• Overview
• Bike Forum
• Chat Forum
• For Sale
• Wanted
• Forum Help
• Classified Rules

Bike Forum

1. monkeyboyjc - Member 

   After seeing a few YouTube clips and a mates, I thought I'd have a go at putting together a ghetto portable washer for the car.

   The bits all turned up this week and the initial tests seem positive.

   Made from a marine pump kit, bought from eBay for £18 and 20l jerry can I had in the garage. I was going to use a 10l one, but I don't think I'd get a full bike wash from that. Plus the 20l has a tap on the end which the feeder hose connects straight to, just needs a small hose clip to keep it secure.

   Obviously needs tiding up and something to mount the pump too, but works well so far for less than 20 quid.

   

   Posted 9 hours ago #
2. rosscopeco - Member 

   That looks great and a good idea to boot. Was about to buy one but might give this a whirl instead. More details please inc pump spec and al the rest of the gubbins.

   I presume it's 12v?

   Posted 8 hours ago #
3. Junkyard - lazarus 

   I have a tow bar and if i cared i would just get one of those pump up sprayer tanks as its not going to be much different and much cheaper

   Posted 8 hours ago #
4. mark90 - Member 

   This is mine.....

   

   Only used it once so far, cleans the bike rather well but does get through the water quickly. Might have to look into a flow restrictor of some sort.

   Posted 8 hours ago #
5. ezzy1 - Member 

   Bought one the other month , work great but not enough to blast dried mud ! Your hose lance looks a bit better kit compared to my plastic version. I found that with mine if the pump was mounted low it would air lock for some reason .

   Posted 8 hours ago #
6. monkeyboyjc - Member 

   Link here to the pump kit..
   According to the description it's generates 130psi, it's probably not that high from the 2min I had it running at but it does go though the water quick, hense the upgrade to a 20l jerry.
   It'll mainly be used for immediate after ride duties so dry mud shouldn't be an issue. I could always bring the smaller jerry as well with some mucoff style stuff in the water, then switch to the larger one for rincing.

   Posted 7 hours ago #

Advertisement
7. P20 - Member 

   I’ve had a similar system in the back of the van for a little while, works well.

   Posted 7 hours ago #
8. somafunk - Member 

   I've been using the same ghetto washer system for a few years, i even used to build them up and sell them in the bike shop where i worked and i always made sure i had a spare one in the van to flog on when i used to venture to trail centres to cover travel/food/cake costs

   I mounted the pump to a sheet of plywood then wrapped the plywood with duct tape around the jerry can, attached a velcro strap to hold the assorted wires and used a bike packing strap (salsa) for the lance and hose, drilled the cap and attached to the handle so it can't be lost or left behind.

   Works very well and more than enough pressure to clean many filthy bikes, way more pressure than those other portable pressure washers that cost a fortune, this costs less than £30.

   A wee tip is to use ptfe tape around the threads as it helps to avoid leaks.

   

   

   

   Posted 7 hours ago #
9. guandax - Member 

   Needs a little more patience but does the job Spear & Jackson Pump Action Pressure Sprayer, 5 L https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00RD0KTZQ/

   Posted 6 hours ago #
10. jamiesilo - Member 

    right, you buggers have got me thinking...

    i don't need a 12v, but the equivaent of a pump sprayer that gives a bit more pressure and water. how do you pressurise the fire extinguisher marc90?

    bike gets washed out on the road in front of workshop/house; it's just a pain to unroll the hose through 2 doors and down a couple of steps. same for mains electrics, and no 12v handy.

    suggestions? something portable along the lines of the fire extinguisher would do. like the idea of making it myself. do have a compressor availabel to pre-charge, if that were possible

    Posted 6 hours ago #
11. mark90 - Member 

    I replaced the red/green pressure gauge on the extinguisher with a schrader tank valve. Unscrew the top of the extinguisher to 'fill' with 9 litres of water, then pressurise to 80 psi using a track pump. The normal working pressure of 200 psi is a bit excessive for bike cleaning. 80 psi is a little higher than necessary but from trial and error I found it the minimum that still has sufficient pressure (about 20psi) when nearing the end of the water. As I said it does get through the 9L of water quite quickly. I intend to just use it for a quick rinse off in the car park or when doing multi days away from home (and the hose pipe) such as races etc. Total cost about 10 quid plus what I had laying around.

    Posted 5 hours ago #
12. survivor - Member 

    jamiesilo - Member
    right, you buggers have got me thinking...

    i don't need a 12v, but the equivaent of a pump sprayer that gives a bit more pressure and water. how do you pressurise the fire extinguisher marc90?

    bike gets washed out on the road in front of workshop/house; it's just a pain to unroll the hose through 2 doors and down a couple of steps. same for mains electrics, and no 12v handy.

    suggestions? something portable along the lines of the fire extinguisher would do. like the idea of making it myself. do have a compressor availabel to pre-charge, if that were possible

    Could you not keep a 12v car battery near the entrance then you could use the powered version.

    I've got mine attached to the rear door of the van and is great. I'm about to get a 15 or 20 litre container though as a very muddy bike is only just clean with the 10 litre I've got and loads of scrubbing to loosen it off.

    Posted 3 hours ago #

Reply

You must log in to post.