Spot Free rinse for washing coach

[Scott & Heather]

There are a myriad of ways to do this but this was my cheap janky redneck way. Enjoy. Summer boredom is setting in.

I have a 40 foot tour bus, Ford Expedition extended length, a 23 foot Rockwood Roo camper and my golf cart. That's a lot of real estate to wash. I was tired of paying $80 for my bus to be washed at blue beacon, and the truck washes were getting expensive too. I don't mind washing my toys every now and then by hand at home but the spot free rinse aspect was something I couldn't get around and I couldn't ever dry them before they self dried and the spots settled in.

Solution:
I went to Walmart and bought a 5 gallon water cooler jug. Filled it with the reverse osmosis water that Wal-Mart sells at their water machine and brought it home and strapped it to my cart. I took a 12 volt pump I had lying around and plumbed a vinyl hose on the intake end, popped that down into the jug and plumbed a garden hose to the outlet end of the pump. I took a hose sprayer I had in my toolbox and drilled a teeny weeny hole in the end so that when I pulled the trigger it would just mist out of the hole. I wired the pump directly to the golf cart battery (temporary setup) and now when I wash my toys, I do one section at a time and rinse it with my spot free RO water. The cost to fill the jug at Walmart is $1.95.  So for less than $2 I can wash my toys and rinse them spot free now. 5 gallons rinsed by bus and my trailer.

Improvements:
I need to get a proper misting head from a garden sprayer because my drilled hole mod leaks a lot of water down my arm and wastes it. A lot. I've used a garden sprayer to rinse my Bus in the past and I could do the entire bus with 2 gallons of water so I'm wasting a lot with this setup. I'll fix this shortly.

I would like to wire up the pump with a fuse and  a switch on the back somewhere to turn it on and off. Pump has a pressure switch that kills it when pressure is reached but when I'm not using the system I just want to turn off power to it.

I made a ghetto metal strap/bolt setup to hold the throttle pedal to keep the cart idling so I didn't kill the battery. I ran this setup for well over an hour and it worked perfectly. But I'd like to actually build some sort of pull cable for idling that goes directly to the carb so that I can still set the parking brake if I'm ever not on level ground.

I have a harbor freight retractable 50' water/air hose that I think I'll install for easier hose handling.

I know this is a janky setup, but I thought I'd just throw it out there. Summer boredom project I suppose. Worked good though. Short video at the bottom of this post.





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EitD-SaNNP8

[muldoonman]

You the Man Scott. When you get back down to Central Texas,  run that contraption by and show me on my bus. 

[Geoff]

I have a water softener for my house that the water spigot outside connects to.  Same result-- no water spots on a washed vehicle.

[luvrbus]

Vinegar and water works for the final rinse around here,I have a 25 gal spray tank with a pump and wand I pour a gal of vinegar into about 15 gals of water and rinse with   

[richard5933]

I also use water from softener in the house. Spot free, especially when I use proper car wash soap and not just dish soap.

Last year I started to use the softener water to fill my tank to avoid buildup in the fixtures, so I bought a super long lime-green flexilla hose for both, since it's drinking water safe.

[luvrbus]

In the Az heat nothing is spot free when you wash a vehicle even with R/O water and vinegar 

[richard5933]

In the Az heat nothing is spot free when you wash a vehicle even with R/O water and vinegar

Wash after dark?

[luvrbus]

Wash after dark?

LOL no thanks I am not washing a vehicles at midnight,Az is one of the few states where they cannot use recycled water or any type acid at car and truck washes fwiw.I laugh when I play golf in Vegas big signs say "Don't lick your balls"because the golf course is watered with recycled treated sewer water 

[Dave5Cs]

Here it is the calcium in the well water and we got a Filter that is about 8 inches around and 3 feet tall that is a resin filter from Costco.  like Geoff said you hook it to the hose and comes out spot and streak free. It iwas about 399.00 but last a long time. Its on a cart so you can roll it around.

[Scott & Heather]

So Geoff and you guys using softener water for spot free, I always thought there was residual sodium left in post softened water but that assumption is wrong? I've considered buying a reverse Osmosis system for onboard my coach when I'm on city water. I had a system I installed on my last bus and loved it.

[richard5933]

Never been a problem for me. If I combine the water from the softener with a good quality spot-free car wash detergent the results are fine for my purposes. There might be some slight water marks left in some places, but I wouldn't go as far as to call it spotting. The only place that I even bother drying is the windows - all the rest of the bus drip dries and is fine.

Can't imagine how much RO water would be necessary to fully rinse the bus. Not something I'd think is necessary.

[chessie4905]

Rains too much around here to be concerned about water spots. Went through car wash last week and upon driving out past car dryer, it was showering. Was dry all morning and before entering car wash. I wonder if they use RainX in their spot free rinse spray?

[Scott & Heather]

I have to use spot free. I have a decent paint job and clearcoat so it shows on my dark paint if there is any streaking at all. That's why I use RO. It's the best at spot free. Just an fyi, I can rinse the entire coach in spot free RO with less than 5 gallons of it. That's not much water.

[luvrbus]

The spot free car washes use kerosene in the final rinse fwiw   

[Dave5Cs]

The newer softeners like Apex use ground coconut shells and Charcoal, no salt. People with bad hearts should not use salt based softeners.