Truck Shop Ideas...

[Caterpillar Cowboy]

Hopefully, fingers crossed, no more delays, this will be the year I build my truck shop.

About what I've got going on, as of now I'm a small business, but I have managed to keep growing it. I may not need a huge shop now, but when we got started my old man's 20x60 did us perfectly fine, now we have outgrown it very much so.

Right now I have 4 trucks, and 5 trailers. I'm talking dump trucks, semis, lowboys, dirt trailers, etc. I am in excavation, just the trucking side of it for now, but have not ruled out equipment (more than a skid steer) in the future.

In floor heat is a must, I'm pretty dead set on a lube pit as well, and one long bay with a hell of a floor drain for washing inside in the wintertime.

Any other ideas you guys could think of for a semi-serious class 8 truck shop?

 

[Caterpillar Cowboy]

Also I'm not positive on the size yet, but it will likely be north of 10,000 sq ft.

 

[Farmall450]

A crane/hoist might be handy.

 

[Firebrick43]

Steel overlay on the concrete to resist damage to the surface? Forget the pit get wheel lifts. Lot of people killed and injured in pits over the years.

 

[RWorth]

MDC tank on your drains so if you accidentally dump oil you wont care, and make that drain down the middle of the wash bay the long way with a good slope to it.. 18' ceilings and an 18' high gantry hoist.

 

[earlthegoat2]

As has been stated, an overhead crane. Uber expensive for the right one that will actually satisfy you but I think they pay for themselves pretty quickly. Build/ design your shop with an idea for a gantry crane in mind already and that can simplify some things.

 

[KSB]

I would reconsider the lube pit. We had one in our old shop and it hardly got used. Oils and fluids on a truck are easy to do without a pit.

Wheel lifts work great but to be honest I hardly use them either as I am usually pulling wheels and then it is easier to just place the vehicle on jacks.

Overhead crane in our shop is use daily on our heavy equipment. If you are planning to keep everything in house and not contract out larger jobs this would be fairly high on my wish list.

Oil separator on the drains would be high on my list, might be a requirement in your area.

Waste oil pump and storage or a oil heater would be a consideration.

Ensure you plan proper storage for shop equipment. Nothing worse than a whole work bay being used to store jacks, wheel dollies, etc.

I’ve got to go shovel the driveway now but I’m sure I’ll think of some more items.

Good luck!!



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[matt_i]

Big difference in cost between a rolling gantry (supported from the floor) and a new install for a bridge crane (supported from the building)....I'm going to wag a $50k difference...

I think there's going to be significant expense in heavy duty concrete, the foundation, plus the radiant heating, which might be more than the line item for the initial purchase of a red-iron insulated building.

My personal opinion is to make a wash bay separate as in walled off from the rest of the shop. Any kind of pressure washing is somewhere close to compressed air blasting because of the "anywhere but here" form of distribution of the debris.

 

[earlthegoat2]

Yep, Im talking about a bridge crane.

 

[MJD1]

Make sure you build it tall enough. Overhead crane, whether bridge or gantry needs plenty of headroom. I would go with 16' high doors as well. As for a pit, never used one.

 

[Heavy Metal Doctor]

Bridge cranes are super nice, but a decent rolling gantry will do 99% of the jobs that happen in a working shop, plus you can roll 'em outside the building to assist with handling strange stuff like maybe some odd parts shipped in on tractor trailer that are too awkward for a forklift or pulling an assembly that you will leave the unit down / immobile for and extended period that you don't want clogging up a service bay. Even just a 2 ton unit would be great. I'd also recommend adjustable height type.

For a wash bay -- try to have NOTHING else in there except the cleaning supplies -- Anything that lives in that bay will be damp / rusty.
And if you do have a wash bay - built in pressure washer is great to have.

Out of all the fleet shop customers I deal with, only one place still has a service pit. I think that is only because the shop was built in the 70's and never changed hands. They had 4 trucks over the 2 pits when I was there a week ago. Everyone else uses wheel lifts and I have heard of insurance issues for shops considering a pit. It requires special ventilation and other safety stuff.

