We would like to have an easier way to perform 250, 500, 1000 hour services in the field. Currently we do 250's and some 500's in the field but have to bring the iron to the yard for the 1000 hour services due to the volume of oil. Looked at Thundercreek trailers at Conexpo and got a price for a nice fuel and lube trailer. Specs - 2 - 55 gal product tanks. We would have engine and hydro 1- 110 gal waste/reclaim 2 - pumps and reels for engine and hydro 1 - waste vac 4 - 115 gal diesel tanks 1 - diesel pump 1 - 100 gal DEF with 2 way pump for dispense and fill Electric jack Light tower Gas powered air compressor with generator Air hose reel Power cord reel 35LB grease keg with pump and hose reel Used filter/oil drain pan with bottom suction Aluminum wheels - why not? Total OTD price $68,000. Not bad for the equipment, fit and finish of the trailer. I was able to put my hands on one at Conexpo and it's a well built trailer. As we add more DEF machines this trailer can not only fuel and lube but help keep our DEF cleaner and ultimately be cheaper than the 2.5 gal jugs. Funds are always tight and we are not there yet with only 2 DEF machines other than pickups so the 2.5 gal jugs suffice. The biggest bang for buck at the moment is GPS, it's been a game changer in the current labor market. Looking at either outfitting our current 325FL with full auto or upgrading to 325 Next gen with full auto. Full auto on either is around $60K. The cost of tractor upgrade is figured elsewhere. The obvious choice is funding GPS and putting the trailer on the back burner at the moment. However we still want something better than 5 gal buckets to perform services in the field. So that brings us to a lube skid. What would work for us would be - 2 - 50+/- gal product tanks for engine and hydro 1- 75+/- gal waste tank 2 - reels for both products 1 - waste vac Don't need a grease keg. We have 3 Milwaukee battery guns and 2 kegs in each of our job boxes along with 2 wheelbarrow compressors. Also have a large IR compressor we could mount on the skid but that gets cumbersome. Have a spare F350 LWB SRW, 3500 dually flatbed and several trailers to haul it on. It would be nice to find a skid that would slide between the fender wells of the 350 SRW but I don't know if that's available. So anyone have any advice on manufacturers? Make our own? We've thought about it but know where to source all of the components.
Interesting dilemma. I won't be able to help much, I rarely put more than 500 hours a year on anything, and haven't had it happen yet that I needed to do a 1000 hour service in-season. I've went a hundred hours over, and done them 200 hours early. I'd build my own if I was in your position. That $68k trailer sounds like something a guy would need if he was servicing 100+ pieces, and doing a 1000 hour service per week. Or, he's in the ag industry and wants to look important with the most expensive fuel trailer money can buy.
We operate all year, it's just slower in the winter with all the rain. There are 2 hoes, 2 CTL's, dozer, loader and roller that pretty much stay in the field year round. We'll bring them in for cleaning and a thorough go over once or twice a year. The trailer is something we'll grow into. Not only for service but the fuel aspect as well. If we are running 3-4 pieces hard on a job we could burn 100-150 gals a day. The 953c will burn though 50 gals in a day like water.
That trailer wouldn't have enough fuel for me. When I'm running tractors hard I'm burning close to 400 gallons per day. Currently I'm running a 750 gallon fuel trailer and will have 300 gallons on the back of the 550. I'm actually considering searching for a decent single axle bulk truck that isn't beat to death. Sometimes it's a pain going 20 miles the opposite direction to refill the fuel trailer.
Have you considered a box van on a medium duty chassis? You could use 110 gallon metal IBC’s for product and air dispensers. Seneca Tank builds a self contained all in one dispenser tower with pumps, hose reels, meters and pumps.
If we're on a large job we can get 500 or 1000 gal tanks for free from our fuel supplier. It's the larger of the smaller job scale that doesn't warrant an onsite tank.
That is a great setup if nothing more to keep everything out of the weather. Problem is tags and insurance is so expensive I don't want another piece of rolling stock. Sold our 1999 4700 we used as a service truck due to the cost of ownership.
