Trailer Jetters

[mpm]

Looking to buy a trailer jetter. I am looking at American Jetter, Northwest Jetters and Cam Spray Jetters. Anyone have experience with any of these brands?

Also what GPM & PSI would you recommend? I will be primarily jetting 4" CI. But there will be some 6-8.

Any and all input on this subject would be great. Thanks!

[ToUtahNow]

Re: Trailer Jetters

Looking to buy a trailer jetter. I am looking at American Jetter, Northwest Jetters and Cam Spray Jetters. Anyone have experience with any of these brands?

Also what GPM & PSI would you recommend? I will be primarily jetting 4" CI. But there will be some 6-8.

Any and all input on this subject would be great. Thanks!

I believe Rick just sold his Cam Spray to buy his US Jetter.

Mark

[gear junkie]

..........

[PLUMBER RICK]

Re: Trailer Jetters

i did have a camspray for 6 years and it was a good unit. ended up selling it to another plumber when i jumped up to the us jetter.

went from a cam spray 24hp 11gpm 2500# 300 gallon 1/2'' x 400' electric reel.

us jetter 50hp diesel, 18 gpm, 4000# 300 gallon 1/2'' x500' with hydraulic reel.

the biggest difference is the flow and pulling power. the hydraulic reel only makes a difference when you're over the top of a manhole. which seldom happens.

the us jetter is a much heavier unit as the engine alone is 800#.

cam spray has a lot of different models and i'm sure they're very competitive. when i bought mine i dealt directly with them. not sure if you deal directly with them or a third party now.

with 4'' pipe and fittings/ turns, you'll have an easier time with 3/8'' hose as long as you keep it under 9 gpm you're fine.

4000 at 9gpm will serve you good for the 4''- 6''. the extra water is great for flushing debris and mud/ gravel. but a garden hose will help you too.

don't commit to anything yet until you get the specs, lead time and delivered price.

of course with the right boat, i can give you a test drive

rick.

[Swade Plumbing]

Re: Trailer Jetters

What do you guys think of these "mini" trailer jetters that American Jetter sells with 100 gallon tanks and 30hp/8gpm/3000psi (something like that).

Seems like they would run out of water pretty quick even if you had the refill hose connected and running constantly while jetting?

They look so small and easy pull around and store though!

-chris

[SewerRat]

Re: Trailer Jetters

Looking to buy a trailer jetter. I am looking at American Jetter, Northwest Jetters and Cam Spray Jetters. Anyone have experience with any of these brands?

Also what GPM & PSI would you recommend? I will be primarily jetting 4" CI. But there will be some 6-8.

Any and all input on this subject would be great. Thanks!

The only one I can speak for is JettersNW. We bought an Eagle 600 and a DrainJet 4000 cart from them this spring. The trailer is a 18 @ 4K spec with 600 gallons of water and 500' of 1/2" hose on a tandem axle chassis, and the cart is a 4 @ 4K with 150' of 1/4" hose. The trailer is not a big top-dollar diesel unit of course, but the quality of construction shows in the features and little details on both machines compared with some of the other entry-level trailer jets we looked at. They were very great to work with as well, Steve Jones is who we dealt with.

We knew Jake Saltzman (Jrsaltz) had bought a big cart from them, so before we committed I got ahold of him and discussed his experience with JettersNW. He was very positive as well and said his Big Brute propane powered cart was everything he expected plus. Since Jake has a pretty good reputation on the forums and seems to be well versed in the industry we went ahead and did our deal and have no regrets. We would buy from JettersNW again if we needed another quality, lower-cost machine. Obviously if we were running our jetters 8 hours a day 5 or 6 days a week we would probably move up to diesel power, but at this point the Eagle is doing everything we need it to very well and we are jetting a lot of 8", 10", 12", and even some 15" lines.

[Swade Plumbing]

Re: Trailer Jetters

I planning to set up a rig to do 200' max of 6" clay with a few bends (once a year) with most of the lines being 6" clay straight runs and some 4" cast iron runs with a few turns.

I've looked at mini trailer units like this AJ Mini Trailer Jetter 8 GPM 3500 PSI
and mid sized trailer units like this:http://www.camspray.com/cam_spray_trailer_mounted_gas_powered_sewer_and_dr ain_jetter-p-296.html

any thoughts? I like the compact size of the American Jetter, but I worry about the small tank.

I was also thinking that it would be ideal to have a removable reel to take to those places where I wouldn't be able to get the trailer right over the clean out.
I'm just trying to figure out how much I will need to spend to get going so that I can budget accordingly for the purchase.

I considered cart jetters, but I feel like they would be a bit under powered for my needs

[jhplumbing]

Re: Trailer Jetters

swade....
most sewer i see are the same as what you have and my 18hp 5.5gpm 3500 psi cart jetter handles them very good.

[SewerRatz]

Re: Trailer Jetters

My J-3000 which is 4 GPM @ 3000 PSI handles everything Swade posted about with out any issues. I am thinking of mounting on my van permanently so I will use it more often. Could of used it the other day on a line where the roots kept flapping out of the way of all my cutters.

[Swade Plumbing]

Re: Trailer Jetters

Thanks guys.

Do you ever worry when hooking the machine up to the HO's water service especially if it's an old house with galvy piping and/or a lead service? Seems like it would be putting the piping on a stress test.

I'm concerned with the cart jetters that they wouldn't have enough pulling/flushing power for longer runs?

[mpm]

Re: Trailer Jetters

Swade,

I would think it would be a problem if you didn't have a tank.

My biggest concern right now is if 12gpm @ 3000psi will be enough to clean 6 or 8" CI lines that I sometimes come across...

[mpm]

Re: Trailer Jetters

If you're only going 8" max, why not use a 24hp skid pressure washer and mount it on a trailer. Add a water tank, some reels and you're done.

When it comes to building or repairing certain things I like to leave it to the pros...

[SewerRatz]

Re: Trailer Jetters

Thanks guys.

Do you ever worry when hooking the machine up to the HO's water service especially if it's an old house with galvy piping and/or a lead service? Seems like it would be putting the piping on a stress test.

I'm concerned with the cart jetters that they wouldn't have enough pulling/flushing power for longer runs?

My unit has 200' of 3/8 hose and it pulls it all out with out an issue. The water flow is the same out of the nozzle if I am only in 50' or in the whole 200' since the water has to travel through the whole 200'. As for hooking up to older water services, not an issue. I have used this jetter in Chicago with the old galvanized pipes and the wonderful 35 PSI supply. If you want maybe we can meet up one of these days and we can fire up my cart jetter so you can get a feel for it. BTW AJ Coleman rents jetters all the time too.

[Swade Plumbing]

Re: Trailer Jetters

Thanks for the offer Ron!

I get that the pressure stays the same at the nozzle, but I'm concerned that I won't have enough volume of water on the cart units to properly flush lines out. Seems like it would end up being more work, whereas with about 7 or 8 GPM. I would have a lot more volume of water to flush sludge and grease lines out.

Also, with pressure loss through the hose, a 3K psi pump will probably only make about 2500psi at the nozzle, correct?

That's why I had been thinking that 7 GPM @ 4K psi with a 125 gallon tank would probably be ideal. Then I could run a jumper hose to a portable reel.
My big concern with cart jetters is that I will find that I need more power. whereas with a trailer, I know that I will be overpowered for many (indeed maybe most) jobs, but I would always be prepared, probably do a better job and look a bit more professional?

I would have to make room in my truck for the jetter anyways, so I figured why not just bring a trailer and not have to take other equipment off the truck?

Sorry, I kinda highjacked this thread

[TheMaster]

Re: Trailer Jetters

Thanks for the offer Ron!

I get that the pressure stays the same at the nozzle, but I'm concerned that I won't have enough volume of water on the cart units to properly flush lines out. Seems like it would end up being more work, whereas with about 7 or 8 GPM. I would have a lot more volume of water to flush sludge and grease lines out.

Also, with pressure loss through the hose, a 3K psi pump will probably only make about 2500psi at the nozzle, correct?

That's why I had been thinking that 7 GPM @ 4K psi with a 125 gallon tank would probably be ideal. Then I could run a jumper hose to a portable reel.
My big concern with cart jetters is that I will find that I need more power. whereas with a trailer, I know that I will be overpowered for many (indeed maybe most) jobs, but I would always be prepared, probably do a better job and look a bit more professional?

I would have to make room in my truck for the jetter anyways, so I figured why not just bring a trailer and not have to take other equipment off the truck?

Sorry, I kinda highjacked this thread

I think it would look more professional.