer examination, I noticed a belt runs under the machine to a pump out that is mounted to the side of this sheet metal box, I took my thumb and first finger, so TWO fingers and squeezed the belt, this causeed the entire unit structure to flex and bend, I am talking everything including the car muffler silencer. take a cardboard box, cut off the bottom and both ends, so you have 3 sides, its very easy to understand how the structure of the machine could do this. infact if a fat guy leaned hard onto the top of the engine this may cause the sheet metal that the engine is mounted to, to permanently bend, what a joke. the obvious thing is you would think anyone that designed this machine would be able to see that a span of 3/16 ths sheet metal that size with NO bracing under it would not be stout enough. we are talking a rumbling engine and blower with belts running off it, I can't imagine this thing holding up long term.

then to ice the cake the guy that owns it wants to do flood restoration as well and can't because it has a joke of a water tank and the pump out will not keep up, so he is stuck with a machine that needs to be redesigned and a real waste tank installed. I would be so pissed if I had spent 15k then to find out I had bought something designed so poorly.

I just checked their website and it appears that this guys machine looks just like the current units being sold oil fired heater and all. I am sure who ever these guys are that made the machine will pipe in and say I am wrong, but whomever they are it would probably not be a good idea to go there as I could post a you tube video on it, lets just say this machine is in the freeflow catagory. buyer beware

 

[Farenheit251]

I've bought two of them and each has over 3000 hours. My next truckmount will be from Accelerated or Judson. When it comes to cleaning dirty carpets I'm happy to go up against any machine out there and know I'll win. The only machine I ever saw outclean it was an Aerotech running single wand.

 

[bob vawter]

yous wanna Pink Slip against my Genie............??

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Re: accelerated cleaning TM

I'd put Duane's "fit and finish" up against any TM.

However ANY old tm that is on it's second or third owner can look bad, even a Vortex.

 

[steve g]

Re: accelerated cleaning TM

I'd put Duane's "fit and finish" up against any TM.

However ANY old tm that is on it's second or third owner can look bad, even a Vortex.

dude its not a matter of looks or fit and finish, its a matter of poor design, there is nothing under the motor except 3/16" sheet metal. no bracing, no angle iron nothing!!! unless something has changed a brand new machine off his web site would do the same thing, stop the denial, if you own one I am sorry but most guys are not going to admit they spent 15k on a joke of a machine. remember other guys said the recoil was a great machine. squeezing one belt with 2 fingers flexes the entire structure of the machine, everything moves, including the car muffler silencer, which the concept of that alone is ghetto, are they too cheap to put a stoddard silencer on the machines?? this machine had a 4-5 blower and only a 2.5 car muffler outlet, personally I think that is small and choking the machine, if this obvious thing is designed so poorly imagine the rest of the machine that isn't easily seen

 

[The Preacher]

Steve's right, the frame is weak. i could do the same with my former machine.

I believe DooDaddy used a thicker metal with his new machines so that should fix the problem of the excess flexing. As for the APO, i replaced my flapper valve for a spring loaded check valve (home depot) and never had another day of trouble with mine, that APO will put out a fire if need be!

Steve, did Steam Action ever solve the problem they had in their design when the machine sat atop the water tank and the vibration caused the welds to crack that caused a water damage in the van or Mrs Piff's driveway???

 

[Dolly Llama]

I've bought two of them and each has over 3000 hours. My next truckmount will be from Accelerated or Judson. When it comes to cleaning dirty carpets I'm happy to go up against any machine out there and know I'll win. The only machine I ever saw outclean it was an Aerotech running single wand.

Brian, are yours belt or coupler driven?
36 blower or 45 and what lift HG do you run them at?
How long do the belts or couplers last?

Thanks


..L.T.A.

 

[Farenheit251]

Mine is a 45 and I run it at 15 hg but did run it at 18 hg for a couple years. My current coupler is over a year old. It is imperative that they be aligned dead on and finding someone who can do it is tough,fortunately I have Johns Custom Machine Shop nearby. Duane's new machines make it easy to align the blower.
I had some flex to the frame. John H got a couple 1" thick metal plates from Alro metals and put them under the engine and blower for pretty cheap. Hydramaster also built quite a few spitfires with a flexible frame. The frames are now stronger.
I've owned 8 truckmounts so I have some perspective and reasonable expectations. When something is not right I fix it unlike many who just keep running and complaining.
Based on the fact that the machine Steve G saw was belt driven it is at least 6 years old and probably sold for $7-9,000 complete with reels and is still running today. (that is about a $100 a month) How much more does Duane owe the guy before he has to refurbish the machine?
I am glad that as a cleaner my reputation isn't judged by work I did 6-10 years ago. I've learned a few things since then.
If that guy had any sense he would take that machine back to Duane this winter and have it completely rebuilt on a new frame for a few thousand dollars and have a good machine for another 5 years but like most cleaners he will just continue to run broke shit and complain about it.

