Skip to content
A truck passing through a green KKE drive-through wash gantry on a depot apron

Truck wash

Truck Wash Equipment for Fleets: A Buyer's Guide

A truck wash machine is one of three things: a gantry that travels over a parked vehicle, arches the vehicle drives through, or a mobile washer that goes to it. Your busiest hour picks the format; your vehicles pick the machine.

7

Vehicles an hour from one gantry bay, on a complete programme

40

Trucks an hour through drive-through brush arches — 30 to 40

160 bar

Touch-free duty on the KKE 503, from two pumps

The range

Our Truck Wash Machines, Side by Side

Three gantries on the same rail and one drive-through line. Specifications, add-ons and the washable envelope for each are on the machine's own page.

KKE 403KKE 504KKE 503KKE 501
FormatGantry on floor railsGantry on floor railsGantry on floor railsDrive-through arches
CleaningTwo hinged side brushesThree brushes; the sides cross over to the front and rearTouch-free: 130 lpm at 160 bar, two pumpsBrush or high-pressure arches
RoofWater nozzles; roof brush optionalRoof brush, standardContour-following top nozzlesSet by the arches chosen
Vehicles an hour6 to 7 on a complete programme6 to 7 on a complete programmeOne per pass; programme set to the soil~30–40 through brush arches; up to ~60 through high-pressure arches
Washable height3.5 · 4.1 · 4.6 · 5.1 m3.5 · 4.1 · 4.6 · 5.1 m3.5 · 4.1 · 4.6 · 5.1 mSized to your tallest vehicle
Best onBuses and box bodies; vehicles with roof carriersMixed fleets that need the front, rear and roof cleanedTankers, tippers, mixers; mirrors, ladders and roof kitYards where vehicles come back together and queue
DetailsKKE 403 →KKE 504 →KKE 503 →Drive-through →

Find your machine

Which Truck Wash Machine Do You Need?

The price depends on the model, the washable height, the options and your site. Answer the questions to find the suitable model and its pricing.

Question 1

What will you wash?

Question 2

How many vehicles must be washed in your busiest hour?

Question 3

Can a vehicle drive straight through and out the far side?

Question 4

How should the vehicle be cleaned?

Recommended for you

KKE 403

Format
Gantry on floor rails — the vehicle parks, the machine travels
Cleaning
Two hinged side brushes; roof by water nozzles, roof brush optional
Busiest hour
6 to 7 vehicles an hour on a complete programme
Site
One bay, floor rails on a level slab, a drain
See the KKE 403 →

Recommended for you

KKE 504

Format
Gantry on floor rails — the vehicle parks, the machine travels
Cleaning
Three brushes — the side brushes cross over to clean the front and rear, plus a roof brush
Busiest hour
6 to 7 vehicles an hour on a complete programme
Site
One bay, floor rails on a level slab, a drain
See the KKE 504 →

Recommended for you

KKE 503

Format
Gantry on floor rails — the vehicle parks, the machine travels
Cleaning
Touch-free — 130 litres a minute at 160 bar, two pumps
Busiest hour
One vehicle per pass, programme set to the soil
Site
One bay, floor rails on a level slab, a drain
See the KKE 503 →

Recommended for you

KKE 501 drive-through, brush arches

Format
Drive-through — the arches stand, the truck drives
Cleaning
Brush arches
Busiest hour
About 30 to 40 trucks an hour
Site
A straight approach, the arch line and a clear run-out
See drive-through systems →

Recommended for you

KKE 501 drive-through, high-pressure arches

Format
Drive-through — the arches stand, the truck drives
Cleaning
High-pressure arches — nothing touches the vehicle
Busiest hour
Up to about 60 trucks an hour
Site
A straight approach, the arch line and a clear run-out
See drive-through systems →

Recommended for you

Two KKE 403 gantry bays

Format
Two gantry bays
Cleaning
Two hinged side brushes in each bay
Busiest hour
12 to 14 vehicles an hour across both bays
Site
Two bays; no straight run needed
See the KKE 403 →

Recommended for you

Two KKE 504 gantry bays

Format
Two gantry bays
Cleaning
Three brushes in each bay — sides, front, rear and roof
Busiest hour
12 to 14 vehicles an hour across both bays
Site
Two bays; no straight run needed
See the KKE 504 →

Recommended for you

Two KKE 503 gantry bays

Format
Two gantry bays
Cleaning
Touch-free in both bays — 160 bar
Busiest hour
Two vehicles at a time — one in each bay
Site
Two bays; no straight run needed
See the KKE 503 →

Recommended for you

KKE mobile truck washer

Format
Mobile — no bay, no rails, no foundation
Cleaning
A high-pressure lance in an operator's hands
Busiest hour
As many as your crew can wash
Site
Wherever the vehicle is parked
See mobile washers →

Recommended for you

KKE mining vehicle wash system

Format
Parked systems, built from KKE modules
Cleaning
Water cannons and high-pressure lances — by operators, by joystick or on traversing trolleys
Busiest hour
Sized on your fleet and shifts
Site
A wash pad draining to sedimentation tanks in series
See mining wash systems →

Recommended for you

KKE mining drive-through truck wash

Format
Drive-through lane, built for haul trucks
Cleaning
High-volume banks on both walls and in a floor channel — nothing touches the truck
Busiest hour
2 to 3 minutes a truck
Site
A straight lane, with the water train alongside
See the mining drive-through →

Vehicles an hour is the machine's own rate on a complete programme. What a depot clears in a shift depends on how the vehicles arrive and how the bay is marshalled.

