Alaska 2017 Part 3

Current Location: Covington GA

Next Scheduled Location:  SC early March

 This winter in Atlanta area has been nice, a bit wet with very few hard freezes.  Now I am getting some warm sunny days so it is time to tackle the outside of my fifth wheel.  Outside includes washing and waxing the exterior both the camper and truck, cleaning out the storage compartments to remove the stuff I thought I would like to have and never used.

Washing the truck and camper is pretty straight forward and does not take a lot of time or effort.  I try not to let them get in too bad of condition.  When on the road I have both the truck and camper washed at truck washes or a self-service wash facility.  The cost is approximately $55 for the truck wash  with the self-running $15-$25 all part of living the dreamJ.

Waxing takes a lot of time and energy but the cost to have it done would be in the $300-$400 range.  And seeing I have more time than money I will do what I did last year and wax it myself.  As I prepped for the waxing I remembered the long hours for several days not to mention the sore arms from the wax on wax off procedure.  So then I started doing my research into using a power buffer to speed up the process and reduce the wear and tear on the arms.  I looked at a lot of different models and several different sizes and decided to go with the WEN 10PMC 10 inch Waxer/Polisher Deluxe.

I did my homework and researched the power waxer/polisher but the info on the bonnets/pads were not very informational or at least not to me.  There were three different bonnets with the kit I purchased the applicator, the removal, and a polisher.  The applicator is similar to terry cloth with a plastic/water proof liner to prevent the polish getting on the buffers foam disc.  Then you have a terry cloth removal bonnet followed by a fleece type polishing bonnet.  I was able to wax half of camper to height I could reach in about an hour.  This is about half the time it took me last year waxing by hand last year.  I am currently using Meguiar's Gold Class Carnauba Plus Paste Wax and it is working good but I believe I am going to switch to Meguiar's G7016 Gold Class Carnauba Plus Premium Liquid Wax .  The paste wax worked great but the application was not suited for the power buffer I believe the liquid wax will be easier to work with. 

The one issue that is still not real clear is waxing over decals on the camper I have wax over them several times with no ill effects so for me I will continue waxing the decals.