I use a touchless but the brushes still make contact on the sides, very lightly, and Blitzen is wrapped with no problems. I just get the basic, water, soap and air-dry, no wax or coating as I am already clear-coated. No problems except the tailgate never gets clean due to no brushes and the sharp upright angle...it's okay, quick wipe down and we are on our way. Only issue was that I had magnetic flames roaring down the rocker panels behind the front wheels and they were blown off with one side totally missing...we think a brush ate it.
Why not just use car wash mode and enable free roll? The last thing I would recommend is trying to outsmart the car. As an example, transport mode uses neutral and has this warning: “While in Transport Mode, the tires are allowed to rotate slowly (under 3 mph or 5 km/h) and for a very short distance (less than 30 feet or 10 meters). Exceeding these boundaries can lead to significant damage and overheating that is not covered by the warranty.”
I DO use car wash mode to be safe, just activate it at the gate, if you don't go over 10 mph it stays on and once in the wash pop the Neutral button, reverse action at the end but the Car Wash mode deactivates as you drive away.
Ok, you use car wash mode but don’t use the ENABLE FREE ROLL feature at the bottom of the Car Wash Mode display?
DOINK, I am a weenie, ole Santa didn't know it was there...will go that route next time in the wash...thanks for the heads-up!
It’s kind of weird because you have to put the brake on for it to highlight. Then it tells you to enter the mode you need to shift to DRIVE! But if you follow the directions it immediately annunciates free roll enabled.
I also had one car wash energize the system before I was ready. It sounded horrible and I screamed at them to stop as I selected free roll. I now tell them not to enable the conveyor until I give them two thumbs up.
That might be why I missed it, I have been rolling up to position in Car Wash Mode and then pop the overhead into neutral when in place, I shut down the car wash when I first tried it months ago...but I warned the guys and there was no one behind me. That is where I got in the habit of just hitting the neutral button on the overhead as it IS lit up.
After many decades of trying to get streak free windows detailing cars i now only use Norwex window cloths. They are a godsend.
what is it going to hurt?
Everything you need is on the "Controls" screen, which you must open just before entering the car wash. You can put the truck in car wash mode beforehand, as I do, but don't go over nine mph, or else it will exit.
I have a YP and a CT, and the touch car washes make a mess of the clear coat on the YP because the brushes are not clean. The CT is a different story, since even dirty brushes hitting the stainless steel in a totally random pattern will not introduce scratches you can really detect. The downside to touchless is they usually use much stronger chemicals to facilitate the wash, which may affect the plastic materials in various places on the truck.