Lots of guys here roll the truck on the lowboy, usually need to haul a little dozer or whatnot anyway. No need to license if it never hits the street. Just out of curiosity, how much per year are we talking? To give up a service truck, it would have to be stupid expensive, like more than $5k per year?
Just under $3K for insurance and tags per year. Sold the 4700 and a F250 in order to save a little over $5K a year. For once in my 20+ years of business our auto policy is more than our GL. We need tort reform in AL but that's another issue.. It was a 1999 4700 with a 5 sp, max velocity down hill with a tailwind and no passenger - 60 MPH. No body wanted to drive it on the interstate where average speed is 75+ and our projects are far enough apart we can't take side roads for times sake. The truck was in good shape but it was nearing 25 years old so I decided to get rid of it. We took off the welder, compressor, oil, grease and waste tank that was on it although those components are nearing 16-17 years of use. So we have those components we could use on a lube skid build. The more I think about it we could take our '13 F350 spare truck, put a service body on it and build out a lube portion on it.
I’d build your own. Figure out skid size that fits nice in the truck and work from that. There are sources for tanks in difference volumes and shapes, your oil supplier can hook you up with product pumps, hose reels etc. Waste oil pump can be an electric pump or a diaphragm style air pump. There are also pre-built skid available from the various service body manufacturers. Last year I price one through custom truck in KC, two products and waste oil. I want to say it was $6,500 and would fit in your pickup. Just add air.
JY $6500 ain't bad, I bet we'd have that much or more in building one adding in labor. We have an air diaphragm pump off the old truck but I don't like it as you have to swap hoses to evacuate. I'd rather have one with valve for any new build. What type of tank - plastic, steel or aluminum? Plastic being the cheapest, steel problems with rust and aluminum being more expensive. Being as small as what we're looking for aluminum might be the ticket and too price prohibitive.
Sage oil vac makes some really nice skids, they sell parts to build your own too.
Well we are leaning towards building a service truck using our '13 350 SRW. The plan is to take the pickup body off and get a CM flatbed or equivalent. We've acquired an old square 50 gal fuel tank for waste and going to fabricate 2-25 gal square steel tanks. Or so that's the plan at the moment.
I support four 3 machine pipe crews, that average 2k hours a year. 2 hoes and wheel loader each, plus landscaping equipment. The triple 60gallon tanks, 10w, 15w40, and waste, are more than sufficient for us. The waste has a reverser valve so it sucks in thru the reel, and when reversed, dispenses through the reel. Obviously the reels aren't on the skid, nor is the compressor. Fits between the sides of my Stellar Tmax11 on my Pete. I'm home every weekend and have bulk product tanks there. Each crew has a 500 gallon diesel tank on site. Curry Supply built the setup, and the rest of the configuration.
Made one for a shop I worked for. Made it 4ft wide and 8 ft long so it would fit in any full size truck bed. The only issue we had was the tanks were so cheap they didn't hold up to the air compressor or driving vibrations very well but that was upper management's decision not mine.
Nice truck and setup HM. Can't justify that much expense for our smaller operation but if funds weren't pulled in every direction.. Northern Tool has a broad selection of fuel and lube products on their website at pretty good prices especially their Ironton brand. I've bought various small tools and things in both the Ironton and Roughneck Northern Tool brands. My fuel guy actually suggested I look there as they have started to buy 12V fuel pumps and other products for their tanks. It's all made in China so wondering if anyone has any experience with the Northern Tool pumps and accessories?
I wasn't suggesting that you buy a truck like mine. I was showing the 60/60/60 supports our operations well, and that bigger isn't really needed,, IMHO. Also, that the waste tank with a diaphragm pump can be valve reversible. And to suggest contacting Curry to see if they catalog a skid to fill your needs.
I know. Just complimenting the setup.
