How Do I Clean Off Drilling Mud?

Chris and Charles Yust pulled out of their site here at the Livingston Escapees Park about 8am. But I only know that 2nd hand from Jan since they did it so quietly that I never woke up. Which is surprising since their engine was only about 10 feet from my bed.

We’ll head back to the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails tomorrow morning, but in the meantime, I wanted to use Charles’ pressure washer to try and remove the drilling mud residue from the roof of our rig.

Drill Mud Roof

I made up a bucket of water, Dawn, and Awesome, and started in on the front cap and the edges of the windshield that I hadn’t done originally when it looked like this.

Drill Mud Windshield

I used my long-handle scrub brush to spread the cleaning solution around and then let it soak for a few minutes. Then I used Charles’ Karcher Pressure Washer to hose it off.

Karcher Pressure Washer

I was pleasantly surprised to see all the mud came off the front cap and windshield and left things sparkly clean. I was much less pleased to see that the mud at the top edge of the roof wasn’t touched. So it was up on the roof, after all.

Once up there I had Jan connect a line to lift the brush, the bucket of cleaning solution, and the pressure washer up there with me. And it was even worse than I thought when seen from the ground.

The front 10’ of the roof was pretty much solid black with the mud, as well as the front AC cover and the vent fan cover. I found the AC and vent covers cleaned up very easily, and there was a 2 foot wide strip of smooth plastic that did as well. But the regular roof surface, a pebbly vinyl-looking area, just refused to clean up.

My next attempt was a can of Gunk Engine Degreaser to see how that worked. I sprayed it on a small area, let it sit for a few minutes, and then tried again. And again with no luck. By now I was running out of time, so I wrapped up and put things away, to try another day. I guess I could always just spray paint the roof white again.

I had told Dennis Hill yesterday at his party that I would come down and take a look at his computer problems, so Jan and I headed down there a little before 3pm. Although we spent more time talking to Dennis and Carol than working, I was able to get most of Dennis’ problems worked out.

Later, we all headed out to eat dinner at Texas Pepper, a Mexican place they like. And for good reason, as all our food was really delicious.

Getting back to their rig, we talked a while longer, before it was after 7:30 and past Jan’s bedtime. Or at least when she starts to fall asleep, so we headed home.

Luckily we won’t have to be up too early for our trip back to Conroe tomorrow.

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Thought for the Day:

If at first you don’t succeed, try doing it the way your wife told you.

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