Lilly’s competition-grade agility tunnel spent most of the summer stacked up in the shade near our chimney. But, with winter coming, I figured I’d better clean it, condition it, and get it stored inside — away from the brutal, high-altitude snow, wind, and sun. Except, it turns out that cleaning a full-sized, ribbed tunnel isn’t a simple thing.
My back and neck still hurt.
First, I scrunched it up and lugged it around to our tiny patch of real grass so that I could water the lawn while washing the tunnel. I really wanted to drape it down our big hill so that it would drain better, but Tom said the lawn was a better idea since the hill is so dusty.
So, I blasted the heck out of the outside with the hose. All those crinkles between the ribs really hold in the gunk.
Then as I rolled it around, the tunnel’s exterior drained no problemo.
The inside, however, was a total pain. I tried stretching it full out and blasting each section from both ends. I tried scrunching it for a better reach.
I mostly succeeded in loosening the dirt that encrusted inside, but getting it OUT was pretty much impossible. I was already pretty wet from hose splatter, but I was NOT about to crawl inside and squeegee the middle. While amusing, for sure, I didn’t want to get stuck inside.
So, I sprayed and tilted. I tilted and sprayed. I shook it. I rolled it. I lifted it from the middle … hoping each end would sag enough to let the water out, but those ribs really form a barrier.
Eventually, I gave up and let the tunnel sit in the sun, hoping for evaporation.
With Tom’s help, I treated the outside with some vinyl reconditioning polish, but the inside still looks pretty gritty.
Is there some huge bottle-washer thing I don’t know about? Surely, there’s a better method.
Yep – all that sounds familiar! I lay my tunnels on a hill to spray them out – it really does make it a lot easier, but I guess it would be counterproductive if your hill is dusty. And then I’m afraid I do usually crawl inside with all the crud and dried-up worms, and use a large soft-bristled brush to scrub them out. I have a friend who took hers to the car wash, but I don’t know if it was any easier in the end.