New Trailer Build | Equipment Q&A | Spray Foam Technical Questions and Answers | SprayFoam Magazine Q&A Forums

Q&A Forums

Author	Comments
Brian Bothun Posted: Dec 02, 2011 08:02 PM	New Trailer Build In the early stages of building a new rig. Picked up a Perkins 38.4kw gen with 1900 hours for $4500 in excellent shape. My question is on the compressor. Currently I have a gas and hate it. Screw or Electric? looking for 40 CFM. I like idea of having both pieces of equipment into one but do not know much about the screw compressors. I'm going with the Spec Tech machine. 28 ft. goose. I have barn doors on now my rig now but am thinking about a ramp door?
Circle-D Posted: Dec 02, 2011 08:47 PM	I have a Kaeser screw compressor and love it. Hard to load foam with a ramp door, most are not strong enough to drive a forklift on and most forks are to short to reach over. I like the barn doors. Set the pallet level with the rig and roll the drums off. Just my 2 cents.
Bryan Kwater Posted: Dec 03, 2011 08:33 AM	I agree with Skip about the ramp. We currently have a ramp, but our next trailer definitely will not. We have to use the side door to load material now as our fork lift doesn't have long enough forks to load from the back which would be much easier in our case. Although the ramp is easier for loading on the job site, we rarely need to do that.
Posted: Dec 03, 2011 09:39 AM	I love my ramps on our rigs. We run the forklift right to the back and tilt forward. Once the drum is halfway off of the pallet, we only have one turn while the barrel is on a 30 Degree angle and we are in the trailer. I load up three to four sets at a time by myself. It also gives you another 5-6 ft at the end of the trailer while you are working to put stuff on, keep out of the mud, etc... I have never used a screw compressor before, so I am not sure how good they are. I have a three phase 20 cfm on my Gama rig and a 30 cfm gas on my Boss Rig. The only thing that I hate about the gas is that I need to put an external tank on it to run all day. Right now, we have to fuel up every couple of hours. The only advantage is that we can use shore power whereever we go since we draw less than 60 amps single phase. Since you have 38 kw generator already, I don't think having to use shore power will be a problem for you.
Gerry Wagoner Posted: Feb 05, 2012 09:47 AM	Ramps good. Get 4' side door. Polyurea walls and floor. Paint light color. Gonna try a hydrovane compressor on our current unit build. 38kw good. Have fun.
John Cottle Posted: Feb 05, 2012 11:27 AM	I built my rig from the ground up. I spent 15 months locating the best prices on the equipment and researching other rigs. Not only did I save a ton of money, and still have excellent equipment, I know how my rig is put together. If I have a problem, I know where to start looking. Besides, it was a great project in itself. I have a 28' gooseneck, with a Kubota diesel 40kw generator, and a 10 hp rotary screw compressor. I can run two 12 hour days on 15 gallons of fuel. I have a ramp door too, which I can drive my forklift up on without tearing it up. If I wasn't able to do that, then I would probably lean towards the barn style doors.
mark moyer Posted: Feb 05, 2012 11:27 PM	we build ours too,,,, our layout is with drums at the rear so.. barn doors on our rigs.. we use a drum clamp on our forklift (only thing gettin close to the rig is the drum and drum pump) dual side doors on the goose neck we waitin on ger 62kw gen in this one... 10hp rot vane comp... having this trailer(32') built with bellypan so i can foamfill and then lay deck,,rout for radiant under drumsets,,then cover with diamond plate for durability & accessability to system compentents,,,then our typical hillbilly spray foam rig buildout,,,woo hoo,,cant wait for it to get here,,
John Shockney Posted: Feb 08, 2012 05:08 AM	Hay dude Is that roto vane an oil-less compressor? I just bought a rotary screw and thought it was the better choice due to the oil cooling and cooler, dryer air output. Are you using hot water for your radiant floor? And if so are you using the gen’s hot water? That would be my plan and you can make a small 110 electric boiler that would keep everything warm when you are not running the gen. I'm moving my rig into a new trailer and we are installing hot water radiant heat under an oak t&g floor (lumber liquidators $0.99/sqft) that's what we have in our trailer now w/o the heat. it holds up very well!! Airpro
Caleb DeFord Posted: Feb 08, 2012 02:20 PM	Airpro, How do you run your water pipes in the floor? Are you routing out the sub-floor? -Foamilyman
mark moyer Posted: Feb 09, 2012 01:50 AM	...smoke another one,, rotary vane,,sheesh,, 10hp piston,,,so you know the drill...oil compresor,,had it sittin on a skid proman...so it saved me some bling,,you betcha i want the screw,,but the $$ and the physical size of the box of those girls also messes with me 2,,,i like to throw the air stuff up in the dog house,,, caleb,,we routing the green treated 3/4 deckboard and then layin our diamond plate over the deck,,,radiant heat,,,imagine that,,, hey ap...how bout a hook up on the wall for a "3/8" tubeing wrap" of lets say hillbilly heater hoss wrapped around the drum hooked up to a lets say hillbilly shutoff valve hooked up to this same hillbilly infloor heat system,,,,so now you got heat goin around the drum as well... oh my,,,that was hard,,,lawn care,,,101... and thank you for the cfm50's btw.... i luv each and every one of you more than these words can express :) ...........inject this............... ! lol
Brian Bothun Posted: Feb 09, 2012 02:56 AM
John Shockney Posted: Feb 09, 2012 09:22 AM	Hi dude, Lane from SD sent me this in an email: Airpro. Give me a call we just put floor heat in our trailer works great. We have been checking into a boiler out of a semi to run on fuel to add on. We run off the gen radiator with 2 250 ft loops of 5/8 pex its tube to tube on the entire floor i thought it was going to be overkill but my buddy an hvac guy said i would need it and he was right. We run 120 degrees on the loops in and 115 out the barrels stay about 70-80 and the room about 75. He also gave me his phone # and I did talk with him. Now I know that sounds like overkill with 500 feet of pipe but it will take a lot to heat 1000 pound of chem from say 50deg to 75deg through less than 10sqft of direct surface. It should take roughly 25,000 btu’s to heat 1000# the 25deg, how much foam are you carrying? How fast do you want to heat it up? Do the math. Now Lane told me that he hasn’t insulated the floor yet and he didn’t use any metal heat transfer plates and that would improve system performance (you could use less pipe) But the bottom line is to install as much pipe as you can (it’s hard to add later) keeping loops to less than 300ft for ½ pex pipe shorter loops are better keep all loops the same length. I would use the 3 speed pump from grundfoss. Make sure that you use O2 barrier PEX because you don’t want to create a rust problem inside your gen if that is your heat source. My plan is to use 1x3 sleepers with transfer plates between sheet metal and 2inches of cc under with my oak t&g over the top ½ inch pipe 100ft loops small 220v elect (custom built) boiler (I use the customers power) Thanks Airpro i don't think the electric floor warming mats for tile floors will heat drums but let me know if it works.

