Underbody Cleaning - especially in the winter?

I'm bored & up early so I thought I'd ask this question for the hell of it.....

Here in PA, there's not a lot of snow but a hell-of-a-lot of salt on the roads. The salt spray is more of a PITA than anything else. It's not uncommon to refill your windshield washer resevoir a couple times during the winter.

So - does anyone have the undersides of their trucks sprayed off in the winter? Any carwash places have that available and is it even worth it?

I hate car washes unless I do it myself. In the summer, I've actually put a rain suite on and rolled under my jeep to spray the mud off the underside. But then again, there's probably about 24+ or more of clearance under the frame.
Because the salt spray drives me crazy...I'd take the truck into an automated underbody wash just for peace of mind.

 

Damn,
You mean I gotta wait until the spring time to clean off all this salt & crap on the under-carriage?

 

Janster, I do the self serve car wash every so often (once a week or so) weather permitting. The amount of salt & dirt that comes out of the wheel wells is amazing. It even hides behind the badges (good reason to debadge ) The crap ruined my popnlock even with the bestest of care..... salt sux! Unless of course its blizzard time and icy, than I love it. Can't win and Spring is in May for me. Lot of winter left.

 

any good carwash place should have the jets of water that shoot up from the ground, theyre usually the first thing that the car goes through. i know what you mean about the salt, it drives me crazy. all the city workers care about is getting their overtime pay so they go around re-salting roads that clearly dont need it.

 

http://www.staunproducts.com/chassisspa.php

 

I've gone once this winter - it's just been too damn cold to even use the self serve washes. Any warmer chance I get, I'm usually busy doing something else. Oh well....This spring when the hose is thawed out, I'll just have to do a super cleaning of the underside and consider it good enough.

Isocoee - Yeah, I hear ya!! We don't get a whole lotta snow but they surely know how to dump the salt everywhere for just 1" of snow.

 

I sent an e-mail to our local Cloister. They didn't have anything listed for underbody cleaning - so we'll find out.

 

That's pretty cool.

But damn...$599?

 

yeah joey dicello used to own that and i would get free washes. no more though. i know as soon as spring hits the pickups going up on the lift and im power washing the whole under body.

 

Any time it warms up enough, I'll go to the carwash. I use the automatic touchless ones that just use high pressure soap/water. They usually have an undercarriage option. I've taken the Subaru a couple times already....including Superbowl Sunday when the temps were in the high 40's.

 

You know, I sort of had an idea. What if you went to Home Depot, bought some plumbling and made yourself a sort of washer wand that bends up. That way you can just walk around the sides, stick it under there and wash it off? We don't have salt out here cause its too warm, but I use a long handled brush and duct-tape the hose to it.

The other idear would be to move down South and avoid the salt alltogether.

 

I did the laser carwash last year after winter with the underbody spray.

 

I read on here a while back about someone using one of those tractor lawn sprinklers that move, and running it under the truck. Sounded like a pretty good idea to me.

 

That's me , sad part is I broke it.
But bought a cheap one, one with a number of holes in it that spray up. Worked like a charm Sunday.
Ran a "Y" on the hose, so hook up a smaller piece. Let it run while I washed the rest of the truck. If you set it right, it will get ALL the underneath.
My driveway has a slight grade, so it helps a bunch.

 

I think I'm going to try that when it warms up a bit here in the Northeast.

 

You would think someone would come up with an idea and make some $$ off it. You don't need alot of pressure (except for alot of mud). Plus it does all the work for you, worse case you just pull the hose a few feet when ever you want to move the water.

 

LOL! I haven't seen one of those things in years. Do they still sell them? When I was a kid, I never knew what in the hell those things were supposed to be used for.

 

Around here, the coin car washes all have the flxible wands that you can angle up under with two hands and blast the heck out of the underside. My truck is undercoated / treated with oil and looks shiny after i get the salt crust off.

I usually bring a 5 gallon (re-capped drywall joint compound) bucket of slightly warm car wash subs and do a hand wash between the 1st round of spraying it all off and a final rinsing off of the soap from the hand wash. I apply wax with the same wand after rinsing and a few more quarters rinse the extra wax off.

Applying wax over a vehicle that is not hand washed is and still has a dirt film doesn't make a lot of sense.

After i pull out of the bay, i fset up camp off to the side somewaht and dry it with the wet chamois and dry towel i brought to seal the deal.

But beware, doing this with the temp below about 25-27 degrees results in a film of ice before i can dry it.

Do what you have to do to get through the winter and limit the potential for damage. Those lawn sprinklers don't compare to a good power washing of the underside. Better than nothing i guess, but they are too weak and not concentrated enough where needed.