3, 2, 1... IT’S TIME TO GIVE OUR FOUR-WHEELED FRIEND SOME EXTRA CLEANING!

A stunning body!

The first glimpse is what shapes people’s opinion! Let's arm ourselves with car shampoo, a mop (preferably with an extension!), a bucket with water and, to deal with more persistent residues such as midges or tar, a degreaser. Ready to make our travel companion shine again?

Here’s a tip: start from the roof, that way you avoid dirty drips sliding down the sides you’ve just finished cleaning! We can then dilute the shampoo in the bucket and vigorously brush the bodywork clean, taking care not to skip any areas, until the whole exterior is as shiny as if we had used wax.

But be careful how you use the degreaser: it will help us to remove the most stubborn dirt, but if afterwards we don’t rinse the surfaces really well, we may end up with opaque areas on the bodywork. So let's arm ourselves with patience and focus in detail on the various surfaces concerned.

If you have a pressure washer available, we advise you not to use it for the entire exterior, to reduce the risk of removing some paint: use it instead for certain parts such as flaps and bumpers... you’ll also save yourself a lot of tiring effort!

When you’ve finished cleaning the exterior, remember to rinse the entire vehicle thoroughly, leaving it to dry in the shade so as to avoid streaks.

Great from the outside, fantastic inside...

Windows, mosquito nets, bathroom and kitchen. Cleaning the interior of our camper on a Fiat Ducato-based campervan is a bit like cleaning our home... and nobody likes a dirty home!

For this cleaning operation, we’ll need a vacuum cleaner, cleaning products, a microfibre cloth and… plenty of patience!

It’s important not to start from the floor: we’ll be walking on it and dirtying it all the time wherever we go, so we should leave it for last.

So let's start with the glass surfaces, which are easily washable with a microfibre cloth to avoid streaks and lines, then continue with nooks and crannies that are a bit difficult to reach, such as pedals, the interiors of drawers and cabinets, etc. Once this part is finished, we can move on to the services areas. Here we must pay attention to possible bad smells coming from the drains: this is the time to tackle any problems energetically!

Another fundamental part is the fridge: a little water and vinegar will do the trick, but remember to leave the fridge door wedged slightly open before leaving your Fiat Ducato-based friend in the garage, so that it always remains airy. So we won’t find a mouldy fridge the next time we want to use it!

Then clean the kitchen (check that the gas is turned off), the sleeping areas and, if present, the mosquito nets. We recommend soaking them in warm water with vinegar for a few minutes.

Time to tackle… the tanks

Now for the last parts of our four-wheeled friend to be sanitized! To clean them, you must first completely empty both tanks and pipes, until no liquid is left inside.
Once this first step is finished, use a sponge to vigorously clean all the internal surfaces of each tank until you no longer see any residue. At this point, pour a mixture of sanitising liquid and drinking water inside, at first with the taps open and then closed, so that the product has time to act inside the pipes as well as in the tank. We mustn’t leave our job half way through!

So we let the sanitising mixture rest for a couple of hours and then completely empty the whole system, to avoid freezing during the cold months.

Extra cleaning

Given the historic moment we are living today, keeping your spaces clean is more important than ever! So we strongly recommend that everyone applies a highly effective sanitising treatment using special germicidal products, providing extra safety next time someone gets into our shiny Fiat Ducato-based campervan!

Our short maintenance guide ends here. We hope it will be useful to the many owners in love with their campervan who always want to help it be at its best. We wish you an autumn full of devotion, satisfaction and... cleaning!