Aero tech xt or Steamaction stealth fighter

[Carfar4]

I was looking into the aero tech xt system and a stealth fighter and wondered what you guys would choose
The stealth has 20 hg vs aero tech has 16 hg
The cfm is pretty similar ( aero tech has 70 cfm more)
The heat is where the aerotech beats the fighter
And obviously the xt has some very nice bells and whistles you can add on
Was wondering if you guys had any thoughts?

 

[hogjowl]

Don’t make your decision based on heat. Anything over 220 is a waste.

 

[Dwain Ray]

I was looking into the aero tech xt system and a stealth fighter and wondered what you guys would choose
The stealth has 20 hg vs aero tech has 16 hg
The cfm is pretty similar ( aero tech has 70 cfm more)
The heat is where the aerotech beats the fighter
And obviously the xt has some very nice bells and whistles you can add on
Was wondering if you guys had any thoughts?

I think power and heat matters less between the two than what there in. Meaning the vehicle. They both have more power than god and putting one against the other is splitting hairs, but if you're talking about a full blown aerotech in a box truck, not "areotech jr" packed into a standard express van. Its gunna require alot more real-estate to park and will run about 35k more out the door. Also with all pto's theres repair, from what i understand, alot of Isuzu dealerships don't want to deal with pto systems. I know when my chevy blew an engine i had to do alot on the pto end( mine is Serpentine belt driven) to get them to work on the engine. I had to remove and replace the dog house, disconnect & reconnect all wiring remove and reinstall all machine pulleys and belts. And re laser align pto drive shaft(they marked and replaced to mark) . Where as the steam action is a slide in. Will fit in a assortment of different vehicles and outside of fuel/ fuel tap will not effect any part of van and could take up less real-estate. As for me, where it's parked turned out to be a really big consideration when getting a new rig. I originally went to Las Vegas and was about to purchase a butler in a box van. At the last minute i had a friend back home run down and measure my shop door. Turns out the box truck was 3" taller than the door. So in my case real-estate was the determining factor in what i ended up with so how mechanically inclined are you??? Do you know which end of a ratchet is a hammer? Pto's tend to need less maintenance but if your not the one thats doing it, then who is?? Same goes for the steam action whos gunna fix it? I don't know how rural you are in there in Minnesota. But parts and repairs should be at least part of your consideration anyway long winded enough , for me i lean twards pto's i love um but the xt would be out for me for reasons pointed out above i would have to go with there DDS system but to me that looks like 5lbs of shit in a 1lb box. I went pto but opted for custom built

 

[Mikey P]

What have you been using up to now?

Will you be dual wanding or do you have real long hose runs to perform on a regular basis?

Are you mostly hot water extracting greasy grimy commercial?

Who is going to perform the maintenance on either?

 

[BIG WOOD]

Those are big machines. Both of those models can handle 3 wands. Is that your business model?

I recently used my friend's stealth raptor with the 5003 blower and it was biting the carpet really good @ 17hg/250+ feet. So if all you're gonna do is a single wand, then the Raptor would be my choice

 

[Carfar4]

What have you been using up to now?

Will you be dual wanding or do you have real long hose runs to perform on a regular basis?

Are you mostly hot water extracting greasy grimy commercial?

Who is going to perform the maintenance on eithe

What have you been using up to now?

Will you be dual wanding or do you have real long hose runs to perform on a regular basis?

Are you mostly hot water extracting greasy grimy commercial?

Who is going to perform the maintenance on either

The plan would be too mainly do dual wand on most jobs and especially dual wandering long distances. Talking 250 to 300 ft each wand
I do a few real greasy jobs ( not many)
For almost all of the maintenance I would handle, if it was a truck related thing then I guess I would take it somewhere to get service (. Like motor or transmission or pto if I’m using aerotech)

 

[BIG WOOD]

For very cold climates I would go PTO

For very hot climate, a slide in is better.

 

[Carfar4]

For very cold climates I would go PTO

For very hot climate, a slide in is better.

Also another thing nice about the xt is the dual pressure regulator and dedicated prespray hookup which I find appealing

 

[hogjowl]

For very cold climates I would go PTO

For very hot climate, a slide in is better.

From my experience it’s been a toss up. My hot climate toasts spark plugs and melts the occasional vacuum line to the point I spend around $1200 per year with each van on repairs. When I ran TCS slide in’s I was having to replace my TM engines every two years due to the heat. So it’s basically worked itself out evenly both ways.

 

[Dwain Ray]

From my experience it’s been a toss up. My hot climate toasts spark plugs and melts the occasional vacuum line to the point I spend around $1200 per year with each van on repairs. When I ran TCS slide in’s I was having to replace my TM engines every two years due to the heat. So it’s basically worked itself out evenly both ways.

 

[BIG WOOD]

From my experience it’s been a toss up. My hot climate toasts spark plugs and melts the occasional vacuum line to the point I spend around $1200 per year with each van on repairs. When I ran TCS slide in’s I was having to replace my TM engines every two years due to the heat. So it’s basically worked itself out evenly both ways.

Nah. It’s those air cooled engines on the tcs units that cooled too hot

Over 4000hrs on my liquid cooled Everest and it’s been hot over here.

So let me rephrase my comment.
Liquid cooled slideins are better in hot climate than pto.

But I’m glad you got those cleancos.

 

[Dwain Ray]

When i started buying steamgeni ptos, over a period of 13 years i bought an intire fleet of 8 from a company in Sacramento California where the temperature reaches 110° in the summer. All the units had similar issues all could be traced back to heat and poor and/or lack of maintenance. What has to be understood and addressed is the fact that when running a pto, the engine is running at about the same rpms as it would be doing at 35 or 40mph without the 35or 40 mph air flow running thru the engine compartment. Most all the heat related issues could have and can be avoided. When i built Frankinstien i addressed the heat issues during the built, simply and fairly inexpensively. #1 i switched plug wires to extreme temp silicone plug wires then added wire insulation covers. #2 added extreme 25,000lb towing rated transmission auxiliary cooler. This cooler was put in series with existing radiator and factory heavy-duty coolers. Fluid first cools with radiator cooler then factory heavy-duty then extreme duty cooler #3 removed the pipe loop power steering cooler pos and replaced it with a gm extreme duty finned power steering cooler then added a second fin and tube power steering cooler in series. #4 Covered and wrapped with wiring heat wrap and hose insulation all wires and hoses that could be exposed to high heat. The result is a van that can stand up to running in high temperatures without alot of the problems associated with it year after year. Of course where i live temperature is not a problem my machine rarely operates above 75° but the steps ive taken in the initial build i consider very cheap insurance total cost was approximately 300.00 transmission 225.00 power steering 200.00 spark plugs and 175.00 miscellaneous so around total around 900.00 cheap insurance against heat related breakdowns. you're only as good as your tool !

 

[hogjowl]

Yeah I always wished that TCS had a liquid cooled option. They always tried to act like I was the only one burning up my engines.