Anyone have the Prowler Portable Truckmount?
- Thread starter True Clean 319
- Start date
What's up Mike. Yes, I got a chance to get the Prowler 13HP running. It took a week or so, but I got her going. When it was delivered Central Transport dropped it off a pallet and broke all the plumping, and pipe fittings on the pump side and on the front of the machine, blew out the front tire (from the drop off the pallet), lost the mounting cage brackets for the unit, and destroyed the air filter because it was soaked in oil from the drop off the pallet. So the unit has oil in the carb and possibly the heat exchanger or exhaust system. I had to basically rebuild all the plumbing and cut some metal to make a cage so the machine didn't roll around in my trailer.
Anyway, now a week on, I've installed it in my trailer with hose reels, chem rack, etc, etc. I am still playing with the layout a bit and the chemical feed system since they also broke the knob on the pump, so I have to no way of knowing how much chemical I am metering yet, but that is an easy albeit time consuming fix (have to wait for Ben from Amtex to contact me back with instructions on how to fix.).
When I fired it up it smoked like nobodys business due to oil being burned off. Besides that It runs nicely. Its loud as hell but alot of TM's are. Their is more suction that any portable I've owned and the auto-pump out is cool, although some jobs may be difficult to do because their isn't an adequate place to dump water, like say at a business with no lawn or immediately available sewer cleanout.
I changed the jets on my Westpak 0530 wand to 11002 jets so that I could maintain high heat (I also have a Little Giant 3HT if I need to add it to the system) with the Prowler, so I'm still working on accurately regulating the temperature and bypass valves so the unit doesn't by-pass water to the pumpout when the temp gets above 210 degrees.
While cleaning my home I noticed that the unit would drop pressure, and I didn't know why. Well it's because the unit has a temperature regulator bypass which kicks in when the temp gets to hot. This is a good thing. But it does mean that you loose pressure when this happens and have to then wait for the pump to re-in gauge. I don't think this is going to be a problem since I can just close my ball valve and the system will re-prime itself.
Overall I like the system but haven't worked with it enough to really give a super review. When I've got a few jobs under my belt with it, I'll post a comprehensive review.
Anyway, now a week on, I've installed it in my trailer with hose reels, chem rack, etc, etc. I am still playing with the layout a bit and the chemical feed system since they also broke the knob on the pump, so I have to no way of knowing how much chemical I am metering yet, but that is an easy albeit time consuming fix (have to wait for Ben from Amtex to contact me back with instructions on how to fix.).
When I fired it up it smoked like nobodys business due to oil being burned off. Besides that It runs nicely. Its loud as hell but alot of TM's are. Their is more suction that any portable I've owned and the auto-pump out is cool, although some jobs may be difficult to do because their isn't an adequate place to dump water, like say at a business with no lawn or immediately available sewer cleanout.
I changed the jets on my Westpak 0530 wand to 11002 jets so that I could maintain high heat (I also have a Little Giant 3HT if I need to add it to the system) with the Prowler, so I'm still working on accurately regulating the temperature and bypass valves so the unit doesn't by-pass water to the pumpout when the temp gets above 210 degrees.
While cleaning my home I noticed that the unit would drop pressure, and I didn't know why. Well it's because the unit has a temperature regulator bypass which kicks in when the temp gets to hot. This is a good thing. But it does mean that you loose pressure when this happens and have to then wait for the pump to re-in gauge. I don't think this is going to be a problem since I can just close my ball valve and the system will re-prime itself.
Overall I like the system but haven't worked with it enough to really give a super review. When I've got a few jobs under my belt with it, I'll post a comprehensive review.
Thomas I am also looking forward to how this machine works out. To me from what I have seen in the videos so far
I have been impressed. I am glad to hear that the vacuum is good . I have worked with both Roots 24 blowers and
Sutorbilt 2L blowers. They are able to be turned over 5200 rpms so even though they are smaller they still will out
do portables especially as far as Lift. Unlike centrifigul vacuum motors these are positive displacement and will not
loose as many cfms when reaching up to 8HG and maybe a little higher depending on cirumstances. Of course now
they are selling them with 33 Roots blowers .
Jan Sullins
American Kleen Pro
I have been impressed. I am glad to hear that the vacuum is good . I have worked with both Roots 24 blowers and
Sutorbilt 2L blowers. They are able to be turned over 5200 rpms so even though they are smaller they still will out
do portables especially as far as Lift. Unlike centrifigul vacuum motors these are positive displacement and will not
loose as many cfms when reaching up to 8HG and maybe a little higher depending on cirumstances. Of course now
they are selling them with 33 Roots blowers .
Jan Sullins
American Kleen Pro
Locko and Jan,
I used the machine today. Short story it didn't finish the job. Had to call a fellow carpet cleaning buddy to finish up for me. I had vacuum, but the pump wasn't keeping pressure, it was stuck at 0, then came back to life for a quick minute only to drop down and stay at zero.
Now normally you would think I would be blame the machine, but I don't. Here's why. The machine was dropped off a pallet during shipment on the water pump side. Who knows what damage that drop did to the water pump. I had to replace a water pressure regulator and all the pipe fittings. I think there is a problem with the actual size hose I am using. I know this sound stupid, but I am using 3/8" Goodyear Air Hose with water hose fittings. I think with 200' of small hose, the force at which the water is entering the machine is too much and the machine wigs out. I'm going to troubleshoot it tomorrow morning. I'll let you know what I find.
