Ok so its winter and the washing biz is starting to slow down. Finished upgrading all the snow plows and salters and thought what to do untill the snow flies.

Has anyone ever built a mobile snow machine tanker truck. My main wash truck is a retired fuel truck with a 2500gal water capacity equiped with a 15-20GPM pressure washer (diesel powered). The truck is totally custom and homebuilt from recycled industrial equipment.

Tried to build a snow machine today with little sucess (lots of ice). Think it was an air flow issue with my comressor at the shop. Hopefully with time we can build a rolling blizzard.

DAFF

Hopefully 'DAFFMOBILESNOW' will be a more appropriate username before long.

Boy would I love to have an old truck like that laying around (green with envy). What will be your source for mobile compressed air? All experimental builds start with what air limitations you have to work with.

Oh yeah, welcome to the forum!

Spent the last few days working on a simple external mixture attachment. I think the basic design is correct but the rate of flow water vs compressed air is incorect. The other thing is the tips or nosels used in the apparatus may be of a concern.

Used in the top spray nosels a basic 2504 spray tip(4) and a 0004 at the base looking up. Followed by a 0060 for the air. After some reading here last night I think the particle (water droplets) may be too big also.

As for the compressor it is capabge of 12.5cfm at 90psi. A smaller one but a good start. A friend of mine owns a sand blasting company and told me I could borow his portable compressor trailer style when I needed it.

DAFF

What did the air psi hold at while you were running? What was the water psi?

Do you have any pictures?

The psi held at 105 on the guage and the water at 1800psi.

Don't have any pictures for I am not very computer litterate. Took me a month of Sundays to figure out an Avitar. The basic design is coppied from the snow at home sight. They have a fancy product witha huge price tag ready to go. Only problem is the flow rates and not enough wow factor.

Have you considered using an internal mix nuc nozzle? Personally I think they are WAY easier to get working well.

Ya saw them before, like the idea of the external mix rather than the internal mix. I know of the learning curve for the snow machines.. trust me when I put my head into somthing I don't give up untill sucess.

Hey can someone point me in the right direction in the tip catagory. Is there a formula for determining the rate of flow water to air, and determining tip sizing? Or is it trial and error.

Thanks for you input, got to go to work

DAFF

i think there is a link to a calulator for flow rates some wher on this site, im not sure where its at but i think it is in the complret guild to the sm4 forum but you could probably find it by using the find button.

I've been looking around on the site for the better part of the day, some coolstuff on here. going to continue post on the other section.

DAFF

hi there my advice would to make a gun that has 2 upper nozz and a nuc and keep the nozz small once you got that pefect then just make 3 more guns and tie them all together.i make good snow with that style gun and have had no luck up sizing the nozzles with a truck like that no prob hanging 4 guns off it and remember its all about the air lots of it on an external gun

Build a teegun. Start with leaning how the nuc works. Get the right nozzle sizes. Then go to a sm4. You can calc your ratio's and your nuc will be slightly smaller then the teegun you built.

It's pretty much the exact same thing we all did on the forum here but in a lot smaller scale.

Also keep in mind, if you use that 2500gallon truck. That'll only last you have 6-8hours for snowmaking....