Washing/waxing the coach

[brobox]

I showed Classic Corvettes for 25 years, won a few trophy's for "best in class" etc. so the show car look I am very familiar with. I know that I am not going to work that hard to get a show car look on my MH that is going to be on the dirty highways the next day. I will have one of the cleanest, shiniest RV's in the park, and will do it the easiest way possible without hours of work. A DI rinse unit has replaced microfiber towels and extension rods. A small pressure washer has replaced changing buckets of water every couple of feet of washing. New Polymers have replaced my expensive show car waxes. Walmarts $9.95 microfiber wash pad is as good at the $50. on line pads. Walmart also has replacement covers for $3.95 available as I travel. In the end, my MH is just as shinny as my show Corvette was and the shine is lasting even longer now with a heck of a lot less work.

I even plumbed the basement where I can wash in a rest area when washing is not allowed in RV parks, which is more often than not.
I do use a light weight extension pole from Lowe's that stores easy in the basement, and reaches the awnings when extended.

[Sbrownstein]

Now that is what I was looking for. Have the washer, a foam cannon, will get the Walmart pads...what do you use for detergent?

Thanks

[brobox]

I use Blue Coral in the gallon jugs at also at Walmart. I keep a smaller bottle in my wash box in the MH. I haven't tried the soap canon yet, but I will try the same soap in it.

[wmpbauer]

Van.....no brushes! No, no, no, no, not ever!

[wmpbauer]

Foam cannon should use a specially formulated surfactant specifically designed for foam cannon according to griots garage.

[Sbrownstein]

Sure, they would say that. What is going to happen...bad foam? Come on.

[wmpbauer]

Actually yes!....bad foam from the foam cannon. I don't understand all the chemistry, but have witnessed the difference in performance. Most auto soaps will not produce the correct rich foam. Most car wash soaps are too viscous and won't draw properly, and if you thin them with water, they underperform. It should coat the coach with a thick "scrubbing bubbles" type foam....not soapy water. It also works much better with deionized water. Bad foam doesn't have adequate cling, it's too heavy, it breaks down really fast and runs off before the surfactants have time to lift the contaminants....

[brobox]

There was a post a while back that someone used Meguier's car washing soap (also sold at Walmart) in their soap cannon and it worked as good as the high $$ brands.
If the Blue Coral doesn't work in the cannon, I haven't lost anything, I'll pour it in the bucket, still pressure rinse the coach and wash as I normally do.

It's kind of like making your own DI rinse units, you don't know if it's going to work until you try. I'll bet the commercial unit guys will tell me my $5.00 PVC stick DI rinse units won't work.

Here is a true story about soap in car washes. I owned a 5 bay self service car wash for a few years. Along with our regular car wash soap, we added a bottle of "Mr. Bubbles" (a kids bubble bath soap at a buck a bottle) in the soap tank. Customers loved it as it foamed like crazy and they thought their car was really getting clean, it didn't do anything but foam. The regular soap was doing the real cleaning. We loved it as customers spent 3 times as many quarters rinsing the foam off and they kept coming back because we had the "best soap". It was a win-win for everyone and actually the Mr Bubbles was just for show, but the customers were happy. I learned a lot from car washing trade shows on how to market washing products and how to clean cars.

Using your water softener water through the Foam Cannon will make it foam better too. Just like the shower, same soap, but you get more suds when you take a soft water shower.

[Ready2Travel]

Applied Rejex on the front cap and windshield a few weeks ago and that stuff is great!

Drove about 530 miles last weekend and eliminated many bugs from the gene pool. When we got to the RV park I didn't have much time so just hooked a hose up to the output connection on the water softener and sprayed down the front and almost all of the bugs rinsed off without even wiping. And that was with low water pressure, have the regulator set at 55 but gauge was reading only 40.

The slogan "Nothing Sticks But The Shine" was very accurate.

[buddy110]

All good advice. As for drying, I use the cr spotless rinse. One less step, no drying, hence less chances to scratch the paint

[brobox]

I watched some of the Chemical Guys videos this afternoon showing how to use their water cannons. They showed using the same car wash soap as they use in the wash bucket. I watch three different videos and all were the same solution. An ounce of soap to a bottle of water, warm is better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XMYO4re0jE

[palehorse89]

This is a video I came across when researching the "Foam Cannon" and what soap to use............or try........https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/s...3&action=click
Results from the Meguirs from Walmart is a 10+ when run through the Foam Cannon.........It does a wonderful job.

[brobox]

Originally Posted by palehorse89

This is a video I came across when researching the "Foam Cannon" and what soap to use............or try........https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/s...3&action=click
Results from the Meguirs from Walmart is a 10+ when run through the Foam Cannon.........It does a wonderful job.

Funny....I checked what soap I had in the MH today, I had to buy a small bottle last year, it was Meguirs

[brobox]

palehorse, I watched that video last night along with a few others. Kind of what I thought, store bought works just as well as the soap cannon marketers private label. Along with your results, I will use what I have on hand. Thanks for the link.