 First, clean the area you plan to erect the pit in. Any debris, rocks, hardware, or junk that can puncture your pit will compromise your containment.

 Evaporation is free, and happens fast in the hot New Mexico Climate. A translucent drum with the bungs out will evaporate at the rate of about ½ to ¾ of an inch per day. Depending on how many rigs are in your fleet, and the frequency that you wash them, this may be a viable option. Any container that holds water and is sealable (to prevent overflow from rain) can be used.

 The larger the surface area of a body of water, the faster it evaporates. Consider a mud puddle that’s an inch deep, and consider a drum that’s four feet deep. Puddles evaporate after a rainstorm in a day or two. If your pit is out of the way in your yard, and you can leave it alone, it will usually evaporate inside of three days, depending on the weather and wind. This is the fastest, cheapest way to go, but isn’t always feasible depending on the size of your yard.

 Because we can do it more frequently, and maintain a cleaner fleet.  Cleaner fleets look more professional, have less issues than equipment that is filthy, and are easier to service and PM.  Dirty rigs often cover warning labels and decals, which is a DOT violation.  Not all contractors that wash our rigs at their shops or with mobile wash units in our yard do so in compliance with SWPPP regulations. This puts us at risk.

Our pit overall cost about $185 to fabricate. The shop we were taking our trucks to charged us $35 a rig to wash with their personnel, and $20 if our guys did it. There was no SWPPP in place, which put us at risk when we did it. Also, the same vendor came to our yard with his mobile steam cleaner, and charged us $65 per forklift to wash those (again, with no SWPPP). We used him an average of twice a year. There are seven forklifts in our yard, and five fleet rigs. The math, for two washes per fleet rig and forklift per year, came out to $1260 annually. With our pit now in place, at a base cost of $185, we save $1075 per year. And we don’t have to limit our cleaning to 2 times. We can wash as often as we like, or need. If your yard doesn’t have a pressure washer, you can get a new one for less than $300. They’re a good long-term investment, and a versatile tool.