FWC and winter use and abuse

[2wiresDave]

Hi all, I picked my new Hawk shell a week ago from Go Anywhere in Wisconsin. Sean and Diana Dempsey were great to work with. Stan and Tom helped me out as well. Overall it was a very pleasant experience and our "loaded" shell is exactly what I had hoped for. We basically added back almost everything but the kitchen sink and cabinet. We put a stovetop on the furnace cabinet and added the rollover couch and a drivers side window. The camper is very spacious and should be great for my wife and I and our two German Wirehairs.

I am having a roll up garage door installed on one of my garages to allow the height needed to get in the garage, and the door is not due for another 3-4 weeks. Up here in Green Bay we are waiting for winter to arrive at any minute. I am heading to northern Wisconsin Friday for the day and will be traveling through areas that have lots of snow already on the ground. In Wisconsin to say that road salt and other chemical ice melting substances are used LIBERALLY would be an understatement!

My question is how hard is winter and road salt on the camper in general? I am very concerned about the exposed wood above the bed rail as it is already dirty from rain and one gravel road that threw mud up there. Is the wood treated really well etc. I am not looking to leave it on permanently every winter but don't want to ruin a new camper either. I will also be driving from Wisconsin to Arizona in January and will be driving through a lot of salty roads in route.

It seems that many of you are using your campers for winter usage just fine, but not sure what the most common road treatment is where there is more FWC's running around.

Dave

 

[Gormley Green]

Last winter in Onatrio (lots of salt!!) I had the camper connector in my truck bed corrode away completely. The camp wasn't on the truck so no biggie, and Sean left lots of extra wire to install another 6 pin. But it was a pain.

On the camper the bare metal bits hated the salt. The jack feet, jack mounting hardware, that little metal piece that holds the back door open, etc. I was never able to restore the metal to its original condition after just one weekend trip in the salt!

I was so bummed about that road salt I moved to the west coast. And bought a car with 300,000kms on it and no rust

Good luck with the camper, itll be fine. The wood is protected by good paint just make sure it doesn't get removed. And try to keep the salt washed off.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Living on the Cal.coast of course we don't have to deal with the snow,but we do have salt air in the fog.Years ago I had a hard side camper and didn't cover the roof when not in use guess what,the salt air ate little holes in the roof and it leaked.Now when not in use I keep the truck and camper covered.The truck mainly because of the neighbors tree drops all sorts of crap in it.I also wash the rig off after the trip so at least it's clean for the next one.

Frank