Windows on the world
Driving your motorhome with dirty windows is not only bad for visibility, but also distracting and tiring. It’s very easy and cheap to sort out, so there’s zero excuse for any grimy glass!
1 To get the cleanest cab glass possible, you need to clean the worst muck off the windows before you polish them.
Run up the vehicle and squirt the washers over the screen for 10 seconds or so, to push through all the fluid that has been sitting in the system pipework for months. Remember to top up the washer reservoir afterwards.
Turn off the wipers and now clean the screen as normal. A good car shampoo and a sponge will get the worst off, but can dry a bit smeary. The next step is to hit the screen with a 50/50 mix of vinegar and warm water. This will cut through oily or greasy deposits, such as tree sap or soot on the glass.
We would advise avoiding household glass cleaners if possible, owing to their ammonia content, which is not good for rubbers and plastics.
Make the vinegar mixture in a spray bottle, squirt it onto a clean microfibre cloth and start cleaning. Dry and polish the glass afterwards with a second, clean cloth or newspaper. Don’t forget the inside, which often gets very hazy. The same mixture is great for cab windows and external mirrors, too.
You also need to be really fastidious about cleaning the wiper blades. Many motorhomes spend extended periods parked up, and the blades sit against the glass. Gunge builds up along the edge of the blade and the screen, making the blades stick to the screen, blunting the nice square edge that is essential for smear-free wiping.
You can buy expensive chemicals to clean wipers, but a cheap, effective solution is our favoured vinegar and water mix-up, which will cut all but the nastiest gunge.
Get a cloth, give a few long squirts of the mixture onto it, then draw the cloth along the length of the blade. Repeat until the cloth is left clean.
Ensure you dry the wipers thoroughly, to prevent vinegar being left in contact with the blades for an extended period.