Fear of car washes

jimh425 wrote:
The Northwest vehicles are mostly rust free.

True statement, and after growing up in the rust belt and living in the southwest, Rockies, AK and PNW, I think the PNW may be the easiest on vehicles of anywhere in the country.
Of course right on the Pacific coast you get the salt air, but hardly anyone lives there.
All the rain keeps the underside of vehicles very clean compared to most other places. No build up of dirt/leaves trapping moisture for a long time. Not much mag on the roads. They do spread it here regularly but the rain washes it off/away right away. Not a lot of sand and rocks on the roads.
Due to the rain, more people have shops and garages IMO higher percent of garaged vehicles and even those that are left out aren't exposed to near the uv and heat damage of sunny places like the southwest.
I bought a fixer upper truck a couple years ago in Seattle, almost 20 years old. Definately hadn't been garaged for several years and it was in better shape underneath than expected. Not all rusted together. And the paint, dash and seats were in good shape, not all faded out.
This only applies to western wa and or. Once you get into the Cascades and east it is more like in the Rockies.

Lo Bill, we carry a simple little sprinkler and use it when we come off the salt covered beaches we often visit and on those days when the temps drop below freezing to get the salt and other chemicals off.

"If there's a will, there's a way"! We lived in Wisconsin where they salt the road after a frost, or so it seems. If you want to get the salt &******off you'll find a way; and no it's not likely to be a drive through. Using the self serve power wash for the undersides works great, and needs to be done regularly when there is slush or wet because of salty road conditions. As for the body, the best thing you can do is go into the season with a really good wax job. Carnuba paste is hardest and last's longest. It's also the most labor intensive. When you go to the power wash joint, spray the body, then have your bucket & brush to hand wash. If somebody's got a problem with that, too bad. Most seasons inevitably have a few days warm up. Get off the couch, good hand wash, into the garage and apply another coat of wax. Keep the truck in the garage with some drying heat makes a huge difference as well. We added a small fan to circulate the air as well. To get rust/corrosion you need moisture, eliminate it between washes will net results.

The Northwest vehicles are mostly rust free.

Bill,

I feel your pain (rust).

We are SO close on RAWR even with 3970# cap tires.

I would do a new dually if New England winter salt wouldn't corrode it in 6-7 years. Vermont alone drops 250,000 tons of salt on their roads every winter.

But plunking down $40k-50+k for something that will be a pile of rust before the 100k mile drivetrain warranty is up is nuts.

Been looking for a southern US dually with 100+k miles on it.

Good luck.

John

billtex wrote:

silversand wrote:
....come to think of it, it just came to me that our manual car/truck wash (17 kilometers away) is heated in winter (auto open/close doors), and may be wide enough for dualies. Before we sold our Chevy Tracker, I used to use this manual wash to power wash the undercarriage and exterior during winter. I'd then use the compressed air fitting to dry out the wheel hubs, door perimeters and windshield wiper assemblies, then shammy off the exterior, all in the comfort of the heated bays. Also, the water coming out of the powerwash nozzles was HOT.

I brought our truck camper rig (2500HD SRW, 8-foot bed extended cab) into one of those bays during summer on one occasion, but I couldn't close the automatic door, because I wouldn't have room to power wash the rear of the rig. If you have a short bed truck, such bays could be a perfect fit.

So my thoughts are: try and find a winter bay-heated manual truck wash in your area, with doors that close. They MUST exist in your region. How could they afford to operate all winter without heated bays?

When we drive down to Florida for the winter, I always power wash the road salt dust off our SUV in DC (our 1st stop) at one particular truck wash with hot water power nozzles, just west of Andrews Air Force Base (on Suitland Parkway). From there south, there is very little de-icer on the roads because we plan our drive between snow falls, thus avoiding wet road surfaces.

Winter valves:

...we have winter valves on the exterior of our house, but I would never use them with a hose attached during most of our winters (the water would instantly freeze in the hose at the temperatures we have here all winter: 5F to -36F). If we have a short warm-up during winter (usually 1~3 days during the 3 colderst months over the 6+ month winter), I sometimes attache the hose.

