• Stop being a LURKER - join our dealer community and get involved. Sign up and start a conversation.

Process for cleaning the vehicles/lot after a big snow

Mid-Grade Ford

3rd Base Coach
Oct 20, 2015
43
17
Awards
1
First Name
Abe
Hello to my fellow Northern dealers. How do you guys clean the cars after a big snow day? Currently all our sales guys have to come early and help plow and brush the vehicles. Seems very tedious and always a decent chance someone slips and hurts themselves, or nicks a vehicle w the plow.

Anyone found any cooler/smarter methods of cleaning up the lot after a big snow?

I was thinking of maybe ordering some giant tarps and trying to lay those down on top of the vehicles right before the big snow comes. Then now only would we not have to brush the vehicles, but they would still be looking pristine. Right now, we brush them off but they still kinda look like shit cuz there's snow packed in all the crevices. Anyone ever tried this before?
 
I saw one dealer has a huge 2 way blower attached to a fork lift, they drive down the middle of each aisle, and blow the snow off each inventory piece. This only works with certain snow types, and just moves the problem from on the cars, to beside the cars.
 
What we find works the best is to pack the cars as tightly together as possible when we know a big snow is coming. We get all of the inventory into about 25% of the footprint of the entire lot. most of the snow will just blow over the cars because they are packed so close. 75% of the lot can be cleared without having to move any vehicles. Then we pull them out a row at a time, brush the snow off, and go park them in line on the cleared lot. When we get done, the rest of the snow is all in a small area.

I don't know if you were serious about the tarp idea. That idea would be a hard no for me :dontdoit:
 
  • Like
Reactions: ChrisR
What we find works the best is to pack the cars as tightly together as possible when we know a big snow is coming. We get all of the inventory into about 25% of the footprint of the entire lot. most of the snow will just blow over the cars because they are packed so close. 75% of the lot can be cleared without having to move any vehicles. Then we pull them out a row at a time, brush the snow off, and go park them in line on the cleared lot. When we get done, the rest of the snow is all in a small area.

I don't know if you were serious about the tarp idea. That idea would be a hard no for me :dontdoit:


Nice! I still think the tarp idea could work! What if there were wires running through the tarp like a heated blanket? Could be a revolutionary product.
 
What I personally HATE are the snow rakes most dealers tend to use. I've seen too many vehicles get scratched up as they start to wear out, and pick up too much debri.
XL_6780_L.jpg
I personally use a roller sponge mop. The sponge is much softer, replaceable and doesn't pick up debri like the snow rake does.

2021-03-02_13-32-26.gif
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mid-Grade Ford