Rinse undercarraige in winter or no?

Live in rust belt near the ocean and have been using various undercoatings each fall but only time undercarriage is washed is a couple days before annual undercoating. While washing undersides of untreated frames may be of some value it is very difficult to get at all the little nooks and crannies unless you can get underneath and flush them out. Winter washing is a waste of time for undercoated ones. Truck was recently in for frame recall check and mechanic commented on how well frame was holding up.

 

I too live in the rust belt 5 min from the ocean and beach drive my truck. I use a car wash near me that has an unbelievably good under carriage wash. Fluid film heavy every season and my undercarriage looks terrific on my 17'. Did the same to my previous Jeep of 10 years and had very minimal surface rust.

 

FF my undercarriage every fall, wash my truck first chance I get after they salt brine the roads but I never wash my undercarriage until the spring. My undercarriage still looks new and I live in the Midwest with frozen tundra winters.

 

I get my 11 year old truck rust check every year and I only wash it once right before getting sprayed. No rust on my truck

 

I always trust YouTube.

 

We have all seen neglected $40k, 7 year old trucks with bed sides and rockers ate away ! Any rust measures done on a regular basis is a good thing aside from using a pressure washer on Fluid film or the like treatment.

 

I had fluid film applied on my 2020's first winter. I avoided direct prolonged pressure washing. This fall there was still plenty film left so I didn't re-apply. If it's really salty out on the roads I stop at the hand wash and briefly reach under and spray it off. This year I'll have a second coat put on. If you spray at a distance and don't stay in one spot long you won't remove any coating but it will remove any salt.

 

i lived in the northeast for more than 40 years, just wash it off and move along..KISS

 

I live in Canada and wash my truck only when there was a storm and salt is al over the place. I put it through a touch less car wash with bottom spray. My Krowne rust proofing is still intact and Krowne told me to wash it whenever needed as it will not wash off.

 

I read a lot of folks here saying they dont wash in winter because it removes the ff
I went with cosmo and i cant see the wash removing it so i wash it after heavy salt

 

I wait until it warms up a bit so I can do a thorough rinse/flush. Mainly because I don’t want to rinse salt/brine into the frame with a light rinse and then it just sit there. The inside of the frame is really the issue, not the outside.

I also don’t continue to rinse and rinse if there is still salt/brine on the road.

I spray the body down frequently though. Most of that just drips off the body paneling and not onto the frame.

 

Colorado front range. Don’t waste time with messy undercoatings. I spray my undercarriage at a self-wash after each major storm. Frame doesn’t have one speck of rust.

 

I'LL HAVE TO GET ONE OF THESE!!

 

Applied CRC, rinse undercarriage weekly if possible and maintain with C/G's barebones monthly seems to do the trick, showroom appearance up in northeast salt belt, time will tell.

 

Same as i did on the tundra using fluid flim. Made the mistake one winter when i had a free car wash....it wipe out the fluid flim i had done in the fall. Truck chassis got rusty very quick after that car wash. I've use cosmoline on my tacoma now...washing the chassis once a month on a warm day doesn't seem to affect it like the fluid flim.

 

This but I live near the ny/vt/mas boarder and use wool wax. …..lots of salt here. Tbh this is the first vehicle I have given enough of a shit about to do the undercarriage and only had it about 2years….but so far so good and in 4 years see ya NY and all your effn taxes… going south… not,going to,worry about it there,

 

bought an under carriage pressure washer attachment to be on the safe side and wash it anytime the truck gets a bath

 

Bad choice.

 

What is the approximate amount of years that you drive these vehicles in the winter? It's likely the 2nd owner that has to deal with the rust...