We recently had a series of communications with a prospective customer asking about our field marking equipment. To help us better understand their requirements we generated a series of questions.

We noticed from your website (soccer association website) that you have access to soccer fields around your community. Are you currently using aerosol paint or are
you already using bulk latex paint? Do you have a central location for your supplies and mixing/cleaning operations? Do you have a team of volunteers to help stripe the fields or have you been able to contract out this service?

Their response below generated a more specific set of information to help them evaluate their situation and how we may be able help.

"We have been doing a combination of things. We have some fields that we do with aerosol (150 cases / yr) and we have been contracting a painter to do the 10 fields at a city facility.

We have full time people who can do the painting. The #1 issue is cleaning and storage. Right now we have no location that has water and I'm not sure what the RS requires for clean up."

Our response now goes into more detail.

Having a running water source will be important but not an absolutely necessary requirement.

1) Left over paint in the tanks is removed by opening a two-way ball valve at the bottom of the two tanks. We came up with an upgrade kit that is now standard equipment. Part #: 90010-121-018, RS-500 Bottom Intake Line Upgrade Kit, can be viewed near the top 1/3 of the following website page.
2) Once the left over paint is removed the tanks should be rinsed with clean water using a spray nozzle if possible, couple gallons each tank, and the diluted paint used during the next mixing process.
3) Next you add clean water to the tanks, a couple gallons each, and run this water through the complete system, i.e., pumps, spray tips, check valves. Because the paint is circulated back into the tank, our paint agitation system, the tanks should be drained once again. At the conclusion of the process you should remove and clean the inline screen (show on image above) below the tanks, the spray tips and check valves at the spray head assembly.
4) Final step is to add a couple gallons of clean water for a final rinse cycle running the system once again. We like to add a product call “pump protector”, 1 to 2 ounces per gallon of water as part of this last rinse cycle. This product can stay in the system. It has the benefit of minimizing the paint buildup in the system. We also recommend using Simple Green all purpose cleaner.

It normally takes me 15-20 minutes to go through the cleaning process. Once a year depending on the use, the pump valve kit will likely need to be replaced which is a fairly straight forward process using Phillips screw driver to remove the pump head (where hoses are connected) (6 Philips head screws) and separating the pump valve kit from the pump diaphragm kit. Over time latex paint will gradually collect on the valve kit thus reducing the performance of the pump (lower pump pressure). Part #: 100-159-031, Pump Valve Kit 3.3 GPM (Viton), on the same website page referenced above (3/4 the way down the page). I’ve attached a copy of the pump configuration (We use a no control pump head versus the electronic control pump head shown.).

This Shurflo pump has been used for many years by the agricultural, food, RV, and boating industries. Tru Mark introduced this 12-volt diaphragm pump technology to the line striping industry in 1995, low volume low pressure, a very minimal safety issue compared to the high pressure pavement stripers and the CO2 and compressed air technologies.

Each tank has its own pump. These are selectable through a toggle switch. The overall striping operation is controlled by a toggle switch on the steering wheel. There is a couple reason for this. It help minimize a single point of failure in the system. If you only have a couple fields to stripe you only need to use one tank of paint (just put water in the other tank for equipment balance). Here’s a website page that shows this configuration that is now standard on all RS-500s. The chassis has changed slightly from the images shown. The engine throttle assembly is now on the left side of the seat.

The unit can be stored outside as long as the unit isn’t exposed to freezing conditions. A inexpensive tarp can be used to cover the unit when not in use. We have trickle charger for the battery so it maintains a good charge between striping operations.

Many times I carry 5-gallon pails of water and paint to the striping locations and do the mixing and cleaning on-site. The Paint Mule would be very helpful in carry the water in the 20-gallon tanks and 5-gallon pails of paint to the field locations.

We have numerous customers tell us they use much less paint with a self-propelled rider and save a lot of time on each field (moving quicker over the field) while putting down a nice crisp line.

Using a field striper and latex paint is like painting a house, if want to use the equipment (brushes and rollers) again then the tools need to cleaned for them to perform the next time.