When you wash your truck how often do you wash the undercarrage if anyone even does (except for off roading of course) or is it just doomed to rust away after time?

 

i drive in the rain to wash my undercarriage....

It rains sparkletts water in TX....

or drive through a car wash that does undercarriage washin....

 

or setup a sprinkler underneith it thats what i do (thats after offroading but it works if ya want it cleaned though)

 

Generally about once a week it gets flushed well unless I don't go off roading that week, then I don't worry. I'm a bit obsessive about it because I hate rust...but it's bound to happen anyway I guess. If it has a lot of mud on it, but I know I will be hitting the trails a lot or something the next week I might skip cleaning it as well.

Winter would be the only time I don't wash it due to off roading probably. They do use salt here, so when the sides show a lot of salt, I give it a good cleaning all over.

 

all metal at some point in time is going to break down...right on the spot, it is gauranteed...think about that the next time u get on a plane

i just go thru a car wash and first spray the underside with the rinse cycle, theni switch it to the tire cleaning liquid, spray ALLLL over everything, let it soak, then rinse again....but this is important....go to the store, get some Undercoating madeby 3M, go home and spray u're wheel wells and the frame rail or u're t-bars or u're rear axle housing....whatever u want. it makes it blacker in appearance and is also easier to get mud/dirt off in the future....i've done it to every car i've had.

 

I go offroading almost daily, so when I was the underside of my truck which is about once a week a spray it pretty good. I lift the whole truck up with my dads fork lift and just stand under it with the pressure cleaner.

 

i put a sprinkler under there and just move it around

 

I can barley fit a sprinkler under my truck, lol. A few weeks ago when they were cutting concreate and i got all that white powder underneath i just take it to the "do it youself car wash" with the high pressure hoses and spray it off

 

when I go off roading and its all caked I just through the old rain coat on and take the hose and my creeper and take a mud bath. But that there is hard to even get all the mud off.

 

You guys clean under the truck after offroading? Isn't that like washing the soles of your shoes?

 

i use a toothbrush and some mild detergent...you know how i am. lol

 

Side story: A few weeks back I flipped a tractor (yeah, you read that right) in a ditch I was digging in front of my mother's house. It's a big long story, but basically the nearest tree was some 20' away. Meanwhile I had aproximately 15' of chain and comealong! Figures uh! I was in a panic to get the tractor upright as it was leaking fluids. I decided to get the truck onto her lawn and try to use it as an anchor point. The lawn is small and I had to work the truck around to get it into position. It was all for not though as the tractor was so far over that I could not get leverage and ended up DRAGGING the truck, even though it was parked in 4Lo, reverse, and w/ the brake firmly set! It took 3 hours, but I got the tractor back upright (again, looong story).

In the process of getting the truck off the lawn I managed to run over my mother's pile of multch. She bought this stuff to spred in the garden and didn't get a chance to this year. Eh, whatever, it's a truck, it can handle it.. I just gave it some gas and ran right over the pile, no problems.

Later on the way home I was out on the Interstate humming right along, one hand on the wheel, the other on the cell talking to my GF, as per normal. Sudenly this guy in a Chevy SUV comes flying up behind me w/ his lights blinking. I pull over and he follows me, lights still blinking, he obviously wants me to pull over. Against my GF's advice I do so. I grab my mag light and hop out of the cab. He meets me at the tailgate and explains why he pulled me over. Basically he said 'sparks' were coming from the underside of my truck! He said it looked like when someone throws a lit cigarette out the window. I figured I'd left a length of chain attached to the hitch from the afternoon's tractor fun.. Nope.. Well, what can it be? I crawl under the truck and can't see ANYTHING dragging. I shrug, thank the guy for telling me (and not being a maniac after my wallet or something) and he takes off. I crawl under w/ the flash light one more time.

Basically what I think happened is I had multch jammed up in the skid plate that runs under the tcase and the last cat. The exhaust was hot (duh) and was basically lighting the little parts of organics on fire. They would then fall to the pavement and 'spark'! At least I THINK that was the problem. Haven't gotten any coments since, but then I can't see under the truck while underway..

I took the butt of my flashlight and scraped out the skid plate right there on the side of the highway. Made a pretty good sized pile of multch too! .. That's about the most agressively I've ever bothered to clean the undercaridge of my truck! :D

 

Since most of the back roads around here are under a foot of water, I've been getting my undercarriage cleaned all week! Nothing like doing 15 mph through a foot of water for over a mile. I could still see the yellow lines, though.