Removing salt in winter

What method is best for removing salt in northern climates? It's too cold to have hoses outside at home, pipes might freeze. I don't want to go through the automatic washes, because I have vinyl and other mods on the exterior. I tried the car washes where you insert quarters and spray it yourself, the pressure was so high it wouldn't fill my bucket. I'm thinking of just using spray wash/wax at home with some towels to at least get salt off.

I lived in upstate NY for 3 years and bought a new Xterra the year before I got there. I had it a few years afterwards and traded it at 7-8 years of age at ~80k miles... with nearly 10k of those towing around it's 5000 lb limit.

By the time it was traded, it's undercarriage was totally rusted to where it was pitting deeply and had various straps and hangers replaced for heat Shields and the exhaust. The exhaust was rough but never perforated. Rust spots, like pin pricks were coming through the paint on the rear hatch.

This was after getting an undercarriage treatment and doing undercarriage washes every 1-2 weeks through the winter.

Good luck. I got rid of an RSX I bought up there too before I left. My limited experience with salted roads is they're hell on a car. The undercarriage washes didn't seem to do much and that undercarriage winterizing (rubber coating) didn't seem to make a difference as it didn't stay on for long. Maybe I just had bad luck.

Hondaman_MI said:

What method is best for removing salt in northern climates? It's too cold to have hoses outside at home, pipes might freeze. I don't want to go through the automatic washes, because I have vinyl and other mods on the exterior. I tried the car washes where you insert quarters and spray it yourself, the pressure was so high it wouldn't fill my bucket. I'm thinking of just using spray wash/wax at home with some towels to at least get salt off.

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I just use a garden hose with a spray jet attachment, and wash it off with plenty of water.

Consider one of the lower power Electric Power washers from Harbor Freight.
(About $90 + 20% discount + Free item -- how do they stay in business ??)
Small, convenient, and less potentially damaging than a 3400psi commercial power washer !!!

The sooner you do this each time you get salt deposits, the better.
Body of car and wheel arches.
The point is not to let the salt sit there for days, and dry up.
Only 5 Minutes max is needed to do this regular quick wash it down.

Then, when you have time to do a more thorough car wash & detailing, the amount of salt on the car will be minimal, and easier to deal with.

If its just salt you want to get off and not wash it, I mean self service should really suffice to clean it. Or get mini foam sprayers. AMMO NYC has them and so does TheRagCompany. I use the iK Foam Sprayer kit. Perfect for mobile detailing and good for the winter.