Skids these days that I like are over 15 grand setup and then I am pushing overloaded in my 550 the 750 I just acquired would be nice for a skid but we go to many directions. Currently using a 80 gallon bulk tank and 55 gallon drum for waste in the back of the 550 it works and is cheap Were going to do a thunder creek in the next 12 months is my plan I have about 6 machines with def and the new ones without egr will really put the def away. Thunder creek has probably the best def system around and so that solves my bulk def problem around here I know to many job fuel tanks that have been stolen from overnight that I dont want to find out at 5 bucks a gallon. Also we will hit a job for about 10 days with 5 machines and move on so the fuel supplier wont do it We are starting to work about 100 miles from the yard mainly because of growth in our biz and driving a 1 ton 2 hours away sounds better than a 550 to deliver fuel and change oil But I agree 68 to 70 grand is expensive but in my time alone it will probably pay for itself way faster than I think
Just my $0.02 here from my experience: * Make a skid that you can load/unload from the truck bed with a forklift or crane if you don't need it full time. Easier to update or perform repairs on the unit this way and the truck bed is still available for other hauling if needed. * Used oil barrels or totes will get you a cheap, easy to replace containers until you want to fully commit to a particular size when you have your needs completely figured out. * Dont' forget to add a pressure washer to your build - indespensible in the field once you have one available on a daily basis - wash glass anytime as well as keep radiators clean as needed and clean up after hydraulic repairs. Easy to build your own system from components, and fairly cheap. I have a 200 gal fuel tank with fork ports under it for easy removal from my service truck. 4 bolts to get it free with welded nuts under the truck floor so no extra wrenches required. On the top of the tank is my grease hose reel that lays sideways in order to fit the allowable space. On the back of the tank is a welded-on shelf that has a 120 lb keg of grease banded into place which is run on air pressure. A 120v heater blanket around the grease keg heats the grease during winter nights so that the grease flows quickly in the morning at the job sites. I have a 55 gal plastic barrel for my pressure washer needs. That will usually get me by for a week's worth of windows/radiators in muddy conditions. Dry conditions may require more for the radiators if it's really bad. Running the welder/gen and the pressure washer from the truck's pto took away 2 extra engines/batteries/oils/parts to maintain and deal with. I have a 3 way valve to allow me to add antifreeze to the pump during winter months and a small Pelonis heater in the box to keep the water warm enough on the winter overnights. Everything is weather tight within the box. From my experiences, I would certainly want to keep everything in the dry as much as possible if I was building a fuel/grease skid. If you build a trailer, you should also consider a filtration cart if you want to keep your hydraulics in the cleanest condition and you can keep the cart/fittings super clean. Typically, I drain my hydraulic system into a 55 drum, make my repairs, polish up the oil for 30 minutes or more with the cart and then pump it back into the machine's reservoir. It's much more efficient than spilling oil everywhere and my hydraulics don't go down as often as they used to. Everyone's needs vary. You just need to figure out exactly what volumes will work best for your business. Look for used hose reels and pumps to fit your needs if you want to save that cash. And those quick, lever style oil drain plugs are also a time/mess saver, especially in the field.
Thank you all for the thoughts and suggestions. We've decided to build a skid with 2 - 25 gal product tanks (engine and hydro) and a 50 gal waste tank. The skid is 48" wide and 54" long so it will fit between the fender wells of a SRW 350. Skids are C-channel so we can load and unload with our Gradall or CTL's on the job in addition to a lifting eye for the excavators. Looking at Northern Tool Roughneck 5:1 pump, 50' hose reel and digital oil gun. Total price is just under $700. We have torpedo gas powered air compressors in each of the 2 4x8 job boxes for air on the job. Eventually the '13 350 is getting a flatbed with a fixed gas powered air compressor. Still putting the costs together but expect to be under $4k total.
If you have space don't forget the suggestion from @treemuncher regarding a pressure washer.
I would highly recommend a 30+" Montezuma box when you install the flatbed.