Author

Comments

Brian Bothun

Posted: Dec 02, 2011 08:02 PM

New Trailer Build

In the early stages of building a new rig.
Picked up a Perkins 38.4kw gen with 1900 hours for $4500 in excellent shape. My question is on the compressor. Currently I have a gas and hate it.
Screw or Electric? looking for 40 CFM. I like idea of having both pieces of equipment into one but do not know much about the screw compressors.

I'm going with the Spec Tech machine.
28 ft. goose.

I have barn doors on now my rig now but am thinking about a ramp door?

Circle-D

Posted: Dec 02, 2011 08:47 PM

I have a Kaeser screw compressor and love it. Hard to load foam with a ramp door, most are not strong enough to drive a forklift on and most forks are to short to reach over. I like the barn doors. Set the pallet level with the rig and roll the drums off. Just my 2 cents.

Bryan Kwater

Posted: Dec 03, 2011 08:33 AM

I agree with Skip about the ramp. We currently have a ramp, but our next trailer definitely will not. We have to use the side door to load material now as our fork lift doesn't have long enough forks to load from the back which would be much easier in our case. Although the ramp is easier for loading on the job site, we rarely need to do that.

Posted: Dec 03, 2011 09:39 AM

I love my ramps on our rigs. We run the forklift right to the back and tilt forward. Once the drum is halfway off of the pallet, we only have one turn while the barrel is on a 30 Degree angle and we are in the trailer.

I load up three to four sets at a time by myself.

It also gives you another 5-6 ft at the end of the trailer while you are working to put stuff on, keep out of the mud, etc...

I have never used a screw compressor before, so I am not sure how good they are. I have a three phase 20 cfm on my Gama rig and a 30 cfm gas on my Boss Rig.

The only thing that I hate about the gas is that I need to put an external tank on it to run all day. Right now, we have to fuel up every couple of hours.

The only advantage is that we can use shore power whereever we go since we draw less than 60 amps single phase.

Since you have 38 kw generator already, I don't think having to use shore power will be a problem for you.

Gerry Wagoner

Posted: Feb 05, 2012 09:47 AM

Ramps good. Get 4' side door.
Polyurea walls and floor.
Paint light color.
Gonna try a hydrovane compressor on our current unit build.
38kw good.

Have fun.

