Wells Sweeping Complies With CARB Regulations by Installing First-Ever DPF System

Retrofitting and conversion are feasible solutions to continued Mobil operation where CARB rules must be followed.

The Athey Mobil Street Sweeper is still considered, by many, as the flagship of Wells Sweeping’s street sweeping fleet. They are a well-built, highly functional sweeper that can tackle many of the jobs newer sweepers still have trouble with. Unfortunately, Athey, the manufacturer of Mobil, went out of business many years ago. This has left little to no support in retrofitting or modifying the Mobil equipment.

This fact turned into a concern when the California Air Resources Board (CARB) put regulations in place requiring diesel engine sweepers to have a Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) on all their trucks.

When CARB enacted its regulations for on-road diesel trucks, the Mobil immediately came into question. It was, in fact, presented to CARB to exempt these particular sweepers from the regulation because of the lack of manufacturer support and the lack of a safe and efficient area to mount the Particulate Matter (PM) filter.

All of the PM filters on the market are large and generate a tremendous amount of heat. The Mobil has a conventional cab and no spaces or caverns in the body to safely install a filter, and this posed an extremely serious problem.

After much deliberation, CARB decided not to make any exemptions for the Mobil. This caused serious concern amongst sweeper fleet owners, being that many smaller fleets in California are comprised solely of Athey Mobil Sweepers. If these fleet owners did not have a viable and economically feasible way to bring their equipment into compliance, they would be forced to purchase a new or used sweeper at
a substantially higher cost.

A lot of California sweeper companies are also going out of business or moving their businesses to other states as an alternative to buying newer sweepers. Wells says, “It’s not easy to retrofit a sweeper truck.” Not only is it difficult, but it’s costly, as well. Therefore, many companies cannot afford to retrofit their fleets to fit the DPFs, or they simply don’t want to upgrade. Wells Sweeping, however, isn’t going anywhere.

According to Wells, “As a small sweeper company, we didn’t know how we were going to comply.” To stay competitive, Wells Sweeping recently became a dealer of Econix Diesel Particulate Filters. They saw both a solution and a challenge in finding a safe and a financially feasible resolution to an extremely complex situation, and Wells approached this problem from a safety and feasibility standpoint, with safety being their primary concern. “We spent quite a bit of time planning and experimenting with locating the components of the system in various places and positions,” Wells says.

After some time and research, they discovered that the best mounting area would be on top of the cab. “Our technicians designed a rail mounting system and heat shield/deflector to assist with heat dissipation and protecting the DPF components from any damage,” Wells explains. The rail mounting system provides plenty of support for the components, as well as a rigid substructure to mount the heat shield/deflector. The mounting system provides for proper and safe installation, while also keeping the height of the components below the highest point of the truck. In addition, it properly routes the exhaust away from the operator.

The Econix Diesel Particulate Filter system Wells Sweeping installed is a top of the line DPF with the lowest regeneration time in the industry. This allows for quick ten minute regenerations rather than losing a large amount of time regenerating, or having to plug the system into an electrical source to complete the regeneration.

To date, Wells Sweeping is the first and only company to properly and safely install a DPF system on an Athey Mobil Street Sweeper. Wells says, “We are very proud of this accomplishment, and very excited to share this solution with our fellow sweeper fleet owners.”

For more information on Wells Sweeping visit www.wellssweeping.com.