Washing van On-site

Corona

How often do you spend hours cleaning the van before a trip away to find you hit a stretch of road used by a tractor or experience rain on a dirty road then  to appear on site with a filthy caravan. I keep a sponge handy to wash the van on arrival but the problem is being able to rinse the shampoo and water marks off. I have found a useful gadget. If your go on to a well know online supplier (a river in South America) and enter in "12 v submersible pump" it will show a pump from a company called Dynatech at £22.99

This has a pump which will fit through the neck of an Aquaroll, has a pipe with metal end and a good length of cable with croc. clips on. I bought a fused gigar lighter plug from Halfords @£3.99 so I can connect to caravan or car sockets. It supplies up to 18 Lts/Min with a good pressure where you can place a finger over the end and squirt down the length of the van to rinse it off. Thought my fellow members would be interested in this, saves throwing endless bowls of water over and soaking the pitch and conserves water

lesbunny

Alternatively, use a towing cover to keep the front clean & waterless washing products. Aldi have been selling these for about a fiver

HelenandTrevor

I thought van washing on sites wasn't allowed now.? 

aeronic

I will use a small bucket with warm water and a microfibre mitt to clean the front if its mucky. Otherwise a dry-wash product works well with a microfibre cloth.

SteveL

I think the ban was brought in because of potentially harmful chemicals going into the pitch. Although sounding a bit extreme, when you think of the number of vans that will use that pitch and how many would be washed, perhaps not so. We use a bowl of soapy
water with a micro fibre cloth wrung out, and then the same with clean. At worst a few drops escape onto the pitch, and to date nobody has seemed to mind. Even talked to one warden while cleaning. Our van is coated which means it comes up sparkling following
this procedure. This plus a full wash every service is all it gets, but it generally looks clean.

IanH

I will use a small bucket with warm water and a microfibre mitt to clean the front if its mucky. Otherwise a dry-wash product works well with a microfibre cloth.

That's exactly what I do.

Corona

Just to qualify the detail of my post, cleaning of the van is generally just the front where road dirt is prolific. I do not prescribe to complete washing on site and certainly not the use of dangerous chemicals. I was not aware that car shampoo has such
chemicals or it would cause any damage to grass. The whole point here is when sponging off dirt there is always dirty run marks which with the aid of this equipment can be easily removed with a minimum ammount of water, surly better than endless buckets of
water. on balance I would not even use anything else than clean water. One comment above " use soapy water" typically your fairy liquid has a detergent in it which will remove dirt AND any wax coating provided by a car shampoo.

Surfer

We use a front towing cover so no issue however if dirt on the sides, a cloth with a bucket fo water.  Cheaper than buying and the hassle of carrying a pump.

Navigateur

I thought van washing on sites wasn't allowed now.? 

So did I until I watched a TV programme that was intended to recruit new people to caravans and I saw a senior official of this Club involved in an activity that promoted washing caravans.

dwlgll20

As to washing on site there are a couple of responses from Rowena to a previous similar

thread which clarifies it. You need to need both of them on pages 1 and 2 for clarity.

richardandros

 One comment above " use soapy water" typically your fairy liquid has a detergent in it which will remove dirt AND any wax coating provided by a car shampoo.

Try Stardrops (if you can find it!).  There's no salt in it, so unlike most detergents, it doesn't remove the polish.  I've been using it for years on boats and now use nothing else to clean the van.  It removes any streaks as if by magic and the polish lasts for ages.

Merve

Yes, I use a towing cover. They are brilliant. I will always spend a very enjoyable morning wiping the van down as that's all it needs having been heavily waxed and polished on a fairly regular basis. I am with the OP regarding arriving on site looking about
right. Can't stand a dirty rig myself.

mbee1

We were at Chatsworth over the bank holiday weekend and I saw two vans being cleaned.  One guy even had a stepladder  and long handled brush for the roof, soapy water the lot.  No one blinked an eye!