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Old 08-11-2007, 03:04 PM   #1
Driftwoodgal
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Not a happy camper right now

We are back from our trip to Tennessee and had a wonderful time visiting family and seeing the sights. We made a detour to Abilene Texas to see our great nephew born. We were gone three weeks and it seemed like it was only a week. Before we left on the trip we hand washed and waxed the RV to make sure it was ready for the trip as well as doing all the things needed to the truck and the Monty for a long trip.

We stayed in lots of RV parks, but we were in Gatlinburg Tennessee for nine nights parked under some wonderful trees. When we left Twin Creek the RV was really dirty, but we didn't have a place to wash it until we got home. We started scrubing and 1/3 of the Monty looks like a Cheeta. There are spots that will not come off of the rear gel cap, and the filon siding, as well as the right rear corner of the roof. I am almost in tears as I insisted we wash and wax it to protect it and all is for naught. I have tried Bug and Tar removal as well as Simple Green. Bob used the Tetford Roof cleaner and nothing is having any luck removing the stains. We spent three days detailing the Monty before we left. I don't even want to think about how long or if we can get the stains out.

Anyone have any troubles at an RV Park with trees or any suggestions on how to get my Monty back to normal? I don't want to use any products that will damage the gelcap or the filon siding. So I will be sitting on my hands until the MOC team comes to the rescue. Hopefully, I won't have a Monty with chicken pox all over it forever.

Colleen
 
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Old 08-11-2007, 03:18 PM   #2
lawrenceb42106
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Colleen

We have used awsome to remove some tree stains on ours. We use it full strength on those. The downside is that it will remove the wax.
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Old 08-11-2007, 05:31 PM   #3
sailer
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Awsome is at most dollar stories and its a buck but it will take off the wax but the stain is now in the wax .. you stayed at twin creek in gattlenburg as i think we are going to be there in late sept early oct john
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Old 08-11-2007, 05:52 PM   #4
jrgwdenner
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Colleen, some folks have had success with Bounce sheets, slightly moist. Good luck!
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Old 08-12-2007, 02:23 AM   #5
Driftwoodgal
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John, yes we stayed at Twin Creeks in Gatlinburg. The park was beautiful, but I won't be staying there again if this is what happens when you are parked under that many trees. I can't believe the amount of staining that we have on the Monty. I am not taking about a few spots rather almost 1/3 of it is grey now.

I will try the Awesome and the Bounce sheets, thanks for the tips. I don't even want to think about how much time we will have to spend trying to correct this, or if we can even get the sides back to white.

Colleen
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Old 08-12-2007, 02:47 AM   #6
Ozz
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Sorry Colleen, hope you get it back to normal. You might contact any auto detail shop around, they might have some tricks you can use.
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Old 08-12-2007, 03:07 AM   #7
rlwhit
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If the roof stains are from leaves they will slowly go away. This has happened to ours. It is the tannin in the leaf.
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Old 08-12-2007, 06:05 AM   #8
Mrs. CountryGuy
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Colleen,

Please read each suggestion with tongue in cheek and the smiley attached

1.) Never, ever clean unit BEFORE vacation! It's gonna get dirty running down the road and sitting under trees. Clean on return home.

2.) Relax a bit sweetie! If you use it, it is gonna get dings, dirt and character! One of our mottos: Use it and abuse it. If there are no bungs, you ain't trying hard enough!! Those leaf stains are your braggin rights!

