Cleaning drones get the attention. The van parked at the curb is what decides whether the drone actually works.
A drone operator is asking a ground rig to send water and chemical several stories up a hose, hold a steady mix while doing it, switch between pure water and bleach without landing, and do all of it without jolting an aircraft that is hovering next to somebody's glass. That is a different set of requirements than a normal wash rig, and most of the choices in this build come straight out of them.
Here is a 2023 Ford Transit high roof we built for a drone cleaning operation, and why it is put together the way it is.
The unloader is the drone-specific part
If you take one thing from this build, take this one.
The pressure washer is a custom Honda GX690 at 8 GPM and 3,500 PSI. What makes it suitable for drone work is a block-mounted soft-release unloader.
A trapped-pressure unloader holds pressure in the hose when you come off the trigger. On the ground that is a non-issue. Hanging off a drone, that stored pressure releases as a jolt the moment the operator triggers, and the aircraft feels it. A soft-release unloader dumps pressure instead of trapping it, so the drone gets a smooth start rather than a kick.
Block mounting it does something else worth knowing about even if you never fly anything. Pulling the unloader off the pump and mounting it to the frame, plumbed with half inch hose, takes the mechanical stress off the back of the pump. Pumps last longer.
A few other details on the machine: a genuine Honda exhaust rather than an aftermarket one, an upgraded charging system, and the exhaust tapped down through the van floor so it vents underneath. The machine pulls fuel from the van's own tank, plumbed so it can only draw down to about half a tank — you cannot strand yourself on a job.
Two spray systems, not one
The pressure washer is not what feeds the drone most of the time. An AR45 system does.
The AR45 handles high-volume, low-pressure work, which is what most drone cleaning actually is — sending a house wash or roof mix up ten stories at volume rather than blasting at pressure. It can pull from either the buffer tank or the pure water tank, so the same machine does dirty work and rinse work.
You can run a larger pressure washer to a drone instead, and this van can do that too. Having both means the operator picks per job rather than per rig.
Three tanks and a mixing block
Water, bleach and soap each have a tank, and the mixer meters all three into the line with individual valves and numbered indicators.
Roughly how it gets used:
- House wash: water on, soap bumped low, bleach dialed in — usually somewhere around the 1 mark as a starting point
- Roof or heavy moss: water wide open, bleach wide open, which lands near a 50/50 mix
- Pure water only: water, soap and bleach all off, and the fourth valve opened to the pure water tank
That last one matters for drone work specifically. A lot of what drones get hired for is glass and panel work where you want no chemical at all and no spotting on the dry-down.
The same mixing logic applies to any soft wash rig — we cover it in detail in How a Soft Wash Mixing System Actually Works, and the mixers themselves are in the soft wash mixers collection.
Three ways to get pure water out
The purification side is a high-flow window cleaning system: high-flow sediment and carbon pre-filters, then two DI tanks in series. High flow matters because a system sized for a single window cleaner will choke a drone operation.
Water comes in through a 3/4 inch garden hose — bigger hose, faster fills — hits a selector valve, and goes either to the buffer tank or through purification to the pure water tank.
From there it can leave three ways: through the pressure washer, through the AR45, or through the water-fed pole system, which runs off its own remote-controlled pump so the operator can vary flow from the pole rather than walking back to the van.
Reels and hose
All 12 inch Titan electric reels with heavy-duty guides, carrying:
- 100 ft of garden hose
- 200 ft of Fierce Jet smooth-jacket pressure hose — lighter than standard jacket, 4,250 PSI working with a 10,625 burst rating, and rated to 310°F
- 3/8 inch hose for the AR45, rated 800 PSI
Weight is the reason for both hose choices. Every pound of hose is weight the drone has to lift and drag. The smooth jacket is lighter than a standard braided jacket at a higher rating, and the smaller AR45 line is easier to get up to altitude than a fatter one would be.
There is also a ball valve on the pressure side so the operator can switch between the drone line and a ground gun or surface cleaner without repluming anything.
The parts nobody photographs
The whole build is 316 stainless. Brackets, mounts, hardware. The reel rack is quarter inch aluminum, fabricated in our shop. The tanks are strapped through part of the van frame rather than just to the floor, so nothing shifts on the road.
Every hose end is crimped. No hose clamps anywhere on the build. Clamps are a field failure waiting to happen, and a failure on a drone job is not a puddle — it is an aircraft in the air with no water.
The water-fed pole reel is a Tucker system on a quick connect, so it pulls out of the van entirely and can be used as a standalone window cleaning cart.
Is this the right build for you?
Honestly, for most exterior cleaning companies, no. A drone rig makes sense when you are consistently getting work on buildings you cannot safely or economically reach from the ground — high-rise glass, large commercial facades, structures where scaffolding or lifts eat the margin.
If that is not your work yet, a conventional skid or trailer will serve you far better for the money. We would rather tell you that than sell you a van.
If it is your work, or you are moving toward it, the closest thing we keep listed is the Aqua Flow Pressure Washing Soft Wash Pure Water Drone Skid. Everything we build is custom, so the real starting point is a conversation about the buildings you are cleaning and the drone you are flying.
Further reading
- Skid vs. Trailer vs. Van: Which Pressure Washing Setup Is Right for Your Business?
- How To Adjust Your Pressure Washer Unloader The RIGHT Way
- Hot Water vs. Cold Water Pressure Washing: When It's Worth the Money
We build skids, trailers, vans and truck mounts in Oregon City, Oregon, and ship nationwide. Book a discovery call to talk through a build, or reach the shop at 503-403-6185 (landline, no texts), Monday through Thursday, 8am to 4pm.
