Counting down to spring with 3 days to go, Calgary has been blessed with sunny skies but cooler temperatures. Last weekend we broke records with an 18c degree day on Sunday. It was amazing! I was in shorts, summer tee, and hiking boots. Ha! Ha! With all that warmness the snow was meting fast, water and mud every where Finn and I went walking.

Of course, with all of this warm weather a guy really starts to think about working on his rig and getting ready for that first camping trip. I know, it is realistically a month away before it makes sense to take off the cover and start working, but the snow is almost all gone and with COVID lockdowns still in place, working on the rig would be a nice diversion.

I book my first stie this Saturday it will be to Writing on Stone and Castle Falls. Hopefully, I will have no issues with reserving a site. Since we will be travelling off peak days, we should be fine, but then there is always that pent up demand that is out there to come along and ruin your booking day. I guess Saturday will tell.

Finny appears to be back to his ole mischievous and energetic self again. The vet has said that Finny is now in remission and will have to stay on his medication for six months, along with regular monthly vet visits. Sigh. I had hoped we would be done with the Vet visits, but alas it is not so. That is ok, we are just really happy that our Finny is doing better and is no longer on death’s door. A funny thing happened the other day. Lorraine and I were having steak for dinner, now the Vet warned me that Finn’s meds would make him hungry all the time, so we had to manage his food intake. Well, mange his intake my foot. This dog is ravenous, he is eating almost anything he can find, its crazy! Well back to the steak. As we were preparing dinner Finn was very observant of what we were doing. Lorraine and I prepped the dinner table and sat down with our food. The dogs were hovering around but at this point they were respectful. Then Lorraine and were talking and took our attention from our food and looked at each other., and that’s when Finn struck. In a blink of an eye Finn leaped at Lorraine’s plate and grabbed her steak. In complete shock! Before we could move, the steak was gone, and Finn just looked at Us with a sheepish look. Boy did we learn what it meant to manage Finn’s hunger!

 

Well with Spring in the air like I said thoughts turn to the rig, so I thought it would be good to review spring cleaning tips for the rig. So, throw off the cover, and open the windows and throw on some good tunes, you are going need em!

Interior:

First off start by getting all your cleaning materials together. Here you can use any non-abrasive or corrosive cleaners. No harsh chemicals allowed. I like to use Pine Sol for the floor, Mr. Clean “Clean Freak” for the surfaces, and Windex for the windows and mirrors.  When were on the road we use Green products like Green Care all-purpose cleaner. Also, since we have a vinyl roof and leather captain’s chairs out comes the Leather protectant and cleaner for the chairs and “Amour Alf” for the roof and dash. Microfiber cloths are all the rage these days and they work good at cleaning without scratching. If you must scrub use a low abrasive sponge or magic eraser this will help to preserve the surface, you are scrubbing.

Now that you have all your supplies lets go to town. Start from the top and work your way down. So, start with the Ceiling if you have one you need to clean and protect. Next look at your ceiling fans and remove the screens and give them a good spray down. Clean inside the Fan housing before you put the screen back on.

Now give the walls a wash followed by your flat surfaces. In the bathroom, kitchen, bedroom and Living room area. Don’t forget to wipe down your appliances and clean that burnt cheese from last year that is still in the oven.  Now let’s clean the fridge, and finally wash the floor.  It sounds like a lot, but I find it takes about 2- 4 hours and then you are done; at least the inside. Now let’s go outside.

Here is a great video on how to Clean and Sanitize your rig.

Clean & Sanitize

 

Exterior:

The outside is obviously a different story and requires different tactics to clean than what you did inside. For me I am lucky in that the outside of my RV has been painted in full body paint. Essentially, I can treat the RV like a car when it comes to washing.  I use the local truck wash to wash my rig as there is a bylaw in place in Calgary that prohibits washing your car or rig in your own driveway. Silly eh? Oh well, when at the car wash, never use the spray wand to hose down your rig closer than a meter (3ft) this will help to protect the finish and any graphics that may be on your rig, if you do not have full body paint. It will also help to keep your seals intact and not prematurely weather them (A mistake I made once).  While at the truck wash or in your own driveway Its time to clean the roof. You probably want to do this prior to washing your rig, so that you can wash the chemicals off the side of your rig when rinsing the roof down. I use this product from Best. (Roof Cleaner) Now that your rig is clean there is one last thing to look at and that is your awning and slide topers if you have them. To start, roll out your slides and awning and spray them down with water to remove any lose dirt. Then spray them with any non-corrosive cleaner, or if you really want to go the extra distance use a cleaner / protectant like 303 Fabric Guard.  If you need to scrub use a soft bristle brush and make sure you do not scrub to hard as to not damage the fabric. If your awnings are really dirty once you have sprayed them with cleaner, roll them up and allow them to sit for an hour or so, then unroll them and rinse them off and allow them to dry. There, your entire rig is clean from inside to out, but now the real fun begins, now it’s time to wax. Now here is where it gets confusing, there are so many waxes out there its hard to know what to buy. If your rig is fiberglass, I would suggest a polymer wax that will seal and protect your gel coat. Usually, a marine type of wax will do this for you. Marine Polish. If you are like me and have full body paint you can use any car wax if you like but I typically use the marine wax on the RV and a car wax on the cab. Now that you have washed and waxed your rig, it’s time to finish off with cleaning the windows, and then guess what? You are done!

Cleaning the rig is often a daunting job, but if you take it easy and be methodical about it the cleaning and waxing goes fairly quickly. In all, I can get it done over a weekend and then I can sit back and enjoy the sparkling squeaky-clean rig.

 

Happy Trails

The Glampurs