Oh The Hose Reel Problems We’ve Seen!

Bob Marley sang, “You can fool some people sometime, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.” You might be fooled into thinking a few spot welds keeping your 100 pound hose reel suspended above your engine and pump will hold. But we know better. Eventually the normal wear and tear, thumping and bumping down roads, hot and cold temperatures will weaken those welds and BOOM, down goes that reel. That engine underneath might survive but, that pump won’t. You have to look at the big picture. 

Using cheap piping to suspend a hose that is heavy enough alone not to mention it’s going to have water or chemicals being pumped through it, a few spot welds just aren’t good enough. Besides if something happens to your engine or pump is accessing it for repair with your hose reel above the easiest?

When we build a sprayer our hose reel it's a four‑inch steel channel, three‑sixteenths inch thick, welded on both sides, top and bottom. It can't possibly fail. We even have proof – a client’s rig and reel were involved in an accident, truck rolled 3 times but this held and protected the bed of the truck and nothing on the hose reel collapsed.

When your equipment is on the line, when you company is on the line – and it always is, isn’t it? Don’t make the mistake of trusting inferior products, accessories and hack job assembly. When welding down your equipment to trucks, think through all the uses, repairs that will need to be done. Is it situated for ease of use and access? Demand better, stronger that will last through wear and tear and worst-case scenario. For more tips on truck design and layout visit Qspray.com.

Our next video in the series is on design flaws - check it out!

Andrew Greess: Here's another one. This is another competitor sprayer and they've got...At the top, it's a hose reel with 300 feet of half‑inch hose and they are using a cheapo metal tube here. They're just spot welding it there, there, and at the bottom.

Now, 300 feet of half‑inch hose that's filled with water on a hose reel has got to weigh at least 100 pounds. It's heavy. Think about what's going to happen to these spot welds after you are bouncing around Arizona for a couple of years. It can't hold. It's going to break. I'll just say it will ruin your day. How about that?

We can say what will happen to the...It probably wouldn't hurt the engine too bad. It's going to trash the pump.

This is how we do it. It's a four‑inch steel channel, three‑sixteenths inch thick, welded on both sides, top and bottom. It can't possibly fail. In fact, I have a picture, another presentation, where this rig...A customer got T‑boned at an intersection. The rig rolled three times and this held. It protected the bed. Nothing collapsed.

There's ways to do it and there's ways not to do it. You got to look for those things and that's not things people look for when they're buying sprayers.

If you missed any of the videos in this series, catch up on them here:

Experience Pays: Top 10 Avoidable Spray Equipment Problems And Ways To Avoid Them

Choosing the Right Spray Equipment Engines, Backpacks, Pumps and Trailers

Spray Fittings and Tanks - The Right Small Spray Equipment Components Matter Too

For more information on Andrew Greess, visit https://www.qspray.com/