how to protect your rig from salt damage??

Motor oil has been a good rust preventer on my 99 comparing the front of my frame to the rear. Various oil leaks over the years have made the foward part of the frame almost look like a different vehicle than the rear parts of the frame.

IMHO you will have much larger problems with the vehicle before underside rust will be a vital concern. I've never got rid of a modern vehicle because it was rusting to death...

I'm from Russia, we have salt and sand on our roads almost 6 months a year. Personally, I don't do anything to protect myself. Here is the condition of the bottom after two winters, and a total of 60 thousand kilometers in Russia. As for me, nothing fatal. The only thing we always do is preserve the VIN by degreasing it and covering it with thick lubricant. And it perfectly protects it from destruction.

15burban said:

They salt the crap out of the roads here in Wisconsin. Every spring and fall I'll wash the undersides really well and then touch up any rust I find with rust preventer. Then a week later go back under the vehicle and spray fluid film every where I can including removing tail lights and spraying behind them. Not much behind them on the suburban but can cover quite a bit of the inside bed side on my pickup.

The fluid film isn't the greatest (waxy/greasy) if you have to do any work, suspension or what have you under the vehicle, but it sure beats the hell out of having to fight rusted nuts and bolts.

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Agreed 100% with @15burban. I live in WI as well and do the same thing. The trick is to start with a clean and DRY vehicle before putting any coating on. After 20+ years of perfecting my system, I only go with fluid film (or equivalent).

Do NOT use rubberized undercoating. It will only work if you put it on something completely new, and you have to coat every inch so there's no missed spots. Once it dries, it can shrink and Crack, therefore allowing moisture to get behind it and rust without you seeing it until it is a BIG issue. If you want to touch up areas with this where you cleaned rust off, that works, but make sure to cover it again with Fluid Film.

Buy a professional rust proofing gun for around $250. It has hoses and attachments to get inside doors, frames, rocker panels, etc. 2 gallons of fluid film for about $100 and you're all set. Fluid film can/will wash off the areas exposed to high pressure spray and will need to be touched up before next season. I touch up both Denali's in Oct/Nov and then don't worry about them until spring.

Another thing to note: unless your vehicle will be constantly "wet" from being covered in salt (ie: not drying off in a garage, parking on the street or driveway year round, or not cold enough for salt to be inactive), do yourself a favor and skip all the under body flushes. If it's always outside and sweating from salt residue, then give it a light rinse by hand to wash it off.

Using the high pressure under carriage wash just blows salt where it would never get otherwise. If you have the entire underside and rockers coated with fluid film, then just leave it be, it will do the work for you. Also, around here, car washes are required to reuse a certain percentage of water - nothing like putting extra salt everywhere under pressure. I stay away from those and use my hose.

Long winded, but this is a system that works. I still live in the midwest, but my vehicles haven't looked like it in many years and many, many miles.

Best of luck on the crummy change to snow remediation.

OR VietVet said:

I am well aware of Portland driver habits. I live in Eugene. I absolutely hate driving around here and stay the hell away from Portland altogether. Freakin' idiots up there. Not you though, I am sure.

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I grew up in Pennsylvania and leaned how to drive in the snow at an early age (16). That all starts with owning a good 4wd vehicle equipped with excellent tires.. Many fokls in Portland own 4wd vehicles but put street tires on.. not much use there.. Then there are the folks that just get stuck on the freeway and just get out and walk home abandoning their vehicle.. sigh

Has anyone ever used salt away? its a wash product designed for marine use..

Jocko PDX said:

Has anyone ever used salt away? its a wash product designed for marine use..

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I've heard of similar- CON-SALT is the name I believe. It just boils down to chemistry, you need to make it inert. Dissolved baking soda in water works too. I tried this as a test on my 2017 one time with an injection nozzle for my pressure washer. It did do a chemical reaction for sure.......but kind of burned/discolored the protective headlight coating in a couple spots. Luckily they just look like hard water spots, but be careful if you try it. My guess is a commercial formula would be buffered to prevent this.

Incredibly Cheap@$$ idea:
buy a 48" wide sheet of coroplast (plastic impersonating cardboard)
attach under truck, trim for max suspension droop & steering articulations.

An ounce of prevention can be worth a lot.

Marky Dissod said:

Incredibly Cheap@$$ idea:
buy a 48" wide sheet of coroplast (plastic impersonating cardboard)
attach under truck, trim for max suspension droop & steering articulations.

An ounce of prevention can be worth a lot.

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I was thinking about what I could use as a spare tire cover and this is now my leading idea to work with as cheap was a part of my equation.

My folks moved from Minnesota to Arizona when I was a baby in the early 60s, never had any salt damage since.

The 57 Plymouth wagon we had when I was little had plenty of rust, they sold it off pretty quickly after moving down.