Sizing

Four Questions That Size a Truck Wash

We ask these before quoting anything, because the answers decide the machine more than the size of the fleet does.

01

Your Busiest Hour, Not Your Daily Total

Forty trucks spread across a day is one gantry. Forty that come back between 18:00 and 19:00 is a drive-through. Size the wash for the hour the yard queues.

02

What Comes Back on the Vehicles

Road film off a highway truck, clay off a tipper and oil around a chassis each need different chemistry, different pressure and different time under the machine.

03

The Shape of the Fleet

Flat sides — buses, container and box bodies — clean well and cheaply under brushes. Tankers, mixers, tippers, ladders and roof kit push towards touch-free.

04

What the Bay Allows

A gantry needs floor rails on a level slab with a drain; a drive-through needs length. We look at the bay before the machine, because it is the one thing you cannot change later.

Brushes or touch-free

Match the Machine to the Shape, Not to a Preference

We build both, and neither is the better machine. What decides it is what is on the vehicle and what the vehicle is shaped like.

Brushes: Flat Sides and Road Film

A brush puts mechanical action on the panel, which is what lifts road film, and on buses and box bodies it cleans fastest with the least installed power. The KKE 403 cleans the sides; the KKE 504 crosses over to clean the front and rear too, and steps out around extended mirrors.

Touch-Free: Irregular Shapes

With no brush, pressure and chemistry do all of the work — so the KKE 503 runs at 160 bar and reads the vehicle's profile with mapping sensors. It reaches a tanker, tipper or mixer a brush would have to bridge, on vehicles up to 23 m long.

One wash

What a Truck Wash Cycle Does

Programmes and trolley speed are configurable, so the cycle is set to the soil rather than to a fixed recipe. A complete programme runs:

01

Pre-Wash

Water over the whole vehicle first, so grit is wetted and lifted before anything sweeps across the paint.

02

Soap

Chemistry laid on and given time to work. The KKE 504 uses two: a low-pH pre-wash for road film and a high-pH shampoo for oil.

03

Brush or High-Pressure Pass

Brushes on the KKE 403 and 504; nozzle passes at 160 bar on the KKE 503.

04

Rinse

Clean water carries the loosened soil and the chemistry off the vehicle.

A jet of water from a KKE wheel blaster striking the tyre and red wheel rim of a truck

Add-ons

Wheels, Chassis and Drying

The machine takes the body. What sits below and behind it is added to suit the fleet — and on trucks the wheels are usually the first thing anyone asks for.

  • Wheel blasters — high pressure aimed at the tyre and rim
  • Under-chassis wash — a fixed spray bar at the mouth of the bay
  • Side blasters — extra high-pressure jets on the flanks
  • Exit blowers — drying is a separate product at the bay exit; no KKE gantry carries an on-board dryer
  • Water recycling — a closed loop reuses 80–90% of the wash water
  • Wash chemicals — matched to the soil and to the machine
Low wide view up at the rear axle of a haul truck in a KKE mining wash lane, high-volume jets firing inward from both walls and mud blasting off the tyres

Mining fleets

A Haul Truck Is a Different Wash

What comes off a mining machine is wet clay and grit, not road film, and there is usually nowhere for the water to go. We design mining systems around the fleet and the material — a drive-through lane at 2 to 3 minutes a truck, or parked systems with water cannons — with the water cleaned through sedimentation tanks in series.

FAQ

Truck Wash Questions We Get

How much does a truck wash machine cost?

It depends on the format, the washable height, the add-ons and the site. A gantry, a drive-through line and a mobile washer are different purchases, and two gantries of the same model can differ by height and options. Answer the four questions in the selector above to find the suitable model, and we will send you its price.

How many trucks an hour can a truck wash machine wash?

A gantry washes 6 to 7 vehicles an hour on a complete programme, because it travels the length of every vehicle. A drive-through takes roughly 30 to 40 trucks an hour through brush arches and up to about 60 through high-pressure arches. The difference is safety: a moving brush against a vehicle has to be taken slowly.

Can one machine wash both buses and trucks?

Usually, yes — the limit is height and shape rather than vehicle type. Every gantry is built to one of four washable heights, 3.5 m, 4.1 m, 4.6 m or 5.1 m, fixed when the machine is built, so choose it against your tallest vehicle. A double-decker needs one of the taller ones. For bus-only fleets, see our bus washing machines.

Does a truck wash machine dry the vehicle?

Not on board. No KKE gantry carries a dryer; drying is a separate blower product at the exit of the bay, quoted as its own line.

What does the wash bay need?

For a gantry: floor rails on a level slab with drainage, and power, water and — for the brush machines — compressed air at the machine. The rails have installation tolerances (centres within 5 mm, level within 2 mm), so the slab matters more than the building. A drive-through needs a straight approach and a clear run-out instead.

What power supply does a truck wash need?

Three phase. The KKE 504 is built for 415 V / 50 Hz, 380 V / 60 Hz or 208 V / 60 Hz. The connected load depends on the options fitted — the KKE 503's pumps make it far larger than a brush machine's — so it is issued on the electrical drawing with your quotation.

How much water does a truck wash use?

It depends on the programme and the options, so we work it out for your site rather than publish a figure that fits nobody's. Water recycling moves it most: a closed loop reuses 80–90% of the wash water.

Tell us about the fleet

Send Us Your Busiest Hour and Your Tallest Vehicle

How many vehicles, back by when, how dirty they come in and the tallest thing in the yard. We will come back with the format that fits, what your bay needs, and the price.

We use your details to respond to your enquiry. See our Privacy Policy for how we handle your data.

Chat on WhatsApp