News Washing Away
the Rust With winter soon approaching, regular bus washes are an integral part of maintenance and vehicle longevity
WRITTEN BY JEANETTE REVELES |
JEANETTE@STNONLINE.COM
S
chool buses are arguably one of the most visible representations of a school district. For this reason, it is important to keep
them clean and presentable. But the impor- tance of washing a school bus goes beyond presentation. With harsher winter conditions on the
way, many parts of the country are pre- paring for roads treated with magnesium chloride solutions and other treatments to prevent freezing. While effective in keeping winter roads safe, road treatments can be harsh on a school bus, with many operators arguing that they can cause corrosion and other issues. Washing away road salt and treatments becomes pivotal to maintaining buses during the winter. For example, in Iowa, brine is used when ice or freezing rain are forecast. “Te brine is very hard on the buses.
It just eats at the bottom, sides and lights on the bus,” said Julie Nemmers, trans- portation director at Spencer Community School District, which is located in the northern part of the state. She added that the state also uses a mixture of sand and salt, which is also hard on buses, making washing very important. Mike Tompson, transportation director at the East Grand Junction School District No. 2 in Colorado, about 100 miles west of Denver, said he has encountered similar issues. He said the Colorado Department
of Transportation mostly uses a mixture of sand and slide but also uses magnesium chloride on roads in the mountains and on the main interstate going to Denver. “Mag is very corrosive, even if CDOT says it is not,” he said. “Having said that, we wash our buses weekly and after trips to Denver when they use mag. We even bought a sprayer that hooks up to pressure washer to wash under the bus.” However, the low temperatures that
require road treatments also make regu- lar washes a challenge during the winter, particularly for school districts that do not have their own enclosed washing facilities. In fact, in a recent STN reader survey, 60 percent of the 253 respondents indicated that their operations do not have at least one bus washing system or machine. Nemmers said that her department uses
a pressure washer on buses outdoors, but when winter weather gets too cold and frig- id, this task becomes virtually impossible. “We have one car wash in town that has a door that has the appropriate height to get a bus into, so we do make use of that to get the brine off of the buses,” she said. Roger Ely, executive director of admin-
istrative services and transportation at Bellefontaine City Schools in Ohio, agreed that regular washes are key to rust preven- tion caused by road salt. “Regular washes go a long way to pro- tecting against rust if seasonal road salt is
32 School Transportation News • OCTOBER 2016
routinely flushed away,” he said. While not all parts of the country experience harsh winters with freezing temperatures, areas with warmer climates may experience other factors that require frequent washes. In the “Automotive Paint Handbook:
Paint Technology for Auto Enthusiasts & Body Shop Professionals,” author John Pfanstiehl writes that vehicles kept in close proximity to the ocean could promote rust formation at faster rates due to salt water spray. Vehicles that are kept 10 miles or more away from the shore typically do not experience this phenomenon. Michael Carter, of the transportation
department at Bay City Schools in Panama City, Florida, said in the recent STN survey that his district opts to purchase rust packages when specifying new bus purchases and supplements the protection with regular washes. “While routine washes are protocol within the district, we do also purchase rust packages due to our proximity to salt water environment. Te combination seems to work fairly well for us,” he said. ●
60%
of survey respondents do not have a washing system or machine.
CELEBRATING25YEARS
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