 

[Curtis Pennington]

Mine is a 45 and I run it at 15 hg but did run it at 18 hg for a couple years. My current coupler is over a year old. It is imperative that they be aligned dead on and finding someone who can do it is tough,fortunately I have Johns Custom Machine Shop nearby. Duane's new machines make it easy to align the blower.
I had some flex to the frame. John H got a couple 1" thick metal plates from Alro metals and put them under the engine and blower for pretty cheap. Hydramaster also built quite a few spitfires with a flexible frame. The frames are now stronger.
I've owned 8 truckmounts so I have some perspective and reasonable expectations. When something is not right I fix it unlike many who just keep running and complaining.
Based on the fact that the machine Steve G saw was belt driven it is at least 6 years old and probably sold for $7-9,000 complete with reels and is still running today. (that is about a $100 a month) How much more does Duane owe the guy before he has to refurbish the machine?
I am glad that as a cleaner my reputation isn't judged by work I did 6-10 years ago. I've learned a few things since then.
If that guy had any sense he would take that machine back to Duane this winter and have it completely rebuilt on a new frame for a few thousand dollars and have a good machine for another 5 years but like most cleaners he will just continue to run broke shit and complain about it.

That reply means STFU in Utah.




Duane has made some improvements as we all have being in buisness....Heck Im a lot better CC now... then 12 years ago.


To compare it to Nicks is a pathetic and a personal attack trying to harm someone's livelhood. When you dont have the facts(new to old) and you havent seen a new one. If you notice (apparentlty you dont) you dont see people on here making claims its a POS....only you, who dosent have one.

Real classy...and unjustified.

 

[steve g]

Mine is a 45 and I run it at 15 hg but did run it at 18 hg for a couple years. My current coupler is over a year old. It is imperative that they be aligned dead on and finding someone who can do it is tough,fortunately I have Johns Custom Machine Shop nearby. Duane's new machines make it easy to align the blower.
I had some flex to the frame. John H got a couple 1" thick metal plates from Alro metals and put them under the engine and blower for pretty cheap. Hydramaster also built quite a few spitfires with a flexible frame. The frames are now stronger.
I've owned 8 truckmounts so I have some perspective and reasonable expectations. When something is not right I fix it unlike many who just keep running and complaining.
Based on the fact that the machine Steve G saw was belt driven it is at least 6 years old and probably sold for $7-9,000 complete with reels and is still running today. (that is about a $100 a month) How much more does Duane owe the guy before he has to refurbish the machine?
I am glad that as a cleaner my reputation isn't judged by work I did 6-10 years ago. I've learned a few things since then.
If that guy had any sense he would take that machine back to Duane this winter and have it completely rebuilt on a new frame for a few thousand dollars and have a good machine for another 5 years but like most cleaners he will just continue to run broke shit and complain about it.

no this machine is NOT the belt driven variety, it has a coupler just like yours, it does have a belt driven pump out that is bolted to the left side of the machine inside the box under the engine. I am not sure on the machines age however a quick look at the website and it looks just like the current machines being sold,

funny how the truth really outs about you yourself having to PAY someone else to beef up a machine that wasn't built right in the first place, I am sure it runs great now and I am not putting you down, but the fact is you had to fix something that should have been addressed in a better design, why didn't accelerated fix the issue? the frame is something that is the basis of the machine and should be done right if nothing else is.

personally i would add some 1.5" x 1/4 square angle welded in a box pattern under the existing box, and bolt the engine and blower all the way through the 3/16" plate and through the bottom of the angle, then it would be beefed right.

 

[hogjowl]

Duane has had his problems over the years and I was of the opinion that I would never purchase anything from him after seeing some of his early machines. Plus, I never got the opinion that Duane valued his business enough to actually put the TIME into it that was necessary to actually make it successful. The stories of him just not showing up to work on days when he had things scheduled were just too much for me to trust him to build me a rig.