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Old 08-12-2007, 11:48 AM   #9
nkwist
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You might try spraying it with Wesley's Bleche White whitewall tire cleaner. It has done wonders for ours in the past. Best thing we've found for removing bugs also.
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Old 08-13-2007, 03:36 AM   #10
richfaa
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We do not wax the camper..have never waxed any camper. We will at best, use a liquid auto wash and wax and products like awesome to keep everything clean. When we returned from our 5K 6 week summer trip the camper and truck looked horrible, thousands of bugs, dirt, mud, you name it ..it was on the camper or truck. Dish soap, awesome and it shines in the driveway. Our decals are not peeling. IMO waxing and detailing does more harm than good. Remember this is a Rv...Different finish, lower quality decals..why use auto products on a camper. There are products designed for fiberglass..try them if you must wax and detial.
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Old 08-14-2007, 01:57 PM   #11
Driftwoodgal
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Carol, I had a good laugh at your post. We washed and waxed the Monty before we left just in case we are called out for storm work. We had washed it several times but hadn't waxed it since we bought it a year ago. Hurricane season is upon us so if we didn't get the detailing done before we went out to Tennesse it might not have gotten done. I knew the Monty would be a mess when we got home, but just figured I would just have to wash it. Heah the Monty has been abused, Bob managed to hang it on a electrical pole guy wire the last time we were out. We had so much rain he had to park it on our circular drive. He was worried about the overhead electrical lines and just forgot about the guy wire. We had to call the electric company to come out and unhook the Monty. He thought about cutting the wire himself..... the guy told him that he probably would have cut his head off when the tension was taken off the wire. Good thing we called the experts

Rich, when we waxed the Monty we used wax from Camping World that is for RV's. Our Monty stays parked out in the open with hot Texas sun beating down on it. I figure that it needs a little extra UV protection from the sun so we will keep on waxing. I don't plan on trading the RV in any time soon so I wan't to protect my investment. I have seen a yellow Montana that wasn't cared for and plan on trying to keep mine as white and purrrty for as long as possible.

For those that offered suggestions on how to fix my problem, THANK YOU. I now have a white Montana again I went to the Dollar General store and bought Awesome. I also purchased some pads at the grocery store that are by Mr. Clean called "Eraser". When I called my RV dealer they told me to go to a Auto body shop and get a compounding cloth. The Eraser pads are pretty much the same thing. We used straight Awesome and the eraser pads and with lots of elbow grease we are back to pre Twin Creek RV Park in Gatlinburg. Well almost we have scrubbed and washed and on Friday need to go back over with the wax again as we took the wax off. I am really thankful that we had waxed the Monty before we went so the stains were in the wax. I am not sure how much we would have had to scrub if the wax wasn't protecting the siding.

To sum it up..... Awesome is AWESOME and when you use the Eraser with the Awesome on the molding strips above the skirting you get rid of the yellowness.

When I called Twin Creek RV Park the owner told me that no one has ever complained about having their RV stained. They told me that the tree that we were parked under is a Hemlock tree. We were backed into the RV spot with trees touching the Monty. I really wasn't happy about that as I was worried about branches rubbing on the roof. The park was lovely and well taken care of. In fact they were in the "Sweet Sixteen" in the Highways magazine. If we are back in the area I am not sure we will stay there again, especially if we had a spot that the trees were touching our RV. There are several other RV Parks that looked really nice in the Gatlinburg area.

Colleen
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Old 08-14-2007, 02:27 PM   #12
Mrs. CountryGuy
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Colleen

Glad you laughed at that post, you were supposed to.

Glad to hear your Montana is nice and PURDY again! (you needed the exercise, right?? remember, black humor! )

Just for the record, Al and I use some car "wash and wax" stuff that we get at Walleyworld, maybe a Zipwax product?? We use it a bit strong, hot water if we can get it, if not, cold will do. We use it on the awnings, and sides.

Dawn dishsoap on the roof. Usually cold water up there, too much trouble to get hot water up there.

Awesome sometimes on bad spots, but really like Greesed Lightening for black streaks. Woooeeee, it works, but RINSE RINSE RINSE!!!

What does not come off, well, TOO BAD!

And, we only wash when we must. Rain will rinse the dust off!!

Remember, BLACK HUMOR!!
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Old 08-14-2007, 02:56 PM   #13
Driftwoodgal
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Carol,

We haven't met in person, but I think I will really enjoy sitting around a camp fire with you girlfriend

Yeppers we use Dawn dish washing soap for tons of things. Did you know that it is a great thing to wash your dogs in? It will kill fleas in 15 minutes when left on. It will even get rid of skunk smell when you use it with Hydrogen Peroxide.... sorry mispelled that.