I would also recommend accounting for all the tooling / support equipment and parts storage - maybe however many large service bays you want plus a shed roof single story area for that or build a mezzanine or 2 floor section of the building.

 

[Nor'Easter]

Separate your wash bay from working bays.

Washing anything in the same bay as tools and other equipment is idiotic.

 

[earlthegoat2]

A few of the truck rental places I have made runs to (Ryder System, Penske, etc.) have a completely separate building for a wash area.

 

[gnpenning]

If you do go with a bridge crane plan it in conjunction with your garage doors. You may want to have high lift doors and hug ceilings so the crane can go underneath the doors back hang.

Most class 8 shops use 14' high doors.

A curtain can be used to separate the wash bay. They can be messy. Have a mud box clean out as part of the drain. I like the way the local Cat dealer set there's up.

For the radiant make sure you have a good thermal break completely around the slab. Insulation under the slab really helps. Keep the heat in the building.

 

[Shop Specialties]

Hopefully, fingers crossed, no more delays, this will be the year I build my truck shop.

About what I've got going on, as of now I'm a small business, but I have managed to keep growing it. I may not need a huge shop now, but when we got started my old man's 20x60 did us perfectly fine, now we have outgrown it very much so.

Right now I have 4 trucks, and 5 trailers. I'm talking dump trucks, semis, lowboys, dirt trailers, etc. I am in excavation, just the trucking side of it for now, but have not ruled out equipment (more than a skid steer) in the future.

In floor heat is a must, I'm pretty dead set on a lube pit as well, and one long bay with a hell of a floor drain for washing inside in the wintertime.

Any other ideas you guys could think of for a semi-serious class 8 truck shop?

What part of Wyo are you in ? Waste oil boiler will give the quickest ROI for your in-floor heat. If you have heating questions I am here to help if I can.

 

[kbs2244]

Check out overhead IR heating.
Instant heat, much less cost, and no heat loss when the doors are open.

Every shop with it when I walk in in Jan you know it.
You feel it right now and everyone is in shirt sleeves.

 

[B.C.Biker]

Also finally building a shop for my truck and doing the floor next year. Did a dozen or so years with log truck and still have it. Backhoe, farm tractor, the odd dump truck and pickups ect. Always worked on them outside in the gravel which was ok in my 20s but not now.
Have put off floor until next year because of needing time to put in floor heat and a pit. Those two things are mandatory in my book. My suggestion is to stand in as many different pits as you can to get a feel for the height and width that will be best for you. Also I wouldn't listen to any one that says a properly built pit used with horse sense is dangerous. Especially "experts" that still have stairs in their house or eat fast food, that's way more risky.
I'm a one man band and the shop is 29X46. One 12' wide X 14' high door. The opposite end of shop has a 10' wide X 8' door. Lots of times the big door won't be needed and lets lots of heat escape. If you have others working in there you don't want them getting used to only opening the big door 1/2 way "just this one time". 13'6" is legal height so no real need to go higher.
No need for a wash bay myself but have used shops set up with a separate bay. Seems the only way to go. The temperature can be adjusted different and still be used for other work especially in summer months with door open.
Have a loft and love the space. It will be my office/ hideout and social area and leaves lower floor space open for actual work. Floor height is just enough for the truck hood to open. Had it parked inside to mimic an actual work day to plan where workbenches, welders ect should end up. Spray painted outlines on the gravel floor to get the feel of walking around before committing to outlet locations and stairs among other things.
Also worked out of a shop with radiant floor as well as radiant ceiling. Luxury!

 

[mackwrench]

I've worked in shops with & without a pit... much easier to lay on your back and work than standing and looking up to work.
I absolutely hated the pit, it wasn't wide enough, sometimes too wide, not deep enough and sometimes to deep... overall a pita..... plus today you can get wheel lifts that's more versatile than a pit..

The last one I worked in used a channel iron deal on the top edge with a jack setup that would roll from front to back, you could jack up a axle with and at least use it for something besides pm service.



