Soap List / Part I - Touchless Truck Wash Soap

January 7, 2024

R Soap I is a high performance chemical for fleet washing.

R Soap I - Brushless Truck Wash Soap

What makes R Soap I different from other soaps? It is a brushless soap, sometimes referred to as a touchless truck soap, that can substitute two stepping. The only thing that it doesn’t do that 2 stepping does is the aluminum brightening portion.

R Soap I contains no acid.

R SoapI is a caustic and should be handled with care. In the event it gets on your skin, rinse thoroughly with cold water so you don’t get a chemical burn from the sodium hydroxide contents within the soap.

Fleet Washing with a Downstream Injector

As far as down streaming it, you should expect the same results on painted steel that you’d receive with the two-step process. Either process is not recommended for use on polished aluminum. An advantage of using a 5 gallon power washer is you can cut the soap in half and then use a downstream injector with 110 gallons of soap with the 55 gallon drum kit we provide. You can generally clean 3 to 4 cabs per gallon of soap when you use a 5 gallon per minute power washer and cut the soap in half while using a 1.8 downstream injector.

When using a downstream injector, you will essentially use 10 gallons of soap for every 100-200 gallons of water you use, making it range from 20 to 1 and 10 to 1 ratios when using a downstream injector. You will want to fine tune how concentrated you want the soap when washing your fleet so you aren’t using too much soap where it is unnecessary.

R Soap I can be used as a second step soap if you want to use a two step system and get the aluminum brightening effect. With this soap, two stepping is not necessary for removing road film and dirt.

Fleet Washing with Upstream Injection

When using upstream injection with R Soap I you will use half the soap or less than you would if you used downstream injection. One thing that makes this useful is not only using less chemicals, but it reduces the amount of time you need to rinse a unit. There is a lot of surfactant in the chemical, using less chemical can many times be advantageous to reduce rinse time. This is something about using a cold water pressure washer that is considered a disadvantage, it increases how long it takes to rinse the soap off. When using hot water you will be able to rinse this soap off twice as fast. Paired with upstream injection, it isn’t impossible for one operator to clean 12 trucks an hour.

Upstream injection has another advantage over using a downstream system. It can be used to remove large solids while applying the chemical, and the residual dirt will be removed from the chemical that has been left behind. This further washes the truck and reduces the steps needed to clean the truck.

However, for fleets smaller than 5 units upstream injection is not always the best option because of the one minute cycle you need to remove the soap from your pressure line to switch back to rinsing. We recommend it on larger fleets creating a system where you soap 10 trucks at a time and then rinse the same 10 trucks at a time. We don’t recommend doing this when it is daytime and the sun is hitting the trucks. Letting R Soap I dry in the heat can cause issues on the equipment you are cleaning and potentially leave streaks.

When using upstream injection you will run R Soap I in ranges of 30 to 1 and 50 to 1 ratios.

House Wash Application:

One unique feature of R Soap I is that it can be used to wash dirt dobber nests off buildings without the need of a brush. We have some customers who use this soap to wash red clay off homes where dust storms are common. This is not recommended to be mixed with bleach for any reason. For a house wash, this would be your solution when removing dirt in high places that are not easily accessible with a brush.

When washing dirt from a building you will want to use 10 to 1 ratios and let it dwell for 5 minutes before rinsing. Don’t allow R Soap I to dry on the windows and treat it like you would bleach. There is already surfactant in R Soap I so adding additional is unnecessary.

Cost Advantages

Where we used to spend 3 to 8 dollars per piece in soap to wash using a two step system, we can wash generally 4 day cabs with 1 gallon of R Soap I. A 55 gallon drum kit + shipping puts the soap at roughly 8 dollars per gallon, putting you at roughly 2$ in soap per truck when applying with a downstream injector. We have found with upstream injection you will run at a cost of 0.50$ to 1$ in soap per truck, further reducing cost to use the product. A 5 gallon pail with shipping could range up to 130$ making it cost roughly 5$ per cab. If you are washing one fleet part time this isn’t a bad option. If you are washing more than 20 pieces a week it is highly recommended that you purchase a drum kit for the larger volume of work.

For shipping the drum kit allows us to ship a kit anywhere in the lower 48 states for prices ranging from 50$ to 100$, instead of having to charge 300$ to 500$ in shipping for an actual drum.

Mixing Instructions for the drum kit:

We recommend having a 55 gallon or larger container with a lid large enough to be able to stir with a paddle.

First fill the container with 30 to 40 gallons of water. Then pour in Step 1. Stir step 1 until it is completely dissolved (sometimes this can take as long as 15 minutes).

Then pour in Step 2 and stir until it dissolves (shouldn’t take longer than 2 to 3 minutes).

Then pour the water up to 50 gallons and pour in Step 3. Stir for 5 minutes and then rinse the 5 gallon Step 3 bucket out with water and pour the remaining contents in the container. You can now transfer the soap to your soap tank and it is ready for use.

Before and After Photos and Videos:

best touchless truck wash soap