It was 102 today so I didn't get tons of exercise, but did sweat alot Where do you get this Greesed Lightning stuff? I love to go to war with the black streaks

Colleen
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Old 08-14-2007, 03:15 PM   #14
Mrs. CountryGuy
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Greesed Lightening

I think I got it at Walleyworld, or some like store. Should not be hard to find.

Come on down to the RGV next winter, we will have a roaring campfire and tell stories and compare dog notes! The yorks want to meet you too!
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Old 08-14-2007, 05:47 PM   #15
Driftwoodgal
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If we miss you at the RGV then please let us know when you are coming or going in our area. You still need to eat at the Blue Bonnet Cafe in Marble Falls. They aren't RV friendly so you would need to be near by to eat there. On a slow day you could park hooked up on a side street but who knows about parking. I am learning lots being on the open road with a pet.

We stopped at a Cracker Barrel and hubby thought it was ok to leave dear kitty in the truck at about 86 degrees with windows almost totally rolled up. I ordered and went back out to the truck and opened doors and told him call me when my food is at the table. He did and I woofed it down..... long story short. We eat breakfast in the RV before we leave or we now stop at a rest stop and eat a sandwich and the cat is out in the same weather (temperatures) that wer are in. You can't be too careful with the four legged family members.
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Old 08-15-2007, 02:46 AM   #16
Mrs. CountryGuy
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Colleen,

You are right bout the Marble Falls situation, yes, we need to stop there!

Once it gets over 80 degrees out side, ole Carol starts to panic about leaving the kids for meals. We try to find shade, yea, I know, tough to do with 13 foot high. Or, on those days, we eat fast food, he gets it, I stay in Big Butt with the kids and the A/C running.

If ya had a generator, you could turn on the A/C in the rig, move the kids, etc. For us, that is not an option at this point. We are always open to changing our approaches tho!

Now, I think I remember you need more exercise, something about waxing that rig???
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Old 08-15-2007, 03:11 AM   #17
richfaa
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We have never seen a yellowing RV in our over 25 years of camping..wonder how they might get the way. We will stay with the dish soap the car wash/wax and awesome however I do have to say that other orange type stuff works just as well. We do not have the high gloss gel coat on the sides but we did wax a small portion of the front cap which is high gloss and could not see any difference.. The wash/wax part beaded up just like the wax part The wax part still collected many bugs, dirt, etc and did not clean up and different..Of course Ole Rich will do anything to get out of physical labor and Helen will not wax the camper.
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Old 08-15-2007, 03:43 AM   #18
Driftwoodgal
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Rich,

I am not sure how or why the Montana was yellow, but it was real ugly. The reason I was so worried about getting our Monty with the filon siding was because of that rig. On our other RV the front door change to a darker color and wasn't as white as the sides. We bought it used, but I do know the owner and he kept it waxed every six months.

With the Monty waxed I noticied that the black streaks weren't as bad when we washed the rig. I agree with you that a lot of love has to be going into the waxing part. But that love thing has to do with how much of an investment that I have in that big condo on wheels. Bob isn't to keen on the waxing part either, but I told him I would just get up on the roof and do it myself. He figured having to wait on me hand and foot while I mended ( from falling off the roof) or visiting my grave was worse than helping me.
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Old 08-15-2007, 07:30 AM   #19
richfaa
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I have seen the yellowing on some early custom vans with the clear coat finish but I thought they resolved that issue. I do know that you need to keep it clean from the get go or it will get away from you. Waxing with the PROPER wax isn't going to hurt anything (i think) but we have had good luck the way we do it so we will continue. We had a zillion bugs on the front of the 3400 after our 5 week 5 K mile summer trip and the awesome solution melted them off with little effort..of course any wax goes with them which is one reason we do not wax.
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Old 08-15-2007, 02:06 PM   #20
Driftwoodgal
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Rich,

Are you using the Awesome full strength or diluted?

Colleen
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