Salt in carpeting
 

Sorry if this has been asked before, does anyone have a effective way of getting salt out of carpet? I think good ol Wisconsin has a surplus of salt and they are not afraid to use it. I wash the truck once a week (touchless car wash) if to cold to do it by hand, and
I need to get the salt rings out of the carpet.

Thanks for the help.

JDaddy,

Any good carpet cleaner should get the salt stains out. Just don't let them sit there too long. Clean them up ASAP!

JDaddy,

I don't have the salt problem, but I do live in the Midwest where I have to deal with snowy/muddy boots in the truck. Here's what I do to deal with the winter:

Invest in a shop vac if you don't already have one. I found a nice 10 gallon vac with a blower attachment (several folks around here use blowers for drying after a wash) for about $50 bucks at a local hardware store. Even without the salt issue this will come in handy when you eventually drag dirt and debris into the cab.

For prevention - Scotch guard makes a fabric protectant for autos (I have no idea how this differs from standard scotch guard, other than having a picture of a car on it) so spray some of that on your seats (if fabric) and floorboards/floor mats.

Speaking of floor mats, get some rubber/plastic mats that will keep just about everything off of your floorboards. I currently use a cheap set you can find at just about any wal-mart/target/autozone/etc, but I know a favorite "premium" floor mat with members of this board are husky liners. They are a bit pricey, but custom-fit to the contours of the truck and look pretty sharp. You can do a forum search for husky liners to find out where to buy them online.

And finally, there are a variety of stain removers geared for autos. Like the scotch guard, I don't know that they differ much from standard household cleaners, but I have a can of "spot shot" for autos that has a little scrub brush on the top to agitate and lift stains. When using a stain remover you may find that it gets the stain out, but then you have a nice clean spot on your carpet showing how dirty the rest of the carpet is. If that's the case, perhaps a handheld wetvac would be a good idea to quickly clean a large area.

Again, there may be better ways to deal with salt specifically, but this routine should help do the trick and prevent any future headaches.