Increasingly local governments and agencies are tightening the enforcement reins on track out, that is, tracking mud and dirt off work sites and onto roadways and streets.

Regulatory bodies are holding contractors responsible for making sure truck tires are clean before they hit the pavement. After repeated warnings and no action, the work site can be shut down, if such regulations aren't followed. In the process, the regulations have helped create an interest in and more inquires into wheel washers.

For instance, Dennis Stanton, president of Stanton Systems, Ivyland, Pa., says during the past two years such laws have surfaced in New York City, several counties in Nevada and in California. "There are similar regulations in Florida and in the Carolinas," says Stanton.

As he notes, "a couple of regs here and a couple there" is slowly creating a growing U.S. market for truck wheel washers. Historically, the United States has been more of a market niche than a market segment.

Stanton Systems started out building car washes, Stanton says, and expanded into truck tire washers. "We started the business in the United States 20 years ago," he says. "There really wasn't anyone doing it at the time. Today there are only a few companies selling in this market. The others ship in their products from overseas and have only sales representatives selling them here."

Although there are no regulations above the city or county government level, he says, many engineers are beginning to incorporate tire washers into their specifications for large jobs.

"They never really did that before," he comments. "The contractor would do the job and when the guy had mud all over the street, they would go over it with a street sweeper, which really isn't effective at all. It just swishes the dirt around. At that point the mud is already out in the street whereas a wheel washer keeps the mud within the job site."

Stanton Systems manufacturers a steel modular tire washer that can operate constantly for up to 15 years, says Stanton. All traffic loads, he says, are rated H-20 and H-30. Off to the side of the wash track is usually a solids sump and a recirculation water tank, he explains. The water tank is also made of steel with a railing.

Stanton markets a permanent unit and a portable unit. "The modular unit is a little bit bigger and more substantial size than the portable units," he points out. "The bigger units tend to stay in a couple of years as opposed to a couple of months."

Trucks are driven onto a platform, Stanton says, and the system automatically comes on. "It washes the tires and the dirt goes into a tank. "There is a hopper down there that allows the dirt to be vacuumed out every couple of months," says Stanton.

His company is the only one in the U.S. market to offer a five-year warranty, he says. "The other companies are bringing in their units from overseas and they are very light duty," he claims. "They are not as strong as ours. In Europe the regulations simply say you have to keep the street clean. In the United States it is a different story. In manufacturing our products, we've been a lot more conscious of quality and expectations."

Some of the imports, Stanton claims, "are little dinky things," and that, he says, "is hurting everything I've created in the United States. When you buy a tire wash you expect to get everything off that tire. Our five-year warranty guarantees that the mud will be off the tire and we have an array of systems for every application imaginable. We also do tank washes for the military and we are approved by the Government Services Administration."

This summer the company moved into a 24,000-square-foot factory in Pennsylvania where the Stanton Systems are manufactured. Another 20,000 square feet will be added to that in the near future, says Stanton.

Another major player in the U.S. market is MobyDick, a wheel washing brand of Frutiger & Co. based in Switzerland. The national sales director for MobyDick in the United States is Bob Lodi, who is based in Downingtown, Pa.

"In the UK wheel washing is mandated and therefore there are about 18 companies there that make wheel washers," Lodi says. "It is a very mature market because of environmental requirements. They don't have the open spaces that we have in the United States so essentially they go from a landfill or quarry directly onto a road or paved surface. In the United States we have the advantage of having a long distance between the actual mud and the road."

MobyDick entered the U.S. market about five or six years ago with an exhibition at ConExpo, Lodi says. "The United States is a market niche," he explains, "but it is slowly evolving. The market opportunities in the United States are landfills and quarries because they are highly regulated."

As for construction sites, Lodi says, there are many regulations that tell a contractor what to do to minimize such things as oil and to keep soil from leaving a construction site.

"Those requirements could be as simple as putting down rip-rap (stones) to knock off the mud. It could be having a guy there with a pressure washer. It could be a flooded basin, basically a concrete pit filled with water that trucks drive through. Or it could be a sophisticated excavation system. Or it could be the use of a wheel washer."

