New boat trailers with rubbish bolts

[Bonus]

I went looking for a boat trailer to carry my 6.3 metre plate boat that is being built and noticed that all the South-east Queensland trailer manufacturers were using zinc plated U bolts and straight bolts instead of hot dipped galvanised bolts on their steel trailers. My other boat trailer for my 5.2 dory is three years old and everything is galvanised and nothing is rusting. I have purchased a trailer and I thought I could buy galvanised or stainless bolts to replace the other rubbish- but think again. I could not get the correct lenghts of U bolts. I am now cold galvanising each bolt and then painting the whole trailer twice with Wattyl killrust epoxy gloss enamel. There is nothing like a new trailer. Where are the marine standards?

[dfox]

Youll probably find that the tyres are also some cheap chinese rubbish as well. If you travel long distances they dont last long, its all about cost cutting...

[Bonus]

Dfox, Correct Kanda 13 inch usually. I set it up for Fraser Island with 14 inch 205x14 Nangkangs- bit better rubbish and gained 2 inches in radius - [height].

[tunaticer]

One thing i would be watching if replacing your ubolts with fully galv ones is the tensile strength. It is quite rare to locate Gr8.8 Hot Dip Galvanized U-bolts.

Jack.

[SgBFish]

Bonus.
You have nailed it in one. I have a Brook__ trailer and all the bolts and bolts are Zinc plated they all started to go in the first month.

And yes I do soap it up and wash it.
I sent an email to the manufacturer and got no response.
I have since acid treated them and cold galvanised and that seams to be working for the moment.

My last trailer was a Redco and it was great in that respect. When I do my annual trailer overhaul I will give it the works. Acid, Cold gal, Kill rust.

Scott

[timddo]

can't you just galvanise the u bolts . just take it to a galvanising place.

[Dan5]

How is it you buy a new trailer they put cadnium bolt's in and fung wah tyre's on it no jockey wheel no spare wheel or bracket crap welding junk light's and tell you it's the Deluxe model HaHaha i'd hate to see the poverty pack version what are they Bamboo?Dan.........

[BenatCoffs]

I have a povvo redco and it's not too bad. Kanda Tyres, and all. The lights were the first to go, so I built my own LED lights, not a problem since doing them either (cost me about $30 for the pair too BTW). The jockey wheel is crap, rusting up bad. The winch cable is rusted up. Rest of the trailer is ok though. I only hose it off after using the boat so I guess I can't really blame redco

Can I paint over the grey gal? (Not the good gold stuff)
Hammertone blue would be nice!

[Far side]

When the bolts are hot dipped galvanised wouldn't the galvanising be removed when you ran the nuts back up the thread and hence still have a corrosion problem

[Dirtysanchez]

Hi Benatcoffs
IN regards to your DIY Led lights, be careful mate, because in Australia there is whats called the ADRs and all automotive stuff, whether it is original equipment, or aftermarket, has to comply to, so home made lights would be non compliant.
What this means is if you had someone run into your rig and your insurer found out, they could scrub you on your claim

I went through the motions of all this about 3 years ago, I wanted to go into biz with LED lights that were virtually bullet proof, but to get ADR approval it was going to cost me $25K before I could even put a product on the market

Not trying to rain on your idea, LEDS work so much better, but just be mindful that you may be putting yourself at risk

Russell

[zigfreed]

[quote=Far side;664164]When the bolts are hot dipped galvanised wouldn't the galvanising be removed when you ran the nuts back up the thread and hence still have a corrosion problem[/quote

G'day farside

Thats correct mate. There is a second process that needs to take place in the gal process called "spinning". In laymans terms they spin the bolts to get rid of all the excess gal build up off the threads. They can also be coated with an electrical charge like the finish on ERW pipe (lightweight steel pipe with a type of gal coat)

Another trap to be careful of is when they manufacture nuts and bolts for galvanising the bolt thread dia is undersize and the nut thread dia is oversize to allow for the gal coating to take up the slack. To see what i mean try and put a nickel or zinc plated nut on a gal bolt of the same size, they just bind up.

Bonus, i would suggest you go and get some 12mm 4.6 gal threaded rod and bend up your own u bolts then bolt them up with gal nuts and washers. You can buy it in 1200mm lengths from your local bolt supplier, try to avoid the chain stores dunno if they even sell it but it would cost the earth i am sure. If you are worried about it not being 8.8 up the dia to 16mm and you will have to find someone with a brakepress to bend them, after all if you apply heat to bend them may as well keep what you have on there (the gal will burn off and need touch up)

Hope this helps

cheers

Mick

[Spaniard_King]

Or you could just tectyl the bolts from new and keep an eye on them

[SgBFish]

Garry
Would you hit them with rust converter first to neutralise them then Tectyl?
Scott

[Spaniard_King]

Scott,

your probably better off cold Galing them before hitting them with tectyl 506

[Poseidon]

For sure the tyres are crap as well. Bought a brand new trailer last July and had to replace both 13" tyres a few weeks ago. From new they always seem to be out of round and when one decided to develop a huge boil on the inside wall it was then time to check the other and low and behold the tyre was more like a football than round. The trailer manufuacturer had his name set into the tyres as well. Sent email to the manufacturer who replied with the normal " We do appreciate your feedback and will use it in future decision making processes."

New tyres certainly improves the ride out of site.