Mobile Winter Blues

If your are a mobile groomer or you use a mobile groomer, it is a wonder how they deal with the winter. Admittedly, winter is a more difficult season than all the others. Here's why:

First, when the thermometer dips, water tends to freeze. Frozen pipes can be catastrophic to a mobile groomer. Equipment gets ruined, leaks can occur, the mobile unit is unusable. Sometimes pipes and hoses can freeze but are recoverable by thawing carefully with a heat gun. I have had cold mornings where my bathtub hoses froze. I keep a heat gun in my truck for such mornings and it may get me going again.

Although once a truck is thawed it may be back in business, it is not always the case. Freezing situations must be avoided at all cost as the first defense. To make sure my pipes survive the coldest weather, I run a ceramic heater in the back where the water tanks and pipes are located. I also make sure I drain any hoses that are in the bathtub area before I end my workday. If the temperature gets into the single digits, I may run the central heater in the van in addition to the ceramic heater.

Keeping the heat on in a mobile truck requires an outlet that does not have anything else on that circuit. You wouldn't want the electrical breaker in your house to trip while you were asleep and wake up to a mobile popsicle! Also realize that running these heaters all winter will make your electric bill rise.

As far as getting to your customers, snow and ice do not make for good travel for a mobile grooming truck. I build 'snow days' into my schedule so that if I miss a day due to weather, I can make it up. It is not wise to risk your truck and livelihood in bad weather. You need to explain to your customers that if the weather is unsafe you will have to re-schedule.

I hope some of this information is helpful and welcome any questions or comments!