Green Pro Guide to Buying a Spray Truck

Often the buyer of a spray rig thinks the process begins by choosing a truck. That is usually wrong.

I can’t tell you how many times I get a call from someone who just bought a truck and wants it carry 800 gallons with all kinds of pumps and hose reels only to find that the truck is too small; it cannot carry the weight. Here is a quick overview of the process of determining how much spray equipment to buy. Also read the article from ArborAGE magazine were I deal more with the “whys” behind the principles.

  • Determine the total amount of gallons that you need per day and how much you expect that number to increase over the next three years.
  • Determine the maximum height you need to spray.
  • Determine whether the sprayer will only be for lawns, or only trees, or compost tea, or will it be for a combination of services.
  • Do you want it to do IPM work, i.e., do you want the flexibility to do 5 different applications with one visit to the property if needed?
  • How many applicators will use the truck at the same time?
  • Do you require security and a weatherproof unit versus an open platform truck?
  • What kind of image and marketing impact do you want to project?
  • What kind of budget are you working with? (Knowing that we can often increase the profitability of the spray rig because of its efficiency.)

The answers to these questions will have a significant impact on the Options and Upgrades you may want to include on your truck.

After you know the answers to these questions, as well as questions your Green Pro representative will walk through with you step-by-step, you are ready to choose the vehicle type that will best meet all of your needs, from pick-up truck, to trailer, to class 5 or 6 truck under 26,000gvw.

Finally, this is perhaps the most important principle:

Within a few short years, it is always less expensive to spend more money on more highly efficient equipment than on labor.