However, Duane has been at it since 2000, failed twice and now is back at it again. His dogged determination has won a bit of admiration for him from me. Plus, he seems to be building better units today and I could see a situation where I might consider having him build me a system one day.

If he would take the chance of selling me anything. Cuz if he screwed me, or the system sucked ... I would bitch and moan worse than jImMY did about Clark Lancaster for all those years.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Steve if you knew some of the history you'd know that a former partner caused a few snafu's a few years ago before Duane left "Advanced", the company he started and had to start over with "Accelerated".

I'll let Duane pipe in when he gets back.

 

[FB7777]

Duane has had his problems over the years and I was of the opinion that I would never purchase anything from him after seeing some of his early machines. Plus, I never got the opinion that Duane valued his business enough to actually put the TIME into it that was necessary to actually make it successful. The stories of him just not showing up to work on days when he had things scheduled were just too much for me to trust him to build me a rig.

However, Duane has been at it since 2000, failed twice and now is back at it again. His dogged determination has won a bit of admiration for him from me. Plus, he seems to be building better units today and I could see a situation where I might consider having him build me a system one day.

If he would take the chance of selling me anything. Cuz if he screwed me, or the system sucked ... I would bitch and moan worse than jImMY did about Clark Lancaster for all those years.

I'm not sure if that was an endorsement or advice to steer clear of his units :shock:


besides, you'll purchase a used version of whatever Mikey buys next

who the hell are you trying to fool :mrgreen:

 

[hogjowl]

Do they MAKE new versions of that last pos he bought?

 

[steve g]

this machine said accelerated on the front panel so I assume its one of the "new" machines, this is all starting to sound like a freeflow type of story, but then again nick probably at least gets the frame strong even though the welds might look like shit.

 

[floorguy]

put up the video of it....

 

[roro]

Like many others Duane probably spent too much time on the boards rather than on his business.

I ordered one of his machines going purely on his reputation and after speaking with two guys whom I would trust not to BS me. So I sent money to a guy I didn't know living on the other side of the world. He delivered the goods on time and with no hassles. ( He even packed goods from other suppliers into the shipping crate which saved me a considerable amount in freight)

The machine has done everything that I have asked of it, performs well and the purchase price was recovered on its first job. (Very large commercial) It was approximately half the cost of a similar spec Hydamaster, Prochem or White Magic which were the only brands available in our country at that time.

One of the major reasons for purchase was that it was simple - parts were available locally - there are virtually no proprietary parts that to me are the curse of a number of other machines.

Would I buy another. Yes I am currently looking at one that may need to be custom built due to layout of a vehicle and Duane has responded quickly to any queries. I am also considering a Judson and one other (if either of them ever respond with the dimmensions etc that aren't on their websites)

roro

 

[hogjowl]

I bet doing business with you is a bitch over the phone.

Probably worse than talking to Cu.

 

[Duane Oxley]

Oh, boy...

So, let me get this right... You saw an old system that Accelerated built and decided that it represented every one of the others from the same company, right...?

First off, we had only one system in Utah of that kind. It was delivered 6 or 7 years ago, as close as I recall. Welded to the frame was a "boiler" (large heater) stand, because it was a "Predator Unleashed". The boiler stand was about half the height of the frame, and functioned as the brace to stiffen it, because it wouldn't flex and wouldn't let the back of the frame flex as a result. Here is a picture of a system like the one you saw, showing the boiler stand on the back of the frame. You can see that the way the boiler was mounted, the rear of the frame was prevented from flexing:

Was there a heater on the back of the frame...? (It may have been cut off, and if so, the bracing on the rear of the frame would have been gone.)

Continuing on... Across the front, inside, behind the face plate, was a 3/16" by 1.25" flat bar of steel. That served as the mount for the hinged face plate. (It also set the dimension for the width of the frame at the bottom, so that it was not able to shift.) Around the perimeter of the face plate, there was 1" angle iron, welded in place so that it was a positioned behind the face plate and became the "rest" for the face plate. When the face plate was closed, it became a brace for the system, in addition to the angle iron brackets mentioned above, resulting in a frame that would not flex. Here is a picture of a system like the one you saw, with the face plate open, showing the angle iron around the inside of the frame and showing how the face plate, when closed, served as additional bracing:

If you look at a major name brand system, you'll see that they're made of- guess what- sheet metal. But in their case, that metal is much thinner than 3/16". Their metal is "broken over" or folded, to provide stiffening, as was the system you saw, though the one you saw had much thicker metal.

