Building A High Quality Auto Detailing Cart
I recently finished building a high-quality custom auto detailing cart. I’m sharing my results now that I’ve used it for two car washes because the cart has exceeded my expectations.
The design uses products from four companies:
- Vyper Industrial (X32 Steel Cart)
- Obsessed Garage (OG Coxreel Mounting Plate)
- CoxReel (Hand Crank Pressure Hose Reel w/50 feet of hose)
- Kranzel (KT1322TS Pressure Pump)
- 20 Amp Circuit (local electrician)
Obsessed Garage is a Florida-based distributor and innovator focusing on high-quality (and expensive) best-of-breed solutions for your garage. I purchased the majority of the products from Obsessed Garage. The steel cart was purchased from Vyper Industrial.
Obsessed Garage (OG) offers a sublime wall-mounted pressure washing solution that provides many of the same components, without the Vyper Industrial X32 cart. As part of OG’s wall-mounted kit, they include a very nice hose reel wall mounting plate with either 18” or 24” stud mounting holes.
I realized the Vyper X32 cart has heavy-duty frame members that would support the OG Cox mounting plate. I emailed Obsessed Garage customer service and told them about my idea for building a portable cart using the Vyper Industrial X32 cart.
The next day, I received an email from OG with two photos provided by another customer who did what I was planning. Their cart setup slightly differed from what I planned, confirming that my plan should work. Here’s my version.
I’m pleased with how well the Coxreel, the OG Black Mounting Plate, and the Vyper X32 powder coating match. They look like they belong together.
The first time I used this rig, I saved 20 minutes pressure-washing my car. Now that I have everything dialed in, I expect to save 30 minutes every wash because I can set up the cart with all of the cleaning products in my mobile workstation, and the hose reel makes managing 50” of pressure hose fast and easy.
Obsessed Garage provided all of the pressure hose fittings and quick connects. They also provided a high quality pressure washing wand and foam cannon you see in the photos. OG’s instruction videos were helpful explaining hose fittings, connections, electrical requirements, and auto detailing best practices.
This isn’t for everyone. It’s expensive. My costs for the cart build and adding a 20 Amp circuit in my garage for the pressure pump are detailed below.
| Vendor | Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Vyper Industrial | Vyper Cart X32 | $915 |
| Obsessed Garage | Kranzle K1322TS Deluxe | $2,000 |
| Obsessed Garage | Coxreel Pressure Hose Reel | $291 |
| Obsessed Garage | Mounting Plate | $75 |
| Electrician | Install 20 Amp Circuit | $150 |
| TOTAL COST | Not including bolds/washers | $3,356 |
I realize that spending this much money for a portable pressure washing setup is not rational for most people. However, if you love your cars and want to pressure wash and detail them yourself without having to use a professional service, this solution is excellent. OG sells a garage wall mounting setup that is really nice. I didn’t want to invest money in the garage setup because I wanted a portable solution using the same components. I plan to add a portable water deionizing system to the setup in the next few months. I’ve identified a portable solution that I’ll test. If it work well I’ll write a follow-up post.
If I were to take both cars to a detailing service every three months my breakeven point is less than three years. My goal wasn’t to save money, it was to make detailing three cars as convenient as possible. I don’t mind investing more to build a high quality solution.
One minor concern. The way I mounted the Hose Reel Mounting Plate to Vyper Cart frame seems robust but the holes drilled for the bottom two bolt on the frame where the bottom of the mounting plate meeting the cart frame are very close to the frame edge.
Vyper could modify their frame design to add two tabs with holes pre-drilled for the bottom mount and pre-drill the holds for the top mounts. Another solution could be provided by Obsessed Garage via enhancements to their Coxreel mounting plate.
You can see how close the bottom bolt holes are to edge of the cart frame in the photo below. Perhaps a simple solution from OG could be matching powder-coated steel bars that transverse the mounting bolts horizontally—providing a more rigid foundation.
Right now everything seems very solid. After a couple years of use I may decide to buy some steel bars from a local welding shop, spray paint them with outdoor steel furniture paint in matching black, and add them myself.
Maybe Obsessed Garage can come up with this as an option for the mounting plates they already sell.