Your guide to caravan cleaning materials and washing techniques
Caravan cleaning doesn’t have to be a chore. After all, few things are as satisfying as standing back admiring a gleaming caravan. However, it’s not just about taking pride in your investment. Regular cleaning prevents dirt, grime, mould and algae from building up to the point where they permanently degrade the gel coat, windows, seals and wheels.
Regular cleaning means as frequently as you like. But we recommend a deep clean, polish and wax at the start and end of the season, plus a light clean after each caravan trip. This way, each clean is more straightforward than if you let the grime build up.
What you’ll need
- plenty of space to move around the caravan
- extendable ladder
- hosepipe with an adjustable nozzle
- a telescopic soft brush with a hosepipe feed
- pressure washer (optional and only if the water pressure is adjustable)
- chamois, drying blade or cloth
- caravan cleaner or car shampoo
- car or caravan polish
- car or caravan wax
Top Tip! Avoid washing your caravan in the peak summer sun. The water will dry before you can wipe the excess off, leaving water marks. You’ll also find it difficult to remove wax in hot temperatures.
The 4-step system
1. Preparation
Lower the jockey wheel slightly to help water drain from the roof. Then lower the corner steadies.
Hose the caravan from top to bottom to remove loose leaves, twigs, and grime. Avoid using a brush at this stage; otherwise, you may work grit into the surfaces. Only use a pressure washer if you can adjust the power to avoid damaging the rubber and silicone seals.
2. Clean
Use a specialist cleaner like Fenwick’s Caravan Cleaner or Autoglym Caravan and Motorhome Cleaner. Work the cleaner in using a soft brush and then rinse with water. Finally, wipe the excess water off with a silicone blade, chamois or cloth.
Clean the exterior in sections to prevent the cleaning solution from drying before you can rinse it off.
3. Polish
Cleaning products do an excellent job removing dirt and grime, but polishing restores the shine. Moreover, many polishing products contain UV inhibitors, which can help prevent gel coat fading or crazing.
Choose from Autoglym Super Resin Polish, Care-avan Caravan Polish, Meguiar’s High Gloss Polish, Silky Fineshine and MER Ultimate Shine Polish. All these products have excellent reputations in the caravanning community.
Apply the polish using a damp applicator in small sections. When the polish dries to a haze, buff off with a clean cloth.
Polish your caravan two or three times a year. Dirt and grime have difficulty sticking to a polished surface, so your caravan should look good longer.
Top Tip! Acrylic windows are susceptible to scratching, so once you’ve hosed off loose grit and dirt in Stage 1 and washed the windows in Stage 2, we recommend using a dedicated window cleaner in Stage 3 instead of a caravan polish. Window cleaning products remove smears and watermarks; some contain helpful anti-fogging agents.
Good choices include Nigrin Acrylic and Windscreen Cleaner, Williams Racing Glass Cleaner and Autoglym Fast Glass.
Another useful product is Renevo Window Polish. Unlike general car and caravan polish, Renevo is designed exclusively for Perspex and flexible plastic to remove stains and scuffs.
4. Wax
Wax offers the ultimate protection against the elements. Wax your caravan once or twice a year to bead off the heaviest rain and keep the dirt out and the shine in.
Apply in small sections using the same process as polishing. Buff off with a clean cloth around 30 minutes after application.
Caranuba wax is a hard wax that is widely regarded as a premium product. Carnauba is challenging to use in hot or cold conditions, so it is best used once a year in the Spring.
However, using a hard wax once means you can switch to a liquid wax product to top up. Effective liquid wax products include Meguiar’s Gold Class Quick Wax and TurtleWax Wax & Dry.
Wheels
Most caravans are fitted with enclosed drum brakes rather than open disc brakes, so you don’t get the same brake dust build-up as you do on a vehicle. However, road grime still settles inside the rims so that you could use an alloy wheel cleaner on steel wheels or alloys. Alternatively, a good blast with a pressure washer typically suffices.
Remember to clean inside the wheel arches. Also, applying a gel-type tyre dressing once a month can protect the side walls against perishing due to long-term exposure to harmful UV rays.
Final thoughts
The more you clean your caravan, the easier it becomes as the dirt, grime, mould, and algae have less chance to build up. You’ll help protect the value of your caravan by reducing the cosmetic damage. And it always feels good standing out from the crowd when you pitch up.