Now... In addition, we did, in fact, have some systems (two that I was aware of... maybe this one is number 3...) that were under spec, in terms of metal thickness. What I mean by this, is that even though we spec'd in 3/16", there is an "industry accepted variation", or "tolerance", that we found was not acceptable when the two systems I knew of surfaced, so we went to 1/4" to compensate. That fixed any flex issues.

However... I've seen systems 1 year old that look like they were made in the 1980's, because they were so poorly maintained. And I've seen systems that were 10 years old that looked like new. The point here is that an old system can be so far from what it was when it was new, that it's almost unbelievable. And I can tell you for a fact that the system you saw is several years old, because we don't build them that way and haven't in about 4 years now. (The web site needs updating, I know. We're working on it.)

So, Steve, I'm not telling you that you're "wrong". I'm telling you that what you saw could have been through "Hell" and been radically modified as a result, before you saw it. It can and does happen.

Hey, Steve, there's another thing that I do want to correct you on, however. That pump- out pump. It pumps 50 GPM, at 70 feet from the truck, uphill, against up to 17" of vacuum. (That's how I tested that pump originally. And we do offer it as a dedicated "flood pumper", with satisfied customers, who specialize in flood work.)

By the way... I told you that we don't build systems like that now. We do build systems with the name, "Predator Unleashed", but they aren't enclosed. They look like this:

We've been building that particular design for about 3 years now, just to let you know.

And as far as direct- coupled systems, we've upgraded their easo of alignment considerably since the one you saw. Here's a closer look for you:

And just to let you know, we do build belt- driven systems now as well. (As I said, we're working on doing a web site update soon.)

 

[Lee Stockwell]

A picture is truely worth 1000 words...

 

[roro]

I bet doing business with you is a bitch over the phone.

Probably worse than talking to Cu.

Yep 'cos you guys in Prattville are always 17 hours behind us in Wellywood
. :mrgreen:

 

[Spurling]

Great lookin set up .. my brother lives in the next county and has his own carpet cleaning business .. he bought one of these machines about 6 years ago .. the thing runs like its brand new .. still has amazing suction ..the only thing that went wrong was he needed to replace the probe (heat sensor) in his propane heater .. I think he paid 8k new ..

anyone know what it would cost per hr to run a propane fired 18-20hp Kohler?

 

[Bob Foster]

1/2 gallon per hour under load

 

[Art Kelley]

This actually looks like a machine that could handle any job you come upon. Good job Duane!

[/quote]

 

[Spurling]

I was looking at the americanaltfuel.com website and it says it would be easy to convert your vehicle to propane fed .. it also said you may gain upto 4 miles per gallon ..I wonder how hard it would be to convert an 18hp K to propane .. boy youd save money now and be ready for the future .. maybe even park closer to that open window .. I would just hate to get into an accident and have the propane tank send me to the moon ..

 

[Duane Oxley]

By the way... We recently changed to Roots from Tuthill.

The reason was that I wanted DSL (dual splash lubrication) blowers, which only Hydramaster can get from Tuthill. DSL blowers have no grease connections. They're oil bath, front and rear. They also are spec'd for a little higher lift, but that had nothing to do with my choice. I like the convenience and reliability of not having a customer with um, "irregular" maintenance habits, have to grease the blower every 100 hours.

So, here's what I came up with on the recent system we built.. A single drain for both. This is the first one. The ball valve is a little long and the fittings aren't the ones we'll be using on an ongoing basis, but it's pretty cool, I think:

 

[Curtis Pennington]

I hear crickets...


somebody has an agenda.

 

[Duane Oxley]

This actually looks like a machine that could handle any job you come upon. Good job Duane!

That's Kevin McCreary's system. He'll be receiving it Sunday.

It has a 30 HP Kohler and a 47 Roots DSL, Cat 290 with clutch, 250,000 oil- fired boiler and continuous pump- out.

It's a custom- designed system for his new Ford Transit Connect.

 

[Kevin. McCreary]

When he is done with that machine I'm going to have him build one similar to it that will fit on the back of my EZ-GO.

 

[Able 1]

I will be intrested to see the install if you will, please post some pics... I just love to have the room in my van I have even taken out my frount pass. seat (I have my omni and my vac. up front) If you can make it work though... good for you! looks too small for me. :?

ez-go :shock: