Spray Equipment Blog

Power Sprayer Emergency Repair Kits - Save Time, Save Money, Save Customers

Customer was in to refill his Weed Control Sprayer Emergency Repair kit. This is one of the best kits I have seen.       

Keeping critical pest control sprayer parts in the vehicle, reduces downtime & missed appointments and saves trips to the repair shop.

Emergency repair kits are great for power sprayers and manual sprayers such as B&G 1 Gallon Sprayers. The kit in this photo is the bosses. His employees all have smaller, more limited kits.

 

For more information on this topic, read my article in Pest Management Magazine: http://www.mypmp.net/technology/emergency-repair-kits-increase-productivity

 

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ATV Sprayers - Great Productivity Tool

ATV Sprayers can get into places your regular vehicles cannot reach.  Here is a photo of our most recent project.  Twin 100 Gallon Gator Sprayers for a large landscape firm in Las Vegas. 

 

Some features of these weed sprayers:

- 100 Gallon tank for productivity

- Electric Reel for operator ease

- Dual Boom-I-Nator Boomless nozzles for productivity

- Easy operator controls for boomless nozzles

- All components easily accessible to operator & maintenance staff

Powers Sprayers - 5 Important Truck Considerations

Pest Sprayers, Weed Sprayers & Tree Sprayers need a place to go. That place is usually your truck. Before buying a truck or a power sprayer (or any other professional equipment for that matter) make sure the truck and the equipment will work together.

Some questions to consider:

1. Is there space in the truck?

2.  Can the truck safely handle the load?

3. When the equipment is mounted in the truck, are key components easily and safely accessible by the technician?

4. Is there room for a toolbox or my other equipment?

5. Is there room under the vehicle to bolt the equipment down to the bed?

 

We have seen quite a few company owners make compromises because the forgot to think about #4.

As vehicle manufacturers cram more and more equipment into vehicles, #5 becomes more and more difficult. Take a look under the vehicle to ensure there are good places to drill through the bed to install the equipment (photo).

 

Just because your equipment came out of a certain vehicle, for example a 2007 Ford F150, doesn’t mean it will fit in the new F150. Do a little research upfront to make sure you don’t have an unexpected, and expensive problem.

For more on this subject, read our Truck Spray Equipment article in Pest Management magazine

That's One Expensive Bird

Expensive bird, on the pavement, a moment after landing on APS power lines outside our shop. 

 

In addition to causing our power to go out, one of the electrical components on the line caught fire, necessitating a call to Phoenix FD. 

 

 

When the power came back on, my laptop was fried.  It was about the only time I hadn't plugged it into a surge protector.  Here is what I learned from this expensive lesson:

1.  ALWAYs use a surge protector.  I bought a little portable one that I now use at Starbucks, hotels, etc.

2.  I now use DROPBOX.com to sync all my critical home/office/laptop files automatically.

3.  I am bought a cheap laptop, with a service plan, and will throw it away in 2 years.

I hope this helps you avoid an expensive, time-consuming problem.

Weed Sprayer Right of Way - Our Best Work

Weed Sprayer Right of Way, 200 Gallon.  We delivered this sprayer to Arizona Department of Transportation this week.  Photo shows Sarah Karasz, ADOT Natural Resources Supervisor in front of the sprayer.         

 

ADOT will use this sprayer to spray weeds along the side of AZ highways and to de-ice bridges this winter.  Some of the features:

- 200 gallon tank, with auto opening lid for easy fill

- Deicing Boom

- Guard Rail Boom

- ROW Weed Boom - 4 different tips, on actuator for spray angle adjustment

- Electric rewind spray reel, with remote control rewind

- Separate clean water system

- Custom Control box: engine start/kill, pressure adjustment, on/off for each tip/boom, ambient temperature, road temperature, tank lid up/down, boom spray head up/down.

We are proud of this sprayer and think it is our best work.  Check out photos on our page:

 

Pest Control Trucks: Space is a Premium - Don't Waste It

Pest control sprayers take up a lot of space in a service vehicle. We cant afford to waste any. Pest Control operator brought us a truck and asked us to install a 100 gallon spray rig.  We were surprised at how the toolbox was installed (photo). 

 

The toolbox was installed by the truck dealer 4" from the front of the bed.   Space is at a premium in pest control truck beds, especially in short beds or when trying to install a large tank and a toolbox.

 

The equipment the client wanted and the rack system (installed by the dealer) required an expensive custom skid that would not have fit any other truck.  Since the client was planning on trading in the truck shortly, it would not have been money well spent.  We advised, and client agreed, it was better to put the equipment in a small trailer.  When a new truck is purchased. the equipment will be moved from the trailer to the new vehicle.

Do you have any photos of inefficient spray vehicles you can share? 

 

 

Weed Control Pump Damage Offers Great Lessons

Weed control sprayer diaphragm pump was totally destroyed, costing the company money, downtime and missed appointments.  Pump was run without oil.  Photo (click to enlarge) shows 1) metal fragments 2) scored shaft both from unlubricated operation.

 

Diaphragm pumps are great pumps for weed control spray rigs, deep root feeding rigs and landscape sprayers.  The pumps can handle a wide variety of materials while supplying good volume and pressure.  These pumps require oil for lubrication.  Most have an external oil reservoir that is visible to the spray tech.   The first lesson is that techs MUST check the oil reservoir BEFORE starting the pump.  If there is no oil, or there is a white milky liquid, do not start the pump.  The photo shows what happens if you do.

 

The second lesson is that sometimes the diaphragms fail while the applicator is working.  The pump will continue pumping.  There may be a change in pressure or the sound that the pump is making.  Train technicians to be aware of these things and to return to the vehicle and check the pump if they think there may be a problem.

 

The third lesson is don't wait for diaphragms to fail.  Perform preventative maintenance regularly.  Replace diaphragms (and other key parts) BEFORE they fail.

Finally, the pressure control valve on this pump was stuck in the highest possible position. The technician was spraying weeds at 360 psi!  Technicians must be advised that if they have a problem, they are to report it promptly.   This expensive issue could have been avoided had the technician been better trained.

Comments?

 

 

 

 

A Simple Change for Pest Control Professionals

“Change is inevitable” as the quote goes, but in the Pest Control industry adapting to the changes that are caused by new laws and label changes seems to be a slower process for some.

 

Examples of recent changes: the limitations and required documentation to use Fumitoxin (and its 100 ft. rule) and the Risk Mitigation Decision which limits your baiting programs to within 50 feet of a structure.  Both are drastic changes that have greatly affected our industry.

 

Creating change in your company should be a step-by-step process and be easy to duplicate.   Manufacturers’ labels change all the time; having a current label and MSDS sheet and creating a fast and simple process to keep your label books current is one of the first steps to a successful program.  Other ways to learn more about upcoming changes and keeping in compliance are; 

 

• Attending Pest Control Industry-related meetings and join AZPPO; this is how Manufacturers get out their information quickly.

 

• Subscribe to Industry-related email, newsletters, blogs and pest control magazines.

 

• When purchasing products, or when seeing your distributors, ask them about any changes that may be coming.

 

• Mark your calendar to dedicate several days (or more) for training. Rain-days, in-house training or last day of the month training work well.

 

• Schedule visits with your distributors or manufacturers’ representatives to ask “what’s new” and are there “any changes” is as simple as an email or phone call these days.

 

Knowing what alternatives are available when a product becomes too restrictive to use (or when one is banned from use altogether) will keep your company flowing with uninterrupted business.   The step-by-step process always starts off the same: knowing what you’re up against, keeping informed, implementing change, and making sure you meet or exceed all legal requirements.

 

James Rodriguez

Territory Manager J.T. Eaton

Direct (818) 640-4587

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jteatonrep

Weed Control Sprayer - Careful How You Save Money

Weed control sprayer. Client (a nursery) bought an off the shelf weed spray cart on the internet in order to save some money. Tank was damaged by an employee and brought in to us for repair (photo). 

 

When we contacted the manufacturer.  6 weeks lead time on this tank. That is a lot of downtime.  Make sure you ask about replacement parts/components when buying a power sprayer.

 

What is the true cost of this weed sprayer?

Comments?

 

 

Weed Control Sprayers – How Bad Design Hurts Business

Client brought a weed control sprayer in for repairs.  The power sprayer used a fiberglass tank split into 2 tanks.  The tank was fine but the problem was the plumbing.  The company that built the sprayer ran the plumbing lines for the 2^nd tank through the middle of the 1^st tank.  One of these lines cracked, causing contamination as the chemicals mixed.  Here are some photos:

 

 

 

Notice how the pickup line runs through the wall into the other tank.

 

 

The small capped line at the top of this photo is the bypass line.  Notice how it runs through the wall into the other tank.  This line had cracked inside the other tank, causing contamination in that other tank.  We capped it and reran the line on the outside of the tank.

 

 

The photo on the right shows the exterior of the tank.  The red arrow shows the bypass line that we capped off.  We re-ran this line on the outside of the tank the way it should have been done originally.

 

The blue arrow shows the pickup lines for the two tanks.  You can see how both lines run into the close tank and therefore one of the lines runs through the first tank into the second.

 

This is obviously terrible design that caused downtime.  Cross contamination can be an expensive proposition (think post emergent in your preemergent tank). 

The only reason we can think of for this design was to put all the hoses and fittings inside the tank to make the sprayer easier to ship.  This seems backward to us.  A rig should be designed for long term, productive use not for 1 time shipping.  Figure out a better way to ship it.  When we ship rigs we have specially designed boxes that go over the sprayers to protect them.

 

Comments?