John Cottle

Posted: Feb 05, 2012 11:27 AM

I built my rig from the ground up. I spent 15 months locating the best prices on the equipment and researching other rigs. Not only did I save a ton of money, and still have excellent equipment, I know how my rig is put together. If
I have a problem, I know where to start looking. Besides, it was a great project in itself.

I have a 28' gooseneck, with a Kubota diesel 40kw generator, and a 10 hp rotary screw compressor. I can run two 12 hour days on 15 gallons of fuel.

I have a ramp door too, which I can drive my forklift up on without tearing it up. If I wasn't able to do that, then I would probably lean towards the barn style doors.

mark moyer

Posted: Feb 05, 2012 11:27 PM

we build ours too,,,,
our layout is with drums at the rear so..
barn doors on our rigs..
we use a drum clamp on our forklift
(only thing gettin close to the rig is the drum and drum pump)
dual side doors on the goose neck we waitin on ger
62kw gen in this one...
10hp rot vane comp...

having this trailer(32') built with bellypan so i can foamfill and then lay deck,,rout for radiant under drumsets,,then cover with diamond plate for durability & accessability to system compentents,,,then our typical hillbilly spray foam rig buildout,,,woo hoo,,cant wait for it to get here,,

John Shockney

Posted: Feb 08, 2012 05:08 AM

Hay dude

Is that roto vane an oil-less compressor?

I just bought a rotary screw and thought it was the better choice due to the oil cooling and cooler, dryer air output.

Are you using hot water for your radiant floor? And if so are you using the gen’s hot water? That would be my plan and you can make a small 110 electric boiler that would keep everything warm when you are not running the gen.

I'm moving my rig into a new trailer and we are installing hot water radiant heat under an oak t&g floor (lumber liquidators $0.99/sqft) that's what we have in our trailer now w/o the heat. it holds up very well!!

Airpro

Caleb DeFord

Posted: Feb 08, 2012 02:20 PM

Airpro,
How do you run your water pipes in the floor? Are you routing out the sub-floor?
-Foamilyman

mark moyer

Posted: Feb 09, 2012 01:50 AM

...smoke another one,, rotary vane,,sheesh,,
10hp piston,,,so you know the drill...oil compresor,,had it sittin on a skid proman...so it saved me some bling,,you betcha i want the screw,,but the $$ and the physical size of the box of those girls also messes with me 2,,,i like to throw the air stuff up in the dog house,,,
caleb,,we routing the green treated 3/4 deckboard and then layin our diamond plate over the deck,,,radiant heat,,,imagine that,,,
hey ap...how bout a hook up on the wall for a "3/8" tubeing wrap" of lets say hillbilly heater hoss wrapped around the drum hooked up to a lets say hillbilly shutoff valve hooked up to this same hillbilly infloor heat system,,,,so now you got heat goin around the drum as well...
oh my,,,that was hard,,,lawn care,,,101...
and thank you for the cfm50's btw....
i luv each and every one of you more than
these words can express :)
...........inject this............... !

lol

Brian Bothun

Posted: Feb 09, 2012 02:56 AM

John Shockney

Posted: Feb 09, 2012 09:22 AM

Hi dude,

Lane from SD sent me this in an email:

Airpro. Give me a call we just put floor heat in our trailer works great. We have been checking into a boiler out of a semi to run on fuel to add on. We run off the gen radiator with 2 250 ft loops of 5/8 pex its tube to tube on the entire floor i thought it was going to be overkill but my buddy an hvac guy said i would need it and he was right. We run 120 degrees on the loops in and 115 out the barrels stay about 70-80 and the room about 75.

He also gave me his phone # and I did talk with him.

Now I know that sounds like overkill with 500 feet of pipe but it will take a lot to heat 1000 pound of chem from say 50deg to 75deg through less than 10sqft of direct surface. It should take roughly 25,000 btu’s to heat 1000# the 25deg, how much foam are you carrying? How fast do you want to heat it up? Do the math.

Now Lane told me that he hasn’t insulated the floor yet and he didn’t use any metal heat transfer plates and that would improve system performance (you could use less pipe)

But the bottom line is to install as much pipe as you can (it’s hard to add later) keeping loops to less than 300ft for ½ pex pipe shorter loops are better keep all loops the same length. I would use the 3 speed pump from grundfoss. Make sure that you use O2 barrier PEX because you don’t want to create a rust problem inside your gen if that is your heat source.

My plan is to use 1x3 sleepers with transfer plates between sheet metal and 2inches of cc under with my oak t&g over the top ½ inch pipe 100ft loops small 220v elect (custom built) boiler (I use the customers power)

Thanks
Airpro

i don't think the electric floor warming mats for tile floors will heat drums but let me know if it works.

You need to login to reply to this topic. Please click here to login.