Keeping your rig clean... tips needed

Take about 10 5 gallon buckets. lay them down on the ground ready to go, those will be filled with water.

Grab a bucket. Punch holes in the bottom. Toss Sand a few inches in the bottom, then crushed charcoal, then rocks on top. Layer everything fine material on the bottom and coarser at the top. Charcoal is key. The sand wont work well in this case, it will run out of the holes.

Run your water through this filter bucket. Eventually you should have something in the 10 5 gallon buckets that might be useful. If you had or used limestone as rocks above the charcoal, you will see pretty good water.

It's really hard to use sand as a final filter until you find a kitchen type flat collander type dish sized tool for washing salad etc. Throw that onto the bucket you intend to fill with water. Put the filter bucket above that and work your dirty water in from above.

So much work. I forget exactly the necessary layers, composition etc but it's a very rough filter. It WILL NOT generate potable water. For that you have to process it further using a fire to burn off the parasites and iodine to kill the viri.

Anyway...

If all you had was a garden hose somewhere to a building with a faucet to hook to, you are in business. It will take a little longer. Nothing fancy with soap. Dawn will just as good. Maybe pine sol for final disinfectiong with 10% bleach as a spray aresol. And a pile of shop towels.

For all of that, it's best just to drive by a blue beacon and be done when a crew sprays wash everything down for 60 bucks in 15 minutes.

 

hauling gravel your need to use a brush on your truck, pressure washer alone wont get it clean, as soon as its dry there will still be a film on your truck, ill use a good spray wax on my truck once or twice a year really makes it easier to wash. a bit of the works toilet bowl cleaner in your brush bucket helps if you don't have polished aluminum ill use it on my trailers every now and then, otherwise a good car wash soap works well and will help some with water spots left by hard water.

 

Try Citrosol. That stuff cleans almost anything.

 

Fill one of these with citro and spray it on lightly and evenly. I'd rinse it off before it dries. Works great.

 

In our time we used desiel fuel to get that blacktop off the aluminum bed. A few gallons sprayed inside left over night to drain (No epa around... he he..) clears the inside.

But those fenders look like they can use a polish. Im not a wheel man, never will be. I know nothing about POLISHING aluminum and will be the first to tell you.

I think what is happening in your case, you spray water on to it, water dries off fast in summer time leaving what was splashed around on whatever you sprayed. Next thing you see a dusting still on the truck. Eugh.

Try some of that cascade maybe for dishwashng machine in your soap. Or something from the autoparts shop for wheels toss a bottle into your truck soap water bucket maybe.

I don't like to deal with very large objects like 18 wheelers to wash, I either used acid spray gun which gets into the eyes and everything or fired a garden hose and dawn soap against grease. Otherwise it;s a blue beacon, they take care of that right quick.

 

We've got bad water at our shop as well. Lots of minerals in it. Every time I wash the truck and trailer, I get water stains on the chrome. They do have a filtration system, but it never seems to get maintained like it should. I have found that vinegar seems to help. I use cleaning vinegar, which is 5%.

 

Why in God's name would I wanna "chip in" on a piece of equipment that the company will end up owning...to wash equipment that the company already owns?!?
Just use what the company offers, and leave it at that.

 

Maybe make everyone who chips in partners for 10% of the business eh?