Yes, I could do the "manual" wash in a closed bay...just doesn't work as well as the automated line.
I can't see dealing with any outside water at home either. Hose would freeze before I was done, and I would have a skating ring in the driveway.
That's just not going to happen around here in winter...

If you have time in a wash bay no one in line behind, bring a bucket of hot soap water and a big wash brush. Power wash the whole thing quick, scrub it down, rinse it off.

billtex wrote:
......come to think of it, it just came to me that and I would have a skating ring in the driveway.
That's just not going to happen around here in winter...

Clearly a more difficult problem... lol, my idea would suck in that weather.

silversand wrote:
....come to think of it, it just came to me that our manual car/truck wash (17 kilometers away) is heated in winter (auto open/close doors), and may be wide enough for dualies. Before we sold our Chevy Tracker, I used to use this manual wash to power wash the undercarriage and exterior during winter. I'd then use the compressed air fitting to dry out the wheel hubs, door perimeters and windshield wiper assemblies, then shammy off the exterior, all in the comfort of the heated bays. Also, the water coming out of the powerwash nozzles was HOT.

I brought our truck camper rig (2500HD SRW, 8-foot bed extended cab) into one of those bays during summer on one occasion, but I couldn't close the automatic door, because I wouldn't have room to power wash the rear of the rig. If you have a short bed truck, such bays could be a perfect fit.

So my thoughts are: try and find a winter bay-heated manual truck wash in your area, with doors that close. They MUST exist in your region. How could they afford to operate all winter without heated bays?

When we drive down to Florida for the winter, I always power wash the road salt dust off our SUV in DC (our 1st stop) at one particular truck wash with hot water power nozzles, just west of Andrews Air Force Base (on Suitland Parkway). From there south, there is very little de-icer on the roads because we plan our drive between snow falls, thus avoiding wet road surfaces.

Winter valves:

...we have winter valves on the exterior of our house, but I would never use them with a hose attached during most of our winters (the water would instantly freeze in the hose at the temperatures we have here all winter: 5F to -36F). If we have a short warm-up during winter (usually 1~3 days during the 3 colderst months over the 6+ month winter), I sometimes attache the hose.

Yes, I could do the "manual" wash in a closed bay...just doesn't work as well as the automated line.
I can't see dealing with any outside water at home either. Hose would freeze before I was done, and I would have a skating ring in the driveway.
That's just not going to happen around here in winter...

bobndot wrote:
Bill, why cant you use a winter valve ? It has a longer shaft that turns off inside the house and the little water in the shaft runs out when turned off.
They use them all through N.E. in the winter, they don't freeze. That's what I installed .

X2

....come to think of it, it just came to me that our manual car/truck wash (17 kilometers away) is heated in winter (auto open/close doors), and may be wide enough for dualies. Before we sold our Chevy Tracker, I used to use this manual wash to power wash the undercarriage and exterior during winter. I'd then use the compressed air fitting to dry out the wheel hubs, door perimeters and windshield wiper assemblies, then shammy off the exterior, all in the comfort of the heated bays. Also, the water coming out of the powerwash nozzles was HOT.

I brought our truck camper rig (2500HD SRW, 8-foot bed extended cab) into one of those bays during summer on one occasion, but I couldn't close the automatic door, because I wouldn't have room to power wash the rear of the rig. If you have a short bed truck, such bays could be a perfect fit.

So my thoughts are: try and find a winter bay-heated manual truck wash in your area, with doors that close. They MUST exist in your region. How could they afford to operate all winter without heated bays?

When we drive down to Florida for the winter, I always power wash the road salt dust off our SUV in DC (our 1st stop) at one particular truck wash with hot water power nozzles, just west of Andrews Air Force Base (on Suitland Parkway). From there south, there is very little de-icer on the roads because we plan our drive between snow falls, thus avoiding wet road surfaces.

Winter valves:

...we have winter valves on the exterior of our house, but I would never use them with a hose attached during most of our winters (the water would instantly freeze in the hose at the temperatures we have here all winter: 5F to -36F). If we have a short warm-up during winter (usually 1~3 days during the 3 colderst months over the 6+ month winter), I sometimes attache the hose.