Late to the party here. I really like the Montezuma boxes, but unfortunately they are not weathertight enough for northern climes with snow and salted roads. At least that is what I have noticed with the guys that have them around here. @CM1995 , we are similar size to you, and this is what we came up with. We purchased this from a local outfit that specializes in lease returns from utility and company fleets. It's a 2015 that we bought a couple of years ago for 25K, complete with crane, wireless remote control for crane, oil tanks, recovery tanks, tool drawers.....everything you see except for contents of the boxes. You won't believe how many things you find to do with the crane despite having other equipment around for lifting. The truck only had 110,000 miles, but did have 8600 hours, so it must have idled all the time on job sites. It has been trouble free though! There is a company that provided the lube portion of this set up, but I don't recall the name. I can get it if you want it. The recovery hose can be switched by moving a lever, and I think we have two 50 gallon new oil tanks and 80 or so recovery. We have a 55 gallon plastic drum in our job trailer for def with a long hose for bigger jobs - smaller we resort to the environmentally UNFREINDLY plastic jugs like you.........that's a whole different subject! We do not have a grease system on it, but like you use Milwaukee battery grease guns in every pickup. This is too late I see, but it might be worth looking for a company that deals with commercial lease returns to see if you can find a similar set up.
Nige that will probably be on a separate skid with a 4x4 plastic water tote. We have a tote set up to pressurize with air for when we need water on the job for concrete and mortar for inverts and such. Works pretty well. We have a hot water washer but that stays at the yard. A tote with a small gas powered washer would fit the bill. I like those HVY but probably won't have the space on a SRW flatbed. On my truck and the supers Ram dually we both have the UWS aluminum 4 drawer box that works well with the 4 other Weatherguard tool boxes. My 4 drawer is mounted at the rear of the bed next to the tailgate and it's super handy to have all your small hand tools right there at your tailgate. Looking at some drawer systems to go inside a WG box on top of the flat bed.
Oxbow first off - do ya'll want your money back on that truck? $25K was a steal. The truck we are using is a 2013 F350 we bought new. Since we know this truck in and out and it's been paid for its the perfect subject to turn into a service truck. It has well over 100K miles and has been trouble free except for normal maintenance items and wear parts. Without a doubt we want a crane one day. In a perfect world I want a Maintainer body on a 4x4 F600 chassis. What is the brand and part # of the waste oil valve? Our waste oil diaphragm pump is similar but we don't have the selector valve which is something I want to add for obvious reasons.
I'm not sure, but I'll go look.......... Be danged if I could find any name or part # on it CM. Maybe you could give LubeMate a call and see if they can help. I don't know if they just do the lube stuff or the whole bed. It's a Knapheide bed, but I'm not sure who put it all together.
Thank you Oxbow. I should be able to find that on the net and if not I'll call LubeMate.
Might have found one. Morrison Bros. M Series 1 in. FNPT Four-Way Reversing Valve - 4 Ports Since 1975, JME has been a trusted distributor of petroleum equipment, loading systems, sanitary supplies, fire safety products, and industrial parts. Shop now to see why 1000s of customers have chosen us as their preferred provider. www.jmesales.com
That looks like it will work!
Graco
Thanks HMC! I ordered the one above which is basically the same. $400 to the door which is a little "ouch" but worth it in order to not have the mess of swapping lines. Curious about the "clean out" on the tank hose. What's that for?
The "cleanout" is a screen on the hose reel. For my install, hose and tank are reversed. See the add on sticker above that says "empty" and, behind the lever, "fill".
The old finger smashers weren't, but newer ones intended to be mobile have proper weather stripping and tight latches. I would absolutely give up a 36" 4 drawer box for a 36" Montezuma box. The socket tray on the 36" lifts up and has a good bit of storage back there. I keep my hammers, punch roll, large(for a 36" box) bars and small power tools back there.
I run a Y strainer clean out too, diaphragm pumps are tough but it’s insurance against something getting into one of the rubbers and cutting it.
Hey we put pipe in the ground for a living and the only thing I could think of calling it was a clean out. Seriously thanks for the info.
Hey CM, we like you have seen a trend in increasing insurance rates and decided to reduce trucks out of our fleet that got occasional use. As a result we have been looking for a service/Lube trailer to replace an f650 that like your 4700 got sent down the road. We lucked out and were able to get a great auction deal on this trailer It isn't new and shiny but will serve our needs for the cost of about 2 years insurance premium on the truck it replaced. I was headed down the route you are taking building a skid until I spotted this setup.
02S that's a nice trailer. If I ran across that at a good price I'd bought it as well. What's the fluid capacity? Is that a L9000 in the background? Looks like our old girl.
Good eye CM, it is a L8000 tandem auto dump we use in some of our municipality projects. It has been a great truck all the guys can drive. The lube trailer has a 315G waste with suction/discharge, three 50g products, a 250G product, a 200G product, 125# grease, air, lights. I really lucked into this one. I have a three 30g-40g product tank start of a lube skid that I no longer need if you are interested
Thanks for the offer. The guys are painting our 2 product tanks they welded up last week. Week late and a dollar short..lol. Our L9000 is auto as well. Built like a brick **** house but underpowered with a L10 Cummins. Great off-road truck that's paid for itself over and over again.
If work keeps up, I had been toying with the idea of a Thunder Creek....but 68k....yea, I'd rather have autos a hoe for sure. I like the skid or trailer idea; treemucher especially had a lot of good ideas imo.
We've been running 3-4 pieces of equipment daily and my two ~100 gallon truck tanks are struggling to keep up; that's for sure. And we're blowing through the grease. 1.) larger tanks would eliminate as many trips to my fuel distributor (job is only say 3 weeks long running this much iron, if that) 2.) the gas powered true 35-40 gpm fuel pump would be a godsend 3.) keg grease would be a little cheaper but more importantly fast, as we're burning through tubes of grease that we have to change and cleanup. 4.) an onboard air compressor is a must have; as it is, I'm bringing my 185 cfm IR compressor as that's all I have. Blowing out filters now that it's dusty again is a necessity. 5.) had a hydraulic hose blow yesterday; a pressure washer skid w/water would be real nice. Thankfully they have water near, so we'll just bring a regular one. Got 'lucky' on that score.
If you want to build your own trailer system, look at Homesteader Hercules line for a stout built enclosed trailer. I had purchased one to carry up to 2 totes of water plus pressure washer for in-field clean outs. I also used it several times when I needed the filtration cart to drain a hydraulic system and/or refill a system from 55 gal drums. Field service is a lot easier when you have everything you possibly need and the trailer makes carrying the bulky stuff a lot easier, when needed. The 14' trailer that I bought is large enough to build in a bunk if I want to stay on site and camp out. Savman, you could put some 300 gallon totes in one of these trailers and have bulk off road delivered on site. Play your cards right and always move with an empty set of totes when you're back on the road. When it comes to greasing, a hose reel and pnuematic powered keg are a real time saver. The next step after that is grease distribution blocks so that you can evenly grease multiple points from one location. I reduced 14 fitting points to 2 remote points that are easier to access with a custom built system for under $400. More than paid for itself within 2 months via time savings and no more dealing with clogged fittings. I've even added an on-board system where I can grease my most critical points while operating with the flip of a switch. It's not all that expensive if you source it and install it yourself.
There's no way I would drop $68,000 on a thunder creek trailer. I don't care how nice it is. And I know the guy that started the company. That would pay for a lot of insurance and plates for your old lube truck.
This trailer is for sale by me, $7,900. 550 gallons of fuel, and it looks like you could put two or three - 50 gal tanks ahead of the fuel for oil. and hyd. tanks. Room in the back rack for your def, but I think you would want a cover because I don't think def likes sun. Some diamond plate aluminum and a hinge would fix that right up. You can send me the extra $54,550 you'll save over thunder creek. I would even settle for 10 % finders fee.
Well that trailer is about useless as teats on a boar hog to me so don't take out an advance on that finders fee. Fuel is not the issue at the moment as we can get a 500 gal tank dropped for free from our oil supplier and I'm not buying a trailer that requires a hazmat license. Yeah, yeah in a perfect world and no zealous DOT officers one could time the re-fuels just right and move it empty but the world is far from perfect.
Progress report on the lube skid build. 50 Gal reclaim tank we scrounged up used about to get a hot water pressure wash. 2- 25 gal product tanks the guys built out of plate from KGS Steel. Skid bottom fab'ed out of some small I beam we gathered from some demo job we couldn't remember and a stick of new channel. Reversing valve for the waste oil came in last Thursday. We have a little time next week to finish it up before we start a project at a national home supply store the middle of this month. Still need to order one new oil pump, hose and hose reel.
Empty or loaded, as I understand it anything that has a capacity of 1000 lbs. in a single tank is subject to hazmat. We often haul two 105 gallon tanks in one pickup, but because they are two seperate tanks hazmat is not required.
Isn't it somewhere around 113 gallon is the cutoff for one tank before hazmat kicks in? We have a 110 gal tank on a pallet that I can legally haul full in my truck with 100 gal L tank full as well since the tanks are not connected together. That's why the Thundercreek trailers require no hazmat since they link 100 gal tanks together with electric valves and one pump. Salesman at Conex said if the main manifold that controlled all the valves and pump was turned ON and it was running down the road then a hazmat license would be required. OFF and it met Fed rules. So to idiot proof it they put a kill switch on the front door latch to turn it off. We have to keep up with state contractors licenses, business licenses, trade certifications, CDL requirements and a plethora of safety qualifications so the last thing I want to keep up with is hazmat licensing for something that would not benefit the company at this time.
I'm not sure, I understood it as a 1,000 lbs., so 125 gallons @ 8lbs./gallon. I know diesel is lighter than that so maybe the standard 105 gallon transfer tank allows a fair buffer. I kind of like the idea of multiple tanks/one pump and still be legal via the manifold!
I was just thinking that the multi-tank approach could be real handy for us in the winter. Most of our winter fuel is adequately treated, but it might be cost-effective for us to have #1 diesel in half the tanks so that we could blend according to the current temperature.
The manifold is supposed to pull evenly from all the tanks that are open, so it should work. With 6 tanks and 3 each you could do 25%, 40%, or 50%.
Really can’t haul fuel in most of them. They have to be moved empty, like you said. We would have to pump them off for the customer, move and refill.
A little update on the skid. Tanks finished up and getting painted. The primer was white so it made the white painting part that much easier. Used the KBS Coatings 53000 clean, etch and seal products to seal the inside of the 2 new 25 gal product tanks. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000IBEOQ2?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details Test run on Ol Blue in order to start the prep and prime stage.
Further progress. This is all my guys design and build, the only addition to the design I made was the 4 way valve. 4 way diverter valve - Waste oil tank mounted at the back. The expanded metal between the reels and the waste tank will be used to store the waste oil hose. The yellow reel is a Graco we already had and will be used for engine oil. The white reel is one ordered on Amazon for less than $300 and I'm impressed for the price. Also had the Graco waste oil diaphragm pump. Ordered a Goodyear brand (whoever makes it in China) 3:1 air pump again from Amazon. Time will tell how it will hold up. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XCZ3PV8?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Forgot to update the thread as it's been busy. Not the best pic but the skid is 90% complete. Going to use some 2x2 metal tubing to build a protective cage with a lifting eye so it can be lifted with a trackhoe if needed. Turned out pretty nice for the labor and equipment expended. Engine oil on the right with the yellow Grayco reel and pump we already had. White reel and Goodyear pump for 10W on the left ordered from Amazon. Tubing and misc fittings from HD. The expanded metal area is for the suction hose storage.
That looks nice!
Thanks! I think it turned out pretty good.