Ollie wash while traveling. Truck wash?

[Mattnan]

11 hours ago, Mountainman198 said:

There is a tall self serve wash in Deming across from the McDonalds. I have washed my Ollie there twice this Season

Good to know.  Thanks.  We stayed at the D H Lescombes winery in Deming as the are a Harvest Host location.  We had a nice time.  From there we went to White Sands and got covered in gypsum plaster.  It had snowed there a few days earlier and no wind so not a lot of dust.  Portions of the road had gypsum mud.  I even put the truck in 4WD for 2 sections of road.  It probably wasn't needed but the tracks were 3 inches deep and I didn't want to get stuck.  From White Sands we went to Kartchner Caverns State Park in AZ.

[John Welte]

3 hours ago, ScubaRx said:

You can bet your sweet bippy it is, like unto a water slide. I have some commercial scaffolding that I set up when I need/want to work on the top.

Great idea,  probably not horribly expensive.   

[Jim_Oker]

15 hours ago, John E Davies said:

Jim, those dune pictures are gorgeous.  How did you deal with gypsum inside the Ollie?

Thanks John. It was a fun evening - and I was lucky to be there for it! 

I did not bring my Oliver down there. I had been planning to take 3-4 weeks and drive down and check out places like Death Valley etc. on the way to and from a photography workshop I signed up for at White Sands (a great place for such a workshop, in part because the workshop organizers were able to get an early entry permit that let us go into the park at 5:45am whereas the general public was getting in at 7am (right about sunrise time when I was there) so we could park, walk way out to find the unmarked dunes we'd scouted, and be shooting from twilight to a bit after sunrise when the light got quite harsh. But life changed my plan - I had some shoulder issues that led to a frozen shoulder in October, and by the time of the workshop in early December I'd realized I needed to minimize time away from my osteopath and physical therapist. Thankfully my shoulder is fairly close to normal now I think thanks to a "capsular distension" procedure plus way too much painful stretching - it apparently often takes 1-2 years for a frozen shoulder to resolve even with the PT so I think I'm lucky (plus I think the somewhat new capsular distension procedure is worth investigating with your doc if you ever have a damn frozen shoulder!). 

So to make a long story short, I flew down (right as Omicron was starting to spread in the US - yay!) and rented a car in Albuquerque. After going there, I think I'd park the Oliver outside the park and not bring it in - there's no need to have it in there other than not wanting to leave it somewhere else while there. There's no camping there other than backcountry camping out in the dunes (which is still closed as part of COVID adjustments at the park or I probably would have spent a night out there if I could score the permit). There's a fair stretch of driving on the gypsum which is either going to be wet and prone to caking on or dry and prone to invading every tiny crack and orifice. Or some of both.

[Jim_Oker]

On 2/9/2022 at 6:39 AM, John E Davies said:

The gypsum crystals are OK, it is the dust that is bad. …. https://www.lafargeholcim.us/sites/us/files/atoms/files/gypsum_sds_english.pdf

Browsing that data sheet leaves me wondering how much gypsum dust the folks on the Holloman AFB (which is next to White Sands NP) breathe in their time there...

[SNY SD UP]

On 2/9/2022 at 10:59 PM, John Welte said:

Great idea,  probably not horribly expensive.   

I bought something like the link below at the nearby Menards for somewhere between $150-200 (now $225-250) years ago when working on the inside of our home.  It is very handy, and I keep it setup in the garage.  I have some hollow pipe insulation on one side so if metal sides rub up against the Ollie, no issues.  I put the deck at 1/3 to 1/2 high, and it works great, not too wobbly.  I can reach everything on top, rinse & dry.  When I need to move Maggie just releases the wheel brakes and push/pulls me to the next wash station.  Then we tackle the sides from the ground, and we are done.    

 

https://www.harborfreight.com/900-lb-multipurpose-scaffold-63050.html?ccdenc=eyJjb2RlIjoiNjIyOTcyMzUiLCJza3UiOiI2MzA1MCIsImlzIjoiMjA2Ljk5MSJ9&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=12172784578&campaignid=12172784578&utm_content=114847980617&adsetid=114847980617&product=63050&store=&gclid=CjwKCAiAx8KQBhAGEiwAD3EiP_RxHfMc7AHNs80ZYo5WKrb-ZkPMvxBp-CKfuCL0Iy78XnOwcAy5ChoCqNcQAvD_BwE

 

Regards, Bryan