How To Choose The Best Truck Wash Soap

When it comes to choosing the best soap for your semi truck fleet, there’s a lot that goes into the decision. While there are all-purpose soaps on the market, to take care of your fleet the best way you can, you need to know specifically what your trucks need and what soap can give you that.

That’s not even getting into the sheer number of choices you actually have. If you dive into this decision without knowing what you need, you’ll be stunned by how many options there really are for truck wash soap.

You obviously want to give your trucks the best and most efficient products for keeping them in top shape, and this blog will help you pick the best detergents, soaps, and degreasers for your fleet. By the end, you will have a much more solid idea of the direction you want to go for your semi truck wash needs.

Do You Really Need to Use Truck Wash Soaps?

A common question that comes up for truck washing is whether or not you need to use truck soaps specifically. Many will argue that regular car wash soaps are just as good, and more affordable, then truck wash soaps. However, at the end of the day, there is a difference between cleaning your truck and just rubbing some soap on it.

Truck wash soaps are specially formulated to be much stronger than car wash soaps. This means that they can clean off caked-on dirt, road grime and mud more efficiently. Unlike car wash soaps, truck wash soaps have been designed with heavier duty vehicles in mind.

They are also more eco-friendly, as less product is needed for a thorough clean, saving resources in the long run. Lastly, truck wash soaps usually contain special ingredients like wax or gloss enhancers that help protect the paint job of your vehicle, something car wash soap typically does not offer. If you want the best for your truck, you need to use the product specifically designed for it.

Types of Truck Wash Soaps

Now that we know that truck wash soaps are the best soaps for trucks, it’s time to take a look at a few of the different kinds of truck wash soaps. There are many different truck soaps that have different qualities and purposes, and it will depend on your personal needs as to which one you go with.

One of the more common kinds of soaps is one-step soaps. One step soaps are high pH soaps that are good for everyday cleaning. They are more than effective enough to remove the basic dirt and grime that starts to appear on trucks after long hauls.

If you’re looking for a more thorough cleaning, you can pair one-step soaps with low pH presoaks. These presoaks help to break down minerals and other buildup that doesn’t wash away easily, like rust and salt.

Two-step soaps combine the previous two into a single product. They offer an effective wash that can also break down the heavier and hardier grime like diesel and caked-on mud.

If the greasy buildup on your trucks gets to be too much for a basic wash to handle, there are other options for you. Degreasers are perfect for removing the harder to clean stains like grease, oil, and other tough grime.

Aluminum brighteners are perfect for post-wash treatment of trucks. They allow you to brighten and shine your truck to give it a fresh and stunning appearance.

There are times when you may be stuck with an incredibly difficult stain to wash off, like concrete slurry or residue from cement trucks. In these cases, you’ll need a specific cleaner that can help you safely remove this from your truck. This is where concrete truck cleaners come into play.

Key Factors When Washing Your Trucks

As strange as it may sound, your soap isn’t the only important thing to consider when washing your truck. There are other factors that come into play that many don't keep in mind, like the kind of equipment you use. It’s important to make sure that when performing all kinds of upkeep on your truck, you take the steps necessary to do it thoroughly and correctly.

One factor that goes overlooked is water quality. Water quality can vary from soil conditions, water hardness and water PH balance creating differences in water quality and making a difference in how different soaps clean.

Secondly, water pressure is also important when considering a truck wash soap as water pressure will determine the effectiveness of the cleaning power. You’ll probably want to stay in the range of 1200-2500 PSI for the sake of safety.

Next is water temperature, as it also plays an important role as temperature affects the foam produced by soap and its cleaning action. On average, hot water cleans much better than cold water does. You’ll want to stay between 100-120 degrees for your water to work the best with your chemicals.

Finally, it is also important to understand dwell times and dilution ratios to ensure that your vehicle receives optimum cleaning results without unnecessarily wasting resources. As such, finding the right truck wash soap requires understanding these variables which work together to achieve a good clean.

Whiting Systems Has the Truck Wash Soaps For You

We’ve gone over a lot of information regarding truck soap washes. However, there are two important points that we’ve neglected so far: where to get truck wash soaps, and how to use them. Luckily, both of these points are easy to address.

If you’re looking for a place to get your truck wash soaps, Whiting Systems is perfect for you. Our collection of cleaners, degreasers, and disinfectants is guaranteed to leave your fleet free of grime and full of shine.

As for how to use them, Whiting Systems is an award-winning provider of automated semi truck wash systems that are designed to clean your trucks quickly, thoroughly, and effectively.

Contact us today with any questions you may have, or to set up an appointment or consultation to see if Whiting Systems is right for you.