MySwag.org The Off-road Camper Trailer Forum
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: travelman on August 01, 2014, 10:31:24 PM
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Hi Everyone
We're currently part way through doing 'the loop' in our mighty Cub Supermatic off road camper. As well as a fair bit of bitumen, we'be done the dirt/gravel from King Ash Bay to Mataranka, the Gibb River Road (including the million and one corrogations up to Mitchell Falls and back), and much of the Pilbera including Karajini.
We're having a great time, but the reality of many areas is dust. There are no problems with the Cub with dust entry when we're travelling along, but the body of the camper and everything on the outside (safety chains, storage box, wheels, etc) gets pretty grubby and unless you wash your hands every 30 seconds, dust gets transferred to the canvas when setting up and packing up. And dust often blows around some of the more remote campsites too.
The result is a camper with quite a few dust marks in and on the canvas that we'd like to clean off and get it back to its (nearly) pristine condition without damaging the waterproofing.
Do any Swaggers have suggestions for is on how we should go about cleaning the dust/dirt out of the canvas? Lots of hosing down? Washing with a special product? Parking somewhere for a week where rain is predicted?
Your thoughts?
Cheers
Travelman
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Baby wipes work well
Swannie
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Before it gets too engrained, a blow off with compressed air.
Or a mild detergent in warm wart with a soft brush.
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I keep a clean chamois in the tool box and give the canvas a quick wipe in the morning, gets rid of the dust, marks and the dew.
As Swannie suggested, baby wipes for heavier marks like bird crap, get it when it's fresh and you have more chance of getting it off.
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Blow off loose dust with air or brush it off with a soft broom. Then wash with dishwashing detergent in water and a soft cloth. Just wipe it on, thoroughly wetting the area, then hose off with fresh water.
IMO don't use a small brush as that creates marks if used on a small area. If you want to do a large area then a broom dipped in said soapy water does the trick. The broom is large enough not to mark the canvas.
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Canvas experts say to use nothing but water to clean it with. Apparently anything else will destroy the waterproofing.
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Thanks for the suggestions folks.
I went and bought some baby wipes and found they actually cleaned off, or at least reduced, some of the marks. I'll keep them in the drawer for future cleaning.
But I think I'll wait until I'm at a park with sympathetic management, or in a yard where I can hose and hose with a gentle pressure (if that makes sense). A few months ago I had the camper set up in Mackay and that night we got about 10mm of rain. Next morning there were small ripples of dirt towards the bottom of the canvas walls. The rain had obviously washed some of last year's Central Australia dust out of the canvas. So maybe just lots of water will be the way to go.
Cheers
Travelman