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[VocaTexas]

I used to run truck wash. Be sure and check on Wyoming environmental regulations. Don't want to be tearing a slab out to make it fit regs later.

 

[homebuilt burner]

A lot of this depends on the work you do. I have worked in a couple of shops with pits, if the design is good it is very handy for PM work. If PMs are not your focus than they are not as handy. Overhead crane is very handy. Someone mentioned iron in the concrete, i worked in a shop that did this then tore the floor out 6 months later due to the iron rusting from the road salt. (FYI this was large commercial building engineered and constructed by a a top firm in the area so I do not know what the cause was). If you do your own tires a well thought out tire service area, it takes more room than you think. A loading dock built in somewhere for deliveries. And a small overhead door by your parts room. Good WiFi is getting to be a must for updates. I would put as much in the floor as possible electrical, air to the other side of the shop, water lines to the other side, and a couple of empty conduit for future use.

 

[finn]

Forget the pit and budget for a moveable wheel lift.

You will be required to install an oil separator.

Wall off the wash bay or possibly make it part of an enclosed lean to. Heating it or quick water line blow out capability then becomes a challenge.

A waste oil heater is nice, but your business may not generate enough useable oil by itself, and walk in oil is often contaminated.

In floor heat is nice, but not very flexible.

Make room for an office and bathroom.

I would go with a gantry crane, unless you have an unlimited budget.

Double length pull through bays woul be mandatory.

 

[homebuilt burner]

Another option instead of a pit, one place I worked had a 50,000 lbs parallelogram lift a rotary I believe. Expensive but not a pit, look online to see one.

 

[Shop Specialties]

The only shops doing pits anymore are oil change places that have full basements. I even have customers who filled in there pits. I would take the extra money it would require to build the pit and put it elsewhere.

 

[kbs2244]

Every heavy duty shop I have been in,including the Chicago Transit Authority bus garage, has had a pit.
Big, long ones, with tire curbs, electric and air.
Lights, fans, tool boards, step stools, the works.
I think some guys spend their whole shift down there.

I am not an expert, but I would guess that, as long as you don't need to take the wheels off, they are faster and easier for any underneath work.

 

[Caterpillar Cowboy]

Well, after listening to you guys I think that a service pit may not be part of the initial build.

The way things are going to have to work is pour basically my main 2 or 3 bays for now, along with some footers and a slab for my office space, and then finishing the rest later. A building is already up just no floor.

I'm really leaning towards the Rotary Mod 35 lift for probably my 2nd service bay 'down the line' if you will, first bay for general work that doesn't require putting wheels in the air. I like those Rotary Mod style lifts as it will allow me to do wheel end work off my built in floor jack that is going to realistically cost me north of $20 grand. Why spend the same amount on a set of wheel lifts when I can't even use them to R&R a wheel seal?
http://www.rotarylift.com/LIFTS/MOD35/

I can still see myself doing a service pit down the line when I am ready to pour the next section or one after that. Ventilation, air and electrical plumbing and lighting should be no big deal for a new construction, and would still be nice to pull over the pit for a quick grease job.

Years of improper lifting techniques and using leverage in the form of my body at work has made me in my young old age decide to try to work smart, not hard!

 

[Caterpillar Cowboy]

For heating concerns, I do like the idea of a waste oil heater, and am by no means above installing one in the future, however at this point I don't generate enough to heat myself in the winter, let alone heat the size of a shop I am getting myself into.

In my last post I stated that due to the size and cost of concrete I'm not going to be able to pour the whole slab at once, but initially will be pouring my main work bays and a shop office. Planning to incorporate a footer to this section for sure and running in floor heat. I am not entirely sure if there are any ways to make this system easier to tie into to incorporate it to the rest of my shop when I have the funds to complete pouring the floor, but if anyone has any tips I am all ears.

I am still not positive but I believe that it may already have natural gas very close, or possibly coming nearby in the future, Which would be very nice.

