Trailer maintenance

[Mark]

I have been pondering the best way to maintain my trailer. I guess its the original and the trailer per se is sound only a small amount of slight surface rust emerging in the areas of the trailer that get dunked regularly. So I have begun a program to try and retard this and clean the trailer up and see if it can give me a good few years more service.

I've done a lot of research and decided and implemented the following which might be useful to others. Some of you may not agree with actions but consulting paint specialists etc have confirmed my actions are probably the best efforts in a timeless race towards oxidation. Your comments are welcome.

Main initial task is to treat trailer structures. The Gal is in pretty good order and not wanting to degrade the gal surface thats working just fine I have used a light wire brush to clean up dust and loose material plus loosen friable surface rust. Then I have painted these areas with rust converter. I left this overnight in some cases but a min of 2 hrs as per instructions. Once this has dried and material converted I coat with etch primer. Currently I have 80% of the trailer at this stage and need to do inside areas with boat off in next few weeks. Plan then to coat with a grey metal expoxy paint to seal everything from exterior environment. I have a product which seems to do this well and a few tests show if forms a very nice coating over metal.

The other activity has been the dreaded axle and wheel hubs etc. I posted a Q on this a few weeks back re protection (was considering use of fish oil) but these structures were in bad shape so I have come up with the following strategy which I am in process of completing:

1. With the help of my mechanic we have put the boat and trailer up on stands and removed the old axle and hubs:

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2. I have taken the axle and reconditioned this by using a very tough brush (Jabsco) attached to my grinder to remove rust and take it back to almost bare metal. The axle was then treated overnight with rust converter to attend to any residual rust that remained. Then I applied etch primed and when dry, one coat or normal metal primer (two steps recommended by a professional painter) then finally two coats of epoxy metal paint. I am hoping that the oxidation internally is stopped or at least substantially reduced and the axle is now encapsulated from sea water. Be very interesting to see how long this lasts!

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3. I am having Gal disc brakes installed on the axle this week.

I replaced the springs with gal ones about 2 yr ago and these are holding up well with the gal doing it sacrificial job. i have however painted these with fish oil and will repeat every 6 months to see if life can be extended.

Thats my story. Only time will tell if it has been a successful approach.

Cheers

[Andrew]

Gday mark, i used a similar rust control method,, wire brush/grinder - phosphoric acid and zinc primer. Its kept the trailer going for 3 or so years

bought some "Metal fix" rust converter paint by Phoenix paints so plan to use that to touch up any new rust spots that occur on the trailer (and anything else that needs it, such as underneath the ute, around the shed etc)