I used the machine today. Short story it didn't finish the job. Had to call a fellow carpet cleaning buddy to finish up for me. I had vacuum, but the pump wasn't keeping pressure, it was stuck at 0, then came back to life for a quick minute only to drop down and stay at zero.
Now normally you would think I would be blame the machine, but I don't. Here's why. The machine was dropped off a pallet during shipment on the water pump side. Who knows what damage that drop did to the water pump. I had to replace a water pressure regulator and all the pipe fittings. I think there is a problem with the actual size hose I am using. I know this sound stupid, but I am using 3/8" Goodyear Air Hose with water hose fittings. I think with 200' of small hose, the force at which the water is entering the machine is too much and the machine wigs out. I'm going to troubleshoot it tomorrow morning. I'll let you know what I find.
I've been using the Westpak 0530 wand and like it so far although there is a slight problem, rather annoyance. Because its head is triangular, it had the tendency to pull up un-evenly on one side or the other during my back drop stroke. Presently it is a minor annoyance, only time will tell if it develops any further.
I'm looking for resources on how to make a bypass for the wand, because at present the wand doesn't have one and going out to the machine to use the bypass there sucks.
With the jets (2) (11002) I have on the wand, currently I'm getting 200+ easy. So heat isn't a problem if you have your bypasses set correctly, etc, etc. An easier care free solution would be to hook up the Little Giant 3ht, run the Prowler in slight bypass mode all the time, ensuring it doesn't overheat, then run the hot water out of the Prowler into Little Giant and let it heat it up past 165, up to 200+ degrees without worry about if the Prowler's bypass are engaged properly or not. That would be nice. Ideally though I want the master and tame the Prowler so that I can utilize its onboard heat exchangers and not worry about propane. But propane heat is so enticing.
I'm looking for resources on how to make a bypass for the wand, because at present the wand doesn't have one and going out to the machine to use the bypass there sucks.
With the jets (2) (11002) I have on the wand, currently I'm getting 200+ easy. So heat isn't a problem if you have your bypasses set correctly, etc, etc. An easier care free solution would be to hook up the Little Giant 3ht, run the Prowler in slight bypass mode all the time, ensuring it doesn't overheat, then run the hot water out of the Prowler into Little Giant and let it heat it up past 165, up to 200+ degrees without worry about if the Prowler's bypass are engaged properly or not. That would be nice. Ideally though I want the master and tame the Prowler so that I can utilize its onboard heat exchangers and not worry about propane. But propane heat is so enticing.
you can use bigger jets or even a bigger wand, and if you get 130F I don;t know if you can hook it to the little giant, if that is the case, that will be extreme heat i mean extreme.
i would contact Ben from Amtex, the guy is so cool that i am pretty sure he will help you, sometimes you can even finish the job, and he can tell you how, for now take a look all the videos he has on his website, i am pretty sure you will learn something good in there.
Alsmot all his machine have the same configuration or basi parts.
i would contact Ben from Amtex, the guy is so cool that i am pretty sure he will help you, sometimes you can even finish the job, and he can tell you how, for now take a look all the videos he has on his website, i am pretty sure you will learn something good in there.
Alsmot all his machine have the same configuration or basi parts.
Thomas , I think when a truckmount is lacking in the heat department the easiest way to deal with is what you
are doing ie.adding Propane heater inline. I remember that back when most heat exchanger machines had trouble
maintaining hot tempatures many owners did what you are doing. My first heatxchanger truckmount was
a Prochem Cub XL with preheater. Many bought them without preheater. Mine could maintain around 170 degrees but
the others couldn't do better than 150. Hydramaster Aquamount had great vacuum with the 3LV blower but heat
was the same as the Cub XL . Propane for those machines was a viable option for those who wanted high heat.
Personally mine was Ok with the added heat exchanger but without it I would have added a 2HT. It didn't take
long for them to develop truckmounts that could maintain 200 degrees and even more.
Jan Sullins
American Kleen Pro
are doing ie.adding Propane heater inline. I remember that back when most heat exchanger machines had trouble
maintaining hot tempatures many owners did what you are doing. My first heatxchanger truckmount was
a Prochem Cub XL with preheater. Many bought them without preheater. Mine could maintain around 170 degrees but
the others couldn't do better than 150. Hydramaster Aquamount had great vacuum with the 3LV blower but heat
was the same as the Cub XL . Propane for those machines was a viable option for those who wanted high heat.
Personally mine was Ok with the added heat exchanger but without it I would have added a 2HT. It didn't take
long for them to develop truckmounts that could maintain 200 degrees and even more.
Jan Sullins
American Kleen Pro
Why not just get a regular TM with a waste tank? I've been looking at prowler simply cuz I wanna find a TM that will fit in a Chrysler Town & Country minivan w/o causing bumper drag. I don't need much or any open space in the van right now (not toting a cimex or portable with me), just enough for coiled hoses, couple gallons of chems, and wand. Any suggestions on something that would fit besides prowler?
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