Is galvanizing really that expensive?

[Crocodile]

Hello All,I am getting trailer repairs done and I wanted to have the new chassis galvanised.All advice so far is that it would $1000+ to get a simple chassis galvanized.Simple 4.3m boat trailer at the Gold Coast.Why is gal so expensive?Am I being told fibs?

[Feral]

They have to acid bath the trailer to clean all the grease / paint / rust off it, then hot dip it in a tank, yes that is probably the sort of money you are looking at.

And I dont reckon it last much longer than killrust paint anyway.

[jackson4300]

Do you know approx. how much the trailer weighs all up?
My work gets a lot of steel galvanised all the time, they weigh the item after is has been galvanised and we get charged a $ rate per ton.
Our rate at the moment is a bit uder $800/t but they may not offer that to walk in public, but it is a value for you to compare against.

Also if you request an overnight or 3 day turnaround they will apply a surcharge as opposed to the usual 5 day turnaround.
This doesn't include pickup or delivery.

All this applies to the galvanising places around brisbane, I wouldn't expect the gold coast to be much different.

[Noelm]

I got a tinny trailer done down here and it was under $500, not too sure if galvanizing should be that much more expensive up your way, by the way, it was for a 3.7m tinny, but everything was new, but the job included lots of brackets and odds and ends like guards and stuff. If the old trailer is rusty, it has to be sand blasted first, the acid dip does not remove heavy rust, but old gal and stuff comes off in a jiffy.

[Crunchy]

I got some quotes when refurbing my trailer a few years ago, I too was shocked at the cost but to top it off both galvinisers I spoke to pretty much warned me not to bother as re-galving older trailers not guranteed to be that effective???

So I pantied with 2-pac epoxy insatead with goood results.

[Crocodile]

Hello All,

thanks for the replies.
The trailer is for a Webster Twinfisher catamaran, skids with helper rollers at the back.
The front a-frame of the trailer is still good, the back is pretty rusty.
My intention is to copy the back with new steel and get that much galv. and then weld it onto the existing front a-frame.
Very simple, two longitudinals + three cross pieces, all new material, no bending required.
The a-frame is the hard part to fabricate, so leave it alone and re-use it.
I will re-use axles, mudguards, springs, wheels and the Teflon skids and the tunnel guides.

So far the repairers that I have spoken to have been very helpful, but say that the galv. is for too expensive, build it in Duragal and treat the welds with cold gal.
This seems to be sound advice and I am just waiting for quotes.

[Crocodile]

Hello Crunchie,

I have no intention of having my boat trailer pantied.
I like it but not that much.

[Noelm]

Cold gal is useless, rebuild, re-galvanize the lot, go boating...

[Crunchy]

Hello Crunchie,

I have no intention of having my boat trailer pantied.
I like it but not that much.

It was a painful experience that's for sure!

[brett62]

Hello All,I am getting trailer repairs done and I wanted to have the new chassis galvanised.All advice so far is that it would $1000+ to get a simple chassis galvanized.Simple 4.3m boat trailer at the Gold Coast.Why is gal so expensive?Am I being told fibs?

Mate I had my trailer done for a 7m boat and had many roller brackets and bits. All up weight was 750kg and it cost me $990 bucks. Trailer was 10.5m long and built out of 150x50 RHS and 100x50 channel. I sent photos and measurements to a couple of different places and the price can vary. I had my trailer done at a place near the Brisbane airport. They did a good job. It cost me $500 to transport there and back so the cost of the actual galvanising was not bad for $900.

[ozscott]

More than 1 way to skin a cat. Painting processes have their use in salt water/salt air. Just has to be a good product done right. I am confident my painted trailer will outlast the hot dipped trailers I have had. Cheers

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[jackson4300]

I agree with Noelm, may as well buy silver spray paint if your going to try cold gal.

