Jim Pemberton
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- Joined
- Oct 7, 2006
- Messages
- 12,589
- Name
- Jim Pemberton
I've enjoyed what each of you have shared on this subject.
As one would expect, the answer is different for everyone.
Here are a few things I've learned over the 50 (gulp) years I've been around truck mounts:
Truck mounts have always been a mixed blessing to our industry. Before them, and for serious VLM only users now, a back up machine could be kept on hand for little cost, and be loaded in and out of a single work van with little effort.
With a truck mount, you don't just need a back up machine, you also need a back up van or at least a trailer. You need to have it insured, a place to keep it warm, and you have a cost (if new for both) of around 100,000.00. Even if you cut that by 75% since the back up is likely used, that's still 25,000.00.
Without a back up, you either have to rely on availability of parts or a stock of your own and your mechanical skills to fix yours quickly. Some repairs on truck mounts are relatively easy to do in the field, some are not.
Service centers in our country are few and far between, and the best ones are rarely available on a day's notice, because like a good cleaner, they are booked ahead for days, sometimes weeks.
One of the MAJOR hidden benefits to the embracing of VLM by former members of the "Great Steam Religion" has been the ability cleaners have to continue to work while their truck mount is down for repairs. I have often felt that these forced circumstances where the times where cleaners learned how really well VLM works, and how readily their customers received the results.
So, no easy answers for anyone, but the subject is one each should explore, because "...time and unpredictable events overtake all of them". The quote is from Ecclesiastes 9:11, and is meant as counsel to us mortals...
....But it applies to aging truck mounts as well
As one would expect, the answer is different for everyone.
Here are a few things I've learned over the 50 (gulp) years I've been around truck mounts:
Truck mounts have always been a mixed blessing to our industry. Before them, and for serious VLM only users now, a back up machine could be kept on hand for little cost, and be loaded in and out of a single work van with little effort.
With a truck mount, you don't just need a back up machine, you also need a back up van or at least a trailer. You need to have it insured, a place to keep it warm, and you have a cost (if new for both) of around 100,000.00. Even if you cut that by 75% since the back up is likely used, that's still 25,000.00.
Without a back up, you either have to rely on availability of parts or a stock of your own and your mechanical skills to fix yours quickly. Some repairs on truck mounts are relatively easy to do in the field, some are not.
Service centers in our country are few and far between, and the best ones are rarely available on a day's notice, because like a good cleaner, they are booked ahead for days, sometimes weeks.
One of the MAJOR hidden benefits to the embracing of VLM by former members of the "Great Steam Religion" has been the ability cleaners have to continue to work while their truck mount is down for repairs. I have often felt that these forced circumstances where the times where cleaners learned how really well VLM works, and how readily their customers received the results.
So, no easy answers for anyone, but the subject is one each should explore, because "...time and unpredictable events overtake all of them". The quote is from Ecclesiastes 9:11, and is meant as counsel to us mortals...
....But it applies to aging truck mounts as well
She comes waltzing through asking, what’s ya doing 
