Looking to buy a van to start carpet cleaning part time

[6ftced]

I used to work for a carpet cleaning business in my city for about a year before i started my current job and i've just found a van with a truckmount that seems to be a good deal but i'm not knowledgeable about the market enough to know if this deal i've found is good and want some opinions, what i've found is a 2005 Chevy express 3500 cargo van with direct drive carpet cleaning unit the van has 180k miles and the owner is going to get back to me about the hours on the truckmount but by the looks of it, it is a white magic pro 1200 and he's selling it with all the equipment necessary to start cleaning immediately, heres a picture of the mount and he's asking 8k for everything and to me it seems like a steal, not to mention hes local and owns a fairly big carpet cleaning business of his own with much newer vans in a neighboring city

 

[Mama Fen]

Two problems I see here:

1. White Magics have been out of production for quite a while. Parts are getting scarce, and unless you're tech-savvy you're going to need to find a local mechanic who is familiar with them and can fix it.

2. A direct drive unit is married to the van engine - with that many miles on it, the van may be getting ready to start having problems, and uncoupling the unit to move it into a new van is going to be prohibitively expensive (IF it's even possible at this point).

For a setup of that age, even when it's in good condition, I'd be worried about it going down.

If you've got the time, skill, and inclination to do home repairs, it might be a good deal. If you don't have all three of those, I'd pass.

 

[6ftced]

Agree.
For an upstart, part time newbie,....I think a new portable is the ticket.

There's a long , steep learning curve to wrenching on a TM.
Much smarter to have a reliable new portable that has available parts.
It's not like you need a big, fuk-off TM to keep up with production at first.

He'll be sittin around with his dick in his hand most of the time

what is wrenching? working on the van? the plan for me is to eventually go full time so i want a truck mount and a van since i have experience cleaning with one for quite a while and i would rather just go with what i'm already familiar with. i've got about 10k im ready to spend on a truck with a mount in it and while i probably won't be very busy using it right off the bat i still know i could eventually go full time. Is 10k enough to start looking at a decent used setup that will be worth it?

 

[6ftced]

Two problems I see here:

1. White Magics have been out of production for quite a while. Parts are getting scarce, and unless you're tech-savvy you're going to need to find a local mechanic who is familiar with them and can fix it.

2. A direct drive unit is married to the van engine - with that many miles on it, the van may be getting ready to start having problems, and uncoupling the unit to move it into a new van is going to be prohibitively expensive (IF it's even possible at this point).

For a setup of that age, even when it's in good condition, I'd be worried about it going down.

If you've got the time, skill, and inclination to do home repairs, it might be a good deal. If you don't have all three of those, I'd pass.

excellent points, appreciate the input. i had a decent conversation with the seller and he did tell me of a place in my city that he uses that do the maintenance and repairs that he can't handle. the van having so many miles is what was scaring me into asking for advice about it so thanks anyways

 

[OxiFreshGuy]

Yeah if you're going the part time route get a portable.

That white magic van is going to be too much trouble, I probably wouldn't even take it if it was free.