Reading Time: 4 minutes

No more paint down the gutter

No more paint down the gutter. That’s what I was thinking when I washed my painted aluminum body travel trailer. This was my second trailer and while I had been told by the original owner how to prevent this I could not take him seriously. Let me explain.

When I was looking for an upgraded trailer I had seen him washing his rig and stopped to ask if he was selling it. Hey, if you don’t ask you don’t get. So I walk up to him while he’s washing this trailer. I ask him is it for sale? He says yes, and gives me a price I could not ignore. So a quick check later I am seriously considering this trailer as it fits every one of my wants on my list. But coming out I see him waxing the rig. Not so hard to imagine right? Wait…

The Wax

The wax I saw him using is not your ordinary auto wax or carnauba wax. It’s floor wax. You know the kind, liquid acrylic floor wax, Johnson’s and Johnson’s floor wax. I call him on it. I figured he just wanted a quick shine since he is selling it. He responds that he has used this on this trailer since he bought it new, some 8 years earlier. I file that fact away and buy the rig. I didn’t use that tip. A year later, I’m washing my rig and I see paint running down the gutter. I had not seen it when I bought the rig.

Time to do something

Well, I pulled out that fun fact and used it. I considered that my paint job is becoming chalky enough to wash down the gutter I have nothing to lose, and everything to gain if it should work. I took the leap and bought some floor wax “Mop and Glo”. Now, this was late 1986 so the formula may have changed. But in my opinion, the wax at that time had a light yellow tint to it when dry. I used it anyway, yearly, and each time I would wash my rig NO paint would run down the gutter, absolutely none.

The Final Wax product

Eventually, I got a Johnson and Johnson product that was crystal clear and super bright. I loved that product but unfortunately for me, they dropped or changed that brand. I am still using a Johnson and Johnson brand, Pledge FloorCare Finish. It gets the job done. Absolutely no paint washed down the gutter. Super bright and a once a year event. A point of clarification. This only works on a painted aluminum body RV. It does not work on Fibreglass bodied RVs.

When I gave that RV to my daughter in 2008 no more paint had gone down the gutter. It had the original paint job and was as shiny as the day I got it. That acrylic floor wax kept that paint on the RV.

I have used it on my new fifth wheel RV from day one. I can say your paint stays on the RV but any decals will eventually fade. Ok, If you’re like me you can file this little fun fact away until you see the paint running down the gutter or if your game here’s how to apply this treatment.

Waxing Procedure

1. First, give your rig a good wash.
2. Change out your soap-water mixture and rinse your scrubbing brushes to remove any residual dirt.
3. Then give it a good wash again. This needs to happen because if you have some residual dirt left on your rig from a fast wash job it will stay on your rig under the new wax coating.
4. Use an acrylic wool wash mitt to apply the wax.
5. Wet the wash mitt and wring out the water.
6. Squirt the wax into the wet mitt and apply to the RV with broad strokes and move on to the next area.
7. Keep the waxing to a small area so as not to miss any areas of your rig.
8. Start at the top of the rig and keep a wet edge as you apply the wax.
9. I always make sure that I don’t apply the wax to any plastic or glass surfaces.
10. Wash out the mitt with soap when the last section is done.

 

Stand back and admire your shiny rig.

Related Articles: More RV Articles

 

 

(By Lumpytrout (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or )

(By Lumpytrout (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or )