I’ve been asked multiple times from truckers and trucker’s spouses about how to get rid of grease, oil, dirt, and all the other nasty substances that build up inside cabs of trucks. I have a few simple and affordable solutions for you, but let’s start off with what NOT to do:
Do NOT use bleach or ammonia based products to clean up grease or oil! Bleach and ammonia have no effect on grease, and could end up drying out your surface that you use them on. Never use bleach on rubber surfaces. Bleach will dry the rubber out, causing it to warp and crack and eventually fall apart. Rubber is a very easy-to-clean surface, if you use the right products. And that brings me to the next subject:
Did you know that the animals that are rescued from oil spills in rivers and the ocean are cleaned with Dawn dish soap? Dawn donates money and supplies to the organizations that rescue those animals that come ashore covered in the sticky oily greasy mess. If you’ve watched these rescues take place (like I have back in California), you’ll witness the rescuers pulling these poor animals out of the oil-filled water, running them to a bucket of warm soapy water, plopping the animal in that nice warm bubbly bath-in-a-bucket, and washing them clean of all the gunk. The rescuers use a TON of suds (bubbles) to help them scrub the oil from the animals’ feathers/fur/skin. The more soap they use, the cleaner the animal becomes. The rescuers use washcloths and their bare hands to scrub the oil off these animals’ bodies. After a quick rinse with plain warm water, the animal is then sent off to a recovery facility to heal and recuperate.
Now, your truck most likely isn’t a victim of an oil spill from a ship, but you can treat your truck the same way that these kind rescuers treat those defenseless animals. Your truck’s interior is a lot like an animal’s exterior: there are lots of crevices, a few different types of surfaces to clean, and delicate areas that need to be taken care of properly. That is where dish soap comes in. Unless you have leather seats and walls, you should be able to use a bucket of warm/hot soapy water and a good scrub brush to clean your truck. (If you do have leather surfaces, you’ll need a special leather cleaner to clean them properly, otherwise you could ruin the leather completely)
Remember how I mentioned rubber as an easily-cleaned surface? Well, this is where the dish soap comes in. By using a scrub brush (or a strong scratchy sponge) and a bucket of hot soapy water, you will be able to remove grease, dirt, food, and oil from your rubber surface. The surface could be a floor mat, a dash cover, a running board, a seat cover, or a counter surface inside your truck. Hot soapy water will remove all the gunk and grime from those surfaces. If you have a problem with streaks appearing after you clean those surfaces, it could be due to 3 different scenarios:
1. You used a bunch of soap in your bucket to clean with, and it wasn’t rinsed properly from the surface before it dried. Run a clean damp washcloth over the area until the streaks are gone to solve this.
2. Your water was really dirty when you washed this part of the truck, and instead of cleaning that area, your scrub brush basically just pushed the dirt around. To solve this, go back over the area with a scrub brush dipped in a bucket of new clean soapy water, and don’t forget to dry the area when you are done.
3. The quality of the water in your bucket was crappy (either it was really soft water or really hard water, and left a residue of chemicals on your surface). You can solve this issue by wiping down the surface with a damp washcloth that has bottled water poured on it. Since most bottled water is filtered, there are less chemicals in it to be left on your surfaces.If you don’t want to wipe down the interior of your truck with bottled water, you can always try the water from the next truck stop or your home. Same method should be used: wipe down the streaky surface with a damp washcloth that has been doused with tap water and wipe the surface down.
Don’t forget that the cleaning tool you use may also be the culprit of streaks. If your wash cloth was dried in a dryer using dryer sheets, the residue from those dryer sheets could be leaving a streaky film on the surfaces you used the washcloth on. =)The main thing to remember with washing down your truck’s inside is to CHANGE OUT YOUR DIRTY WATER OFTEN. If the water in your bucket starts to turn a murky brown, it’s time to dump that water out and get some clean soapy water back into the bucket Dirty water, even if it is soapy dirty water, won’t clean anything, It will just move the dirt around on your surface. Don’t forget to check where you can safely dump your soapy water at the truck stop. (dumping it in the grass will kill the grass).