[inveratta]

I did what you are proposing about ten years ago to a Tinka trailer which had rusted out thewater end of the trailer....cut off the rusted horizontals well back ...replaced with the same section and I reinforced the join with a piece of plate welded underneath at right angles along the RHS.Had the whole lot stripped and galved ,not a problem since....But galvanising layer does get eaten up in the corrosion protection process so I will need to have the trailer deck only regalved soon..before it rusts again..If the trailer deck weighs 150kg....will cost about $300 to have stripped and regalved locally (vic) or about $30.00 /yr for protection and peace of mind.....you would spend more than that on cold galv and it still wouldnt last.

thanks for the replies.
The trailer is for a Webster Twinfisher catamaran, skids with helper rollers at the back.
The front a-frame of the trailer is still good, the back is pretty rusty.
My intention is to copy the back with new steel and get that much galv. and then weld it onto the existing front a-frame.
Very simple, two longitudinals + three cross pieces, all new material, no bending required.
The a-frame is the hard part to fabricate, so leave it alone and re-use it.
I will re-use axles, mudguards, springs, wheels and the Teflon skids and the tunnel guides.

So far the repairers that I have spoken to have been very helpful, but say that the galv. is for too expensive, build it in Duragal and treat the welds with cold gal.
This seems to be sound advice and I am just waiting for quotes.[/QUOTE]

[tunaticer]

Our rate at the moment is a bit uder $800/t but they may not offer that to walk in public, but it is a value for you to compare against.

Trailers are classed as a 3d object in the bath......takes your $800 / tonne rate up to about $2200 / tonne.

I get on average $10k to $20k per month put through the galvanizers. My rate on 3d is quite good but it is still a bit more than double my std rate.

Industrial Galvanizers investigated a fixed price for boat trailers a few years back, I don't know if that still applies.

[BM]

The quoted price seems high crocodile. I had a quote recently (I'm in Melb) to re-gal a 7mtr boat trailer. I was going to do the guards as well as all the uprights for the rollers and the angled rear skids. $890.

[grinner2]

Galvanzers will charge by the KG ( for std bits & pieces that fit on 1 of their dipping jigs ) These jigs carry approx. 2 -4 Tonne of product ( depending on what types of product are on the jig .

If your trailer will fit on these jigs then you will get it dipped at a reasonable cost ...
I f your trailer does not fit ( like most types ) then they can no longer hang them on a jig , they then need to be processed in a different manner ( chain work )
It all comes down to how many Tonnes they can process per dip ...Unfortunately boat trailers are generally large in size but not very heavy , which makes their Tonnes per dip very low .....Hence the cost to dip is usually quite high .


The other thing that will increase the cost would be is if the trailer has been galvanized before .....If it has the trailer will need to spent time in their stripping tanks to remove the original zinc ( this process is very costly ,as it kills their acids in the stripping tanks which then needs recycling )

On top of this there is also the issue of existing rust ...Light / medium rust will come off through their normal process but you may be told that your trailer needs sandblasting if the rust is severe ...this will also cost you some serious $$$.

[Noelm]

Seems like a lot of talk about paying by weight (I know this is the case) that said, do they weigh the piece to be dipped, then weigh it after dipping, and you pay for the weight of the zinc? if not, a (say) solid small block of steel would weigh heaps, but only require a minor amount of zinc, but you still pay for the over all weight, as distinct from some light weight structure, might only weigh a tenth of the solid steel block, but would require lots more zinc.

[tunaticer]

There is a point when the kg rate is at optimum due to steel thicknesses. Very heavy members need a longer bath time to get the steel temp correct for good bonding. Hence 100mm thick plate is almost never galvanized.

