keeping the Motorhome/Caravan clean

[jvr]

Who keeps their unit nice clean and polished like a car because i'm finding it hard work what with winter and all that.
Black streaks,grime,nooks and crannies,its a mamouth task to keep on top of.Get it all nice,4 hours work then next week its all grubby and thats just sitting in the drive!


Don't mention the roof...

Anyone keep on top of things
P

[chopper602]

Nope! I'll bring ours home before a trip and clean any black marks off the bodywork and thats about it. When we return, if there's time and daylight I'll give it a quick snow foam brush wash and rinse off. Thats about it. I'll try and give it a good coat of AutoGlym in the summer, but I can see it taking hours!

[Pabl0]

What products are you using to clean it and what do you use as a preventative to keep black streaks/green moss and algae away?

[4sure]

Snow foam every month and a quick hose down in between, so far so good.

Keep it ventilated inside though, i have a small rear window open a tad.

[Vladimir]

Ours is more like a car; acres of paintwork! So I treat it like the car; snow foam, wash, occasional polish. We live right by the sea so I rinse it at least weekly.

[berlintaxi]

Wash down on return from a trip, then put it away, luckily I've got indoor storage.

[GAjon]

Mines a pain to keep clean, you'd think as we approached 2014 someone would invent a self cleaning motorhome.
The roof is a good indicator of how much crap there is in the air.
I use a combination of Aldi or Fenwicks cleaner and black streak remover and car wash solution.

[Fishtigua]

Give it a good clean at the beginning of the season to remove any crud and streaks. Any dull patches should be buffed-up with a light abrasive/cutting compound. Then the most important part is to give it a wax coating. The wax will repel any road/bird/tree grime, plus gives UV protection. Stuff washes off much easier.

I've been detailing fibreglass and painted boats for 30 years, a good waxing once a year is the best way.

This is a simple product for new-ish RVs

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Meguiars-One-Step-Boat-Cle...

[Wacky Racer]

Easiest way to clean it, (Especially the roof) is wait until it has stopped raining hard for a couple of hours...then all the moss, grime has been loosened off by the rain, makes the job much easier.....(imo)

[nagsheadwarrior]

As a dealer I can higly recommend (add in supagard,suparbright,twirlydazzle etc) but really its just hard work with the polish.

Elddis's with the 2012 on solid construction dont/shouldnt get the black streaks but theyll certainly still get mucky.

Incidentally a mucky/used outside n a minty inside is a good px in my book.

[Andychim400]

Greased Lightning is very good at getting black streaks off. Better than Fenwicks in my opinion

I am not a fan of waterless cleaners on cars/caravans as I think you will ultimately scratch the surface rubbing grit in. So I give it a quick wash to get rid of the crud, let it dry and give it a good going over with this.

Brings it from looking very sorry for itself straight from storage to showrom in about an hour.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Greased-Lightning-Showroom...

[DHE]

I use Duragloss 501 Marine & RV Polish, most of my customers have it applied every six months or so. Very easy to keep clean once it has been applied. It is available from a few UK resellers. http://www.duragloss.com/16-oz.---Marine---RV-Poli...

[berlintaxi]

nagsheadwarrior said:

Elddis's with the 2012 on solid construction dont/shouldnt get the black streaks

Why is that?

[Wacky Racer]

(Imo) White spirit works just as well as anything else at getting black streaky marks off.

Just use a clean rag, and change often.

Cost £1.50.

[Lordglenmorangie]

I joy of motorhome use was spoiled by the cleaning of these beasts, changed to a VW T5 which is much more car like to drive and keep all shinny

[Shelsleyf2]

Here's an idea if your towing a runabout behind.

[Kenty]

I find autoglym is ideal, two or three times in a season. Try not to use a spirit to clean marks as this removes the carefully applied polish barrier but sometimes it is required. I take our van to steam rallies and next to my steam engine gets very grubby. A wash down once or twice a month depending on road conditions seems to be ok after the layer of polish is established. The roof however is hard work and only wash that using car shampoo and long car brush.

[tighthead]

Back int day when I was a trainee caravan repairer/serviceman,we had about 20 vans that we hired out mainly to festivals and shows, they where stored in a barn so a lot of dust and muck built up on them and so the envious task of washing them fell to me a few times a year. We use to get them out in the yard hose them down,then with a soft bristle (think nylon) sweeping brush and bucket of water with traffic film remover,brush them down,on step ladders to get to the roof,make up some more water traffic film cleaner if needs be,starting from the roof down to the bottom of the caravan,then a final rinse with the hose pipe to remove the suds. Then if there where any black streaks we used a cheap supermarket own cream cleaner( like jif or cif or what ever it's called these days) they came up a treat