In addition to the floor heat, I also plan to build a heck of a wood stove, along with a back up either natural gas, propane, or electric heater, for when I am too lazy or too busy to get firewood.

 

[Caterpillar Cowboy]

As far as shop cranes go, I had not at all thought of this. Currently jobs I need to use a crane for I just use my skid steer for, and due to current shop size these must be done outside, hopefully in the summer months!

Converting a pre-existing building into a shop, as nice as one would be, I am afraid a bridge crane would be out of the question, or over the top for re-engineering things.

I feel a home built good sized gantry crane, or two, along with my trusty skid steer could get me through about anything I would need.

 

[FANTM58]

Ventilation !

 

[Bob P1]

What ever size you "plan" to build, double it! Or at least keep the "double it in mind for future expansion. I think a pit for a "heavy" equipment garage is fine, just have to plan for an "open" end, with a stair case. Everything can't always be lifted.

 

[jubilee]

I was in the trucking business from 1959 - 2017. Always did most of my own work. In my opinion a clean, bright pit is invaluable. You will find things when you roll a piece of equipment over a pit that you’ll never see laying on your back with you nose pressed up against a differential. Chafing lines, loose fasteners, cracks, leaks, and ect. A 5 minute walk through inspection in a pit is better than a 2 hour one on a creeper. Then there are so many repair jobs that can be done so much easier with a pit than without.

 

[sberry]

I wash outside but use the same space for warm winter parking and paint.

 

[6768rogues]

Pits need drainage and everything in them has to be explosion proof. Not for me. A friend had a building with 8 bays and lifts that could lift and service anything legal for road use as long as it was unloaded. Not a pit in the place.

 

[Caterpillar Cowboy]

Ventilation !

Man, After working in the shop I'm in now for since I was about 8 years old with nothing but a little 2' by 3' window to open, having adequate ventilation I probably wouldn't know what to do!

 

[Steve from Socal]

I have a shop with 4 bridge cranes, I know they are not in your budget, the next best thing, a good forklift with a rigger boom.. I am not a fan of free standing gantry cranes. If you have the ceiling height a truck lift may be an option? A small scissor lift is also very handy around the shop and high work on trucks

I have a couple big trucks and my big door are 24X16, I wouldn't go lower and OD load is going to be a problem with a 14' door. I also agree with the wash bay being stand alone. If you plan to do any paint work maybe collocate the booth and wash bays.

Ceiling height is a double edge sword, my main shop is 20' at the eaves it is great to work on stuff inside, it is brutal to heat. Another thing, I have skylight panels all over the shop, natural light is a huge plus. Side lights or high windows as well. The better you seal up the shop the less you will spend in the long run on heat. I have 12K in heated shop space with 1.6 m BTU's of heaters, it is about 100.00 a day for the heaters to run.

What jobs and work do you envision doing in house? Planning for the future is a big plus, having a growth outline for the shop and building with that in mind make expanding smoother.

Steve

 

[3504speed]

I was in the trucking business from 1959 - 2017. Always did most of my own work. In my opinion a clean, bright pit is invaluable. You will find things when you roll a piece of equipment over a pit that you’ll never see laying on your back with you nose pressed up against a differential. Chafing lines, loose fasteners, cracks, leaks, and ect. A 5 minute walk through inspection in a pit is better than a 2 hour one on a creeper. Then there are so many repair jobs that can be done so much easier with a pit than without.

I totally agree, we're running 20+ trucks doing ready mix concrete and sand & gravel. Our pit is used daily for service and repairs. We put angle iron around the perimeter of the pit opening so when your jacking up a loaded truck it protects and reinforces the edge. And the stairs on both ends are removable for cleaning on occasion. Our shop is 70' x 100',

Don't go too narrow on your doors. 14' wide minimum. We went 12 wide and 14 high and have trouble on occasion with both, but have made it work for 20 years now.

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

TWO rolling gantry cranes. Because one is going to be stuck in use holding that trailer in the yard as you're replacing the landing gear and you need it for something else.

The versatility of being able to use such inside and out of the shop itself will be invaluable.