Hi, I’m Jeff Johnston with “Rollin’ On TV.” A lot of us have seasonal downtime when our RV is not being used, and we’re counting the days until we’re free for camping season again. It’s a ways off. You can use that downtime to catch up on some long neglected projects, jobs that you didn’t have much time for during the regular season, or just things you avoided doing because you didn’t want to, and that’s okay.

A deep cleaning is a great project to tackle. For example, if your fiberglass skin is looking a bit peckish, a product like ProtectAll’s fiberglass oxidation remover and color restorer can help give it that sparkle again. Other ProtectAll products can also help with additional parts of your RV. First up, we’re going to give a try this slide-out rubber seal treatment. You start out, of course, with a healthy shake. And you can either apply it directly to your rag, this foams up, or get in really close. Use your rag, wipe that on the seal, and that is pretty much all there is to it. However, what I’m also going to do, because part of the purpose of a seal is it wipes along the outside of the slide-out when it’s moving in and out, and keeping that backside of that seal lubricated is what’ll help keep that seal from degrading. So, we’re going to take a little more of the product, in this case put it directly on our rag, lift the seal up here. I’m going to sneak in the backside and do a little application on the backside of the seal as well. And that really is all there is to it. This slide-out dry lube material goes on wet, and then when it dries, all it leaves is a waxy, fairly dry surface that is a lot less prone
to attracting dirt and crud. But you should start by cleaning it off, get the grit and crud off of there. And then you just take the product after shaking it well. Watch out for having it drip on your clothes and such.

You spray the product on, and then you allow it–ideally, you should allow it a couple of hours or so for the carrier, the liquid part to evaporate. Once the carrier evaporates, all it does is leave the lubricant on the product– on the gear. And that helps to keep your mechanism running smooth and cleanly. And that can also work on other parts of the mechanism that may need to be lubricated. In this case, this part does not. But the basic tube, the carrier and so on, you can also put a little bit of that on there, back near the entrance. And you can also use this product on things like the gears that are visible, any kind of visible part of the mechanism because, once again, this does not leave a heavy, greasy film that’s going to attract dirt. And being fairly thin when it goes on, means it’s going to wick inside the joint, and it’ll be drawn back in the joints between the gears, between the gears and bearings, and so on. So, that’s ProtectAll slide-out and dry lube protectant.

The ProtectAll all surface care polishes, waxes, treats, and protects, and so on, and has some UV inhibitors, which is always nice to help protect the surface. Now, we’re using the pump version here. And its instructions are pretty easy, you simply spray a little bit on after shaking it thoroughly, of course. Give the surface a wipe, make sure that it’s spread out and not too– you know, you don’t want
to leave big chunks on it. And according to the instructions, you use a second rag then to more or less finish it and polish it. You can’t see much difference by looking at it, but you can definitely feel that it’s smoother. You know, it’s been waxed, so it’s another good thing to have in your toolkit. 

These one gallon size portable shopvacs are great for interior surfaces. All the upholstered furniture, carpet, and fabric surfaces, including the ozite sealing if so equipped, should be vacuumed. Fabric and upholstery cleaners can also help avoid odors. Those odors can come from surface bacteria, so the use of a disinfectant wipedown on cabinets and solid surfaces can help keep things fresh inside. We really like the Fresh-Ette lemon from Griffin Brothers Incorporated, available from your local commercial grade industrial cleaning material supplier. 

The ProtectAll shine plus household polish wax and treatment. This is a surface treatment that can be used on just about any surface inside of your RV, judging by the label here, windows, appliances, stainless steel, woodwork, granite countertops, composite countertops. It applies fairly easily. Shake it up according to the instructions, which we’ve done. Spray just a little bit on, better to spray just a little and not get too much. You don’t have to go extremely heavy on this. Give it a wipe to get it into the surface,
and then use the second rag to polish it out. Very nice, very smooth. With the rig cleaned up, it’s back inside the shop. 

Most every RVer has one or more of these. I’ve got about three of them over here, the RV parts bin. I have several of these, and now is the time to get them in order. In my case, if that’s possible. Finally, something a lot of us are reluctant to take on, and you know who you are, sorting and cleaning your go-to toolbox. I’m sure a lot of you keep your tools and hardware neatly organized. But for the rest of us, like me, this is a great downtime project. Let’s see, what have we got? Well, a glow plug for a Ford diesel truck that I haven’t owned for more than 20 years. Don’t need to haul that around anymore, I’ll toss that out along with the spare points and condenser. That’s going to be a project. 

Well, it’s no fun at all being stuck without the use of your RV, but you can still give it some love. And that love will be returned when we’re back to camping season.