Life (car count) expectancy for neo-glide wraps?

I seem to be getting 250k cars out of a set of material.
How does that compare?

Great, but in the Pacific NW it does not wash the cars. The material is too light to take off the oily road film. Had to replace the foam with cloth.

Bud Abraham

That's about what we get as well. It helps that our $3 wash does not recieve the second top brush and second set of wraps, so we have extended the time interval between changing the foam on these. We are also learning that even if you use colored foam, it's a good idea to make the bottom 24" all black so the dirt doesn't show.

With a low ph foam, mine have stayed clean where the foam is heavy.

Bud, how many cars do you get out of all cloth. My thoughts are that the neo-glide is more expensive but lasts longer. (?)
Bud, have you tried micro-fiber on a set of wraps? I've got a single set at one location, at a much slower speed and they seem to do very wheel. That set has cloth on the bottom row.

We are only getting around 90k cars out of a set of neoglide wraps. We have a lot of trucks that pull boats and campers in this area and the trailer hitches tend to eat a groove into the bottom section of the neoglide while the upper sections still look good. When we used cloth we would recieve a lot of damage claims and bent antennas. I looked at the microfiber for the wraps but I was woried that the heavy material would cause much of the same damage as the cloth, if not more.

I would continue using the lighter weight neoglide versus the cloth ( even though the cloth lasts longer) simply because it is more gentle on the vehicle.

I get about 230-240k cars out of my neoglide wraps. I agree, the trailer hitches do greatly reduce the life of them on the lower sections. My new policy is all trailer hitches must be removed before entering the wash. It was tearing them up to much!

I'm pondering on my next neoglide order, getting black for the bottom 24" as asj stated. I will never switch back to cloth after using neoglide, there are so many pro's I can not even think of one con. Less damages, more life, MUCH cleaner car....and the list goes on. I have it in all my places and have not looked back since.

We have two sets of all black neoglide. They have been running for about 6 months now and the color still looks new.

I agree with all...now if someone can just come up with an easy way to remove the old material from the core, we'd have it made.

When I replaced mine I sprayed some WD-40 on the C channel and it helped a little, they are still a pain!

We use the Ryko foambrite material, it is heavier than the neoglide and seems to last longer. The top section is clutched and turns off at the mirrors by ultrasonic detection.
Thank you,
Mark

koool....I program my controllers to retract during the middle of each vehicle...not perfect because of different lengths and offset wraps but enables me to add more air pressure to front and rear without putting pressure on mirrors and antennas

I hate changing neoglide. I have tried everything. The best thing I have found is clamping vice-grips onto the material next to the hub and then beating it upwards with a hammer. I think my hands still hurt from the last time.

I like the idea of retraction to apply pressure to the front and rear of the vehicle.

Changing Foambrite is easy. Foam brite is fused into a rubber type ring that fits over an aluminum hub. Take out the retainer screw and they slide right off.

I wish it were that easy. I have Sonnys Sf68 with 6"hubs. The hubs have channels from top to bottom that the cloth "slides" into. After the wraps have some age the channels get crusted with residue that is like cement.

Panama Jim, can you tell me more about the mid car retract...I like...Want to hear more. Whos controller? How many relays? Results???
Thanks!

You can do it with anybody's controller. You need a four port air valve on each wrap. The open port will be for retract, each pair of wraps are wired together, then to two separate computer outputs. So you time the wraps to extend just before the vehicle gets there, then off(retract) when the passenger side wrap reachs the ps front tire. Then, when the drivers side wrap reachs the rear tire, you fire the second relay to extend both wraps to clean the rear fenders/wheels and back bumper. There's a little variance because of the wraps being offset and different length vehicles but this works well on most all vehicles. If you had the outputs and mac valves, you could time each brush independantly.

I set the retract at about 60 psi and extend at 12 to 17 psi. Separate mac valves on each brush allows you to increase the pressure on the longer ps arms than on the shorter ds arms. My side brushes clean the sides of narrow vehicles that are missed by the wraps. But most narrow vehicles are also short, so they have little space between the extensions.

Results much less mirror and antenna problems...better wheel and bumper clean. Problems: If a vehicle drives to far forward and breaks the eye before it should...that messes up the whole scenario.

Another safety trick is to wire the extension relay ground wire through the relay for hydraulic power. So that, the extension relay will not fire (no ground) unless the hydraulic relay is energized. Most PLC relays are double pole. This is to reduce the chance of the wrap extending in front of a vehicle while it is not spinning. And/or you can tie in your low level switch for that wrap to the ground for extension and the starter for that hydraulic pump. So a low level situation will stop the starter and extension of the brush. Major vehicle damage averted.

Thanks Jimmy!!!
Im new to the exterior market and this degree of control w/ equipment. I have just been asking ICS and my installer about this exact sort of bumping of the wrap retracts off the tire signal. "Thats a good question/idea let me think about the best way to get there...I'll get back to you...we should be able to do it"
We tried it today....dont have it totally dialed in but will be soon

thanks!