[gazza2006au]

My memory is shade on this topic but i recall lining up for this process it just kept coming back to haunt me it would have been the most costly part of the project and that was to get it galvanized

from memory shops around Sydney wanted like $5 a kilo but i called out of town 200km's up the coast and they charged $2.70 per kilo

if i had the trailer galvanized it would have been a struggle towing a trailer frame 400km's just to be galvanized plus the expenses of hiring a flat bed car trailer to haul it around on and than petrol and time driving up to drop it off than drive home and repeat to pick it up thats 800km's distance in total it just wasnt worth the hassle

that is why i am building my own aluminium trailer i done a spread sheet tonight using my existing trailer parts my 4.3m aluminum trailer should cost about $700

[No Excuses]

I built a trailer for my 6.2 kevlacat about 4-5 years ago and it was $700 to be hot dipped at pinkemba (Brisbane).

[odes20]

They have to acid bath the trailer to clean all the grease / paint / rust off it, then hot dip it in a tank, yes that is probably the sort of money you are looking at.

And I dont reckon it last much longer than killrust paint anyway.

Any single pac is a waste of time . Killrust is rubbish compared to two pac
So if not gal, you need a 2 pac paint


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[ozscott]

Yes. I found Xtroll to be excellent as a 2 step system. Another thing people overlook is not washing down the steel with detergent and thorough rinsing and drying before painting. Cheers

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[gazza2006au]

How are u guys going for internal rusting of your painted trailers? 2k paint is a hard paint i would imagine if u had rust under the surface it wouldn't bubble or peel for a long time possibly u may not even notice it untill the trailer snaps in half

i have sprayed 2k paint i will never use it again due to being a carcinogen

[ozscott]

Box with fisholene sloshing around inside and inspection holes with bolts and nylon washers. Done properly these will outlast galv trailers that sacrifice layers over time. Bit of mucking around up front but we'll worth it. Cheers

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[gazza2006au]

Box with fisholene sloshing around inside and inspection holes with bolts and nylon washers. Done properly these will outlast galv trailers that sacrifice layers over time. Bit of mucking around up front but we'll worth it. Cheers

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I priced this option when making a trailer, filling 70x50 and 50x50 with oil just was not a cheap alternative

we can now buy lengths of aluminium i beam for our trailers from Capral.com.au minimum about is 1 length 6m happy building chaps ;)

[ozscott]

I used 4 litres of fish oil for a trailer for up to 7m boat. Don't need to fill just need aromatics in there. Cheers

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[Mr__Bean]

We had a good experience when we re-galvanised ours, with great support from the galvanising plant at Narangba.

They allowed us to tow the frame down on the old axles and pull it apart in their yard, they lifted the frame off with their forklift and stored the axles down the back for us until job finished.

When finished they lifted it up onto the axles again, we reassembled and drove home.

114869114870114871114872

[BM]

G'day Darren! It's been a long time!

[Mr__Bean]

Hello to you too,

it it has been a long time.

[Crocodile]

Hello All,

thanks for all the replies.
My latest thoughts are to refabricate in stainless steel.
Yes I know, wow!
Given the cost of galvanizing it is not as outrageous as you might think.
I am looking at about $600 in materials with welding etc. as extra.
According to Google welding SS to mild steel is a standard and simple procedure.
I know that there are issues about dissimilar metals and corrosion but I am confident that careful use of nylon spacers etc. will solve that issue.
I know that I can get the job done economically using Dura-gal but I was hoping for a longer-lasting solution that would maintain re-sale value of my rig.
Can anybody comment on the suitability of SS as a structural material in terms of flex, fatigue etc.

[gazza2006au]

Hello All,

thanks for all the replies.
My latest thoughts are to refabricate in stainless steel.
Yes I know, wow!
Given the cost of galvanizing it is not as outrageous as you might think.
I am looking at about $600 in materials with welding etc. as extra.
According to Google welding SS to mild steel is a standard and simple procedure.
I know that there are issues about dissimilar metals and corrosion but I am confident that careful use of nylon spacers etc. will solve that issue.
I know that I can get the job done economically using Dura-gal but I was hoping for a longer-lasting solution that would maintain re-sale value of my rig.
Can anybody comment on the suitability of SS as a structural material in terms of flex, fatigue etc.