From MobyDick's perspective there are essentially two types of wheel wash designs. One is a drive-through. The other uses roller technology. Both have advantages and disadvantages, Lodi says.

"The soil determines which type system to use," says Lodi. "It depends on how sticky the material is," he says. "If it is light or sandy, it is a one tire revolution. If it is a stickier material, it could be a two tire revolution. Very sticky mud or clay could require up to three or four tire revolutions," he says.

The limitation of a drive-through system is that you are allowing the driver to set the speed through the wash, Lodi explains. He says, "Drivers are motivated by productivity so they tend to go through the wash rapidly. Ideally, the slower you go through a drive-through the more effective it will be."

By comparison, says Lodi, roller technology systems, "capture each axle so that it actually turns the axle once, twice or three times, whatever it takes. Typically these are rollers with raised edges on them that grab the tire," he explains. "It is driven by an electric motor and turns the wheel very slowly. The driver just leaves the truck in neutral."

The upside of a roller system, he points out, is that the wheel wash is controlled and you can achieve almost 100-percent effectiveness. The down side is hat drivers know they will have to sit there several seconds longer than a drive-through.

"That's why we offer systems that have a through-put of 35 or more trucks per hour (that's a tri-axle type truck). We can get up to 60 trucks per hour on some systems," Lodi says. "Our solution to the problem of track out," he says, "is that we have several types of technologies that we can use — drive-through, roller and a combination of both."

Another key of the MobyDick system is the water, Lodi says. "You need to clean the tires with more than just driving over a roller system," he says. "We use a high wash flow and low pressure to flush the tires. It's called inundation. We have found over the 20-plus years that we've been doing this that you really don't clean a tire with high pressure. You clean it more effectively with low pressure, but you have to use a lot of water to flush the tire. The treads are cross-hatched. MobyDick pumps generate 475 gallons of water flow.

"When we look at a site," he explains, "if the soil is light (or one tire revolution) we would recommend one or two pumps. If the soil is stickier, we might suggest a three tire revolution, or you could keep it to a one tire revolution by adding another pump. We use the technology of drive-through or roller and add to the effectiveness of the cleaning by having pumps."

The high volume pump, says Lodi, has high nozzle pressure. The nozzle has direct contact with the tire at 30 psito 40 psi. "We're not spraying water all over the truck," he says. "We use a polymer to get the solids out. Since the water you're using isn't going to be clean, you don't want it spraying all over the truck. The low pressure aspect works very well to focus the water on the tires, on the wheels and on the undercarriage. Closed water recycling prevents this."

Another technology MobyDick uses for construction applications, says Lodi, is scraper conveyors, which are portable. "Portability is very important to construction. After you finish one project, the portable unit can be moved to another work site. Our product is designed to drop into place on a level surface. All of them have H-32 ratings. You can put them on a paved surface and drive a truck on it, up to 35,000 pounds, without damaging the pavement," Lodi remarks.

The bottom of the tanks on a conveyor scraper are "somewhat conical," says Lodi. The system scrapes the material off the bottom, runs it up a shoot, de-washes it, and drops it off the side. "Our goal is to provide a totally automatic system with no labor involved, except PM," Lodi says.

MobyDick, he says, has a broad range of portable units, the most recent called the Dragon. "It does a great job of handling the heavier duty applications such as narrow work sites that you might find, for example, in urban areas. The Dragon, which can be installed within three hours, is a drive-through, one tire revolution, one pump system but it incorporates a tank underneath the unit for water recycling and the separation of contaminants," Lodi says.

As for the future, both Dennis Stanton and Bob Lodi see the U.S. market as growing. It will be a slow growth, Stanton believes, but not as slow as the past five years. The reason for the change of pace, he says, is increasing demand and regulations, such as storm water regulations, that developers will have to adhere to.

And Lodi adds, "A lot of what is driving the market are storm water regulations, local government or state agencies that decide to eliminate mud, dust and dirt from public roads, and, secondarily, landfills and quarries who want to be good corporate neighbors."