Clay mud coated gnats

Last weekend I was camping at Sawbill Entry point to the BWCAW, about 30 miles inland from Tofte, MN. Drove many, mnay miles on wet red, clay, gravel roads. Arrived home today, washed teardrop once, hmmm, won't come clean. Inspecting, lots of dirt scum, and funny little bumps, which seem to be a combination of red clay mud and coated baked on gnats.

Easiest method to remove is with a green scrub pad, which scratches the surface. Not a going to happen.

What ideas do forum members have to remove the mud coated, baked on gnats?

Jean

 

Mick would suggest a clay bar. He orders them online. He uses them on our trailer and cars and it would be good at getting that stuff off. The brand he uses is Zaino Bros. Their website is www.zainobros.com and the one he has is the Z-18 Clay Bar.

 

Neighbor came over last night, tried a variety of cleaning agents, finally used Mothers polish, which removed the scum.

THink the scum is a combination of gravel dust baked on with calcium chloride. Calcium chloride is used to control gravel dust.
Basically the entire teardrop will need to be polished again, which is something I did over the winter, vowed never to do again. GUess what, will be polishing it again this year.

 

Man that sounds like the same kind of stuff Becky and I ran into in Hells Canyon in Idaho earlier this month. I never seen anything like it. It just wouldn't come off. The chunky stuff would come off but that film was something else. I took it thru the car wash 3 times then finally carefully hand washed it and got it all off. When we first started on the road it was dry but virtually no dust then after a few miles into the mountains it had rained aka mud at the time it seemed weird that a dry gravel road had virtually no dust.

 

If you take the trailer through the car wash is there a spray that sprays upward and washes the under side of the trailer. I went through some horrible mud. It was a lot deeper than it looked. I must have spun a little going through as my rock tamer was completely covered with mud and a lot got on the fenders and sides of the trailer. I didn't even want to open the doors until I got some of the mud washed off. When I got to the camp ground I asked the host if he had a hose I could use. He loaned me an old kinked up hose which wouldn't even screw onto the faucet all the way. It was spewing water everywhere. It was pouring rain. I didn't have a nozzle so had to hold my finger over the end of the hose. I got it washed off enough to be able to open the doors and settle for the night. I stopped at a manual car wash on the way home and got the caked on stuff off and up under the fenders. Tried to wash under but am sure there is still lots of mud up under there. I'm wondering if I can pick the front of the trailer up high and use the power washer under there. Is there anything under there that would be damaged by power washing? How high can I pick up the tongue without damaging anything? Has anyone ever pulled their trailer onto ramps so they can clean it? I have a tractor and can lift the tongue with the bucket and keep it level while pulling it up on the ramps. I'm going out to crawl under there and have a look. I would appreciate any ideas on how to clean under there.

 

I crawled under the trailer and it is spotless. I am amazed. I pulled the trailer out and washed it and it looks beautiful. Need to clean off some small spots of road tar. I will do that tomorrow and clean and oil the jacks and get the water system ready for winter.