The Camping Forum

[Camp Moose]

A friend has just asked me for some advice on cleaning his Fleetwood Coleman.
I didn't know but said I'd ask here.
Here's his question as emailed to me.

what I am wanting to know is that I have just bought a folding camper and the cloth could do with a good clean up do you know of a good product to clean it with. Can you advice what is the best thing to do with it please.

It is a Fleetwood Coleman folding camper.
It is an hard top so most of the material is only down the side of the trailor when it is upright , even the top of the fold out beds is like some sort of heavy plastic that will be easy to clean just with some hard scrubbing.
I don't no what type of material the sides are made out of sorry, they are just needing a very good scrub with something good that isn't going to destroy the waterproofing and integrity of the material so it doesn't rot away.

Any advice will be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any help, I'll send them a link so they can read the replies.
Cheers.

[CrazyCamper]

I'm assuming that this is the same model in this Video?



Should be treated just the same as a tent or awning material then (he says fingers crossed) - but not sure what exact product to recommend

[nutgone]

Whatever you clean tent materials with, if it's not just plain water it will need re-proofing afterwards.

I would recommend a good stiff brush for any mud etc, try plain water & a brush on other bits & just leave the rest alone.

A weak Milton solution won't remove much in the way of stains & you will still need to re-proof afterwards, but many people swear by it.

You can also buy stuff like Fenwicks Awning & Gazebo Cleaner, but again, you will need to re-proof afterwards. Fenwicks is a good brand, I've been impressed with their products so far.

Most of these specialist cleaners are so gentle though, they don't remove much, & most stains will be so engrained by now. But if it's that bad then give it a try.

If you do, then I would recommend Fabsil re-proofer. I don't like re-proofing, but sometimes it's necessary & Fabsil is probably the best on the market . But at the end of the day, unless it's really bad, I would leave it alone. If it lets the whole thing down then go for it, but once you've re-proofed you'll need to repeat the procedure at least every other season, preferably every season (which would also give you a chance to clean it every season).

Best of luck.

[Camp Moose]

Cheers for that me old chum, I'll pass this on.

[Camp Moose]

Message from my chum.

Cheers , tell everybody thanks was hoping to do it this weekend but the weather is going to be crap !