The soapy water tip works for vinyl, hard glossy wood, plastic, and carpeted surfaces. If you wash a carpeted or upholstered surface, don’t forget to completely dry it out afterwards, or you will have mold and mildew growing in your truck. The hot soapy water cleaning can be done during your shut-down period, since this will take at least an hour to wash all of the dirty surfaces in your truck, and at least a half-hour to dry. If you have any questions, comments, or tips you’d like to add, feel free to comment below. =)Happy cleaning! =)
Do NOT use bleach or ammonia based products to clean up grease or oil! Bleach and ammonia have no effect on grease, and could end up drying out your surface that you use them on. Never use bleach on rubber surfaces. Bleach will dry the rubber out, causing it to warp and crack and eventually fall apart. Rubber is a very easy-to-clean surface, if you use the right products. And that brings me to the next subject:
Did you know that the animals that are rescued from oil spills in rivers and the ocean are cleaned with Dawn dish soap? Dawn donates money and supplies to the organizations that rescue those animals that come ashore covered in the sticky oily greasy mess. If you’ve watched these rescues take place (like I have back in California), you’ll witness the rescuers pulling these poor animals out of the oil-filled water, running them to a bucket of warm soapy water, plopping the animal in that nice warm bubbly bath-in-a-bucket, and washing them clean of all the gunk. The rescuers use a TON of suds (bubbles) to help them scrub the oil from the animals’ feathers/fur/skin. The more soap they use, the cleaner the animal becomes. The rescuers use washcloths and their bare hands to scrub the oil off these animals’ bodies. After a quick rinse with plain warm water, the animal is then sent off to a recovery facility to heal and recuperate.
Now, your truck most likely isn’t a victim of an oil spill from a ship, but you can treat your truck the same way that these kind rescuers treat those defenseless animals. Your truck’s interior is a lot like an animal’s exterior: there are lots of crevices, a few different types of surfaces to clean, and delicate areas that need to be taken care of properly. That is where dish soap comes in. Unless you have leather seats and walls, you should be able to use a bucket of warm/hot soapy water and a good scrub brush to clean your truck. (If you do have leather surfaces, you’ll need a special leather cleaner to clean them properly, otherwise you could ruin the leather completely)
Remember how I mentioned rubber as an easily-cleaned surface? Well, this is where the dish soap comes in. By using a scrub brush (or a strong scratchy sponge) and a bucket of hot soapy water, you will be able to remove grease, dirt, food, and oil from your rubber surface. The surface could be a floor mat, a dash cover, a running board, a seat cover, or a counter surface inside your truck. Hot soapy water will remove all the gunk and grime from those surfaces. If you have a problem with streaks appearing after you clean those surfaces, it could be due to 3 different scenarios:
1. You used a bunch of soap in your bucket to clean with, and it wasn’t rinsed properly from the surface before it dried. Run a clean damp washcloth over the area until the streaks are gone to solve this.
2. Your water was really dirty when you washed this part of the truck, and instead of cleaning that area, your scrub brush basically just pushed the dirt around. To solve this, go back over the area with a scrub brush dipped in a bucket of new clean soapy water, and don’t forget to dry the area when you are done.
3. The quality of the water in your bucket was crappy (either it was really soft water or really hard water, and left a residue of chemicals on your surface). You can solve this issue by wiping down the surface with a damp washcloth that has bottled water poured on it. Since most bottled water is filtered, there are less chemicals in it to be left on your surfaces.If you don’t want to wipe down the interior of your truck with bottled water, you can always try the water from the next truck stop or your home. Same method should be used: wipe down the streaky surface with a damp washcloth that has been doused with tap water and wipe the surface down.
Don’t forget that the cleaning tool you use may also be the culprit of streaks. If your wash cloth was dried in a dryer using dryer sheets, the residue from those dryer sheets could be leaving a streaky film on the surfaces you used the washcloth on. =)The main thing to remember with washing down your truck’s inside is to CHANGE OUT YOUR DIRTY WATER OFTEN. If the water in your bucket starts to turn a murky brown, it’s time to dump that water out and get some clean soapy water back into the bucket Dirty water, even if it is soapy dirty water, won’t clean anything, It will just move the dirt around on your surface. Don’t forget to check where you can safely dump your soapy water at the truck stop. (dumping it in the grass will kill the grass).
The soapy water tip works for vinyl, hard glossy wood, plastic, and carpeted surfaces. If you wash a carpeted or upholstered surface, don’t forget to completely dry it out afterwards, or you will have mold and mildew growing in your truck. The hot soapy water cleaning can be done during your shut-down period, since this will take at least an hour to wash all of the dirty surfaces in your truck, and at least a half-hour to dry. If you have any questions, comments, or tips you’d like to add, feel free to comment below. =)Happy cleaning! =)
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