Stainless Steel is ******* pricey mate i just bought 12mm bolts 12 pieces with nuts and washers $30 than i went to another store i purchased 8mm 6 pieces a little longer around 80mm each with nuts and washers i was charged $40 i would really like to see how much a trailer is going to cost you...

Why not build it from aluminium? u can buy a cheap MIG welder from Ebay that runs a DC drive motor and also purchase a spool gun from Ebay, connect 5 wires, connect the gas hose and u have a MIG spool gun welder for aluminium welding

Aluminium can be purchased on Ebay for cheap in full 6 meter or 6.5 meter lengths, some lengths are ridiculously priced like $40 for 6.5m

[scottar]

Hello All,

thanks for all the replies.
My latest thoughts are to refabricate in stainless steel.
Yes I know, wow!
Given the cost of galvanizing it is not as outrageous as you might think.
I am looking at about $600 in materials with welding etc. as extra.
According to Google welding SS to mild steel is a standard and simple procedure.
I know that there are issues about dissimilar metals and corrosion but I am confident that careful use of nylon spacers etc. will solve that issue.
I know that I can get the job done economically using Dura-gal but I was hoping for a longer-lasting solution that would maintain re-sale value of my rig.
Can anybody comment on the suitability of SS as a structural material in terms of flex, fatigue etc.

There was a thread here a while ago about the stainless trailers that were an option from Kevlacat (I think). Heavy gauge is easy to work with and can be welded to mild steel no worries using a stick welder and the right rods. Lighter gauge stuff can be stick welded but if you are a welding Muppet like myself, it won't be pretty. Can't comment on any issues regarding movement or fatigue.

[Noelm]

The problem with stainless is where you weld, it becomes very brittle (and the weld goes all kind of rusty and looks like crap, it needs to be treated) very easy to weld with a home handy man stick welder though.

[inveratta]

I use SS a lot in my business and about 40 years ago I decided to learn how to tig and stick weld the stuff..never regretted it because in the right place its a great thing to use...but unless its prepared,finished and done well with the correct grade of stainless it is expensive and doesnt do what you want it to do period..I would get some advice from a local pro welder for sure..dont just ask him how to do it..ask him if he would do it.

[gazza2006au]

I have seen SS trailers for sale online on Ebay and Gumtree i would imagine they need to be 316 i priced 2 meters of 316 angle the other week and it was like $170! its crazy priced

[tunaticer]

Be careful the right grade of stainless steel is used.
Stainless steel work hardens with normal use, it will eventually fracture at the highest stress locations.
Design can overcome a lot of stress issues but that always comes at extra cost and effort.
316 stainless steel is best for marine environments, but would pay to check it's work hardening ratings.

[tropicrows]

Forget SS, Aluminum is the only way to go, especially in bigger boats where the weight savings can be substantial. SS as inveratta said has to be treated after welding and is subject to cold working which can lead to a sudden failure if not engineered correctly.



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[Crocodile]

Hello All,
problem is now solved.
The local trailer repair guy manufactured the entire back end of the trailer and welded that onto the existing A frame.
New mudguards as well.
Re-used axle,springs, skids, tunnel guides etc.
Made from Duragal and now coated in Tectyl with the stringers flushed with fisholene mixed with petrol.
I will keep on top of the Tectyl and hopefully have many years of service.
I know that tectyl works but man is it ugly!.
Very reasonable $$$$ and excellent service.

[ozscott]

Photos bud

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[Crocodile]

Hello All,
I have just spent the last couple of hours cleaning off the old Tectyl and grinding rust off the back of the trailer.
After nearly four years I am pleased with how good it looked.
Most of the duragal was like new.
Rusty around welded brackets, but you would expect that.
All in all, a good result.
Re-coated with Tectyl.

My next trailer will be made of unobtainium.
Cheap, light, no corrosion, good welding, soft to drill, no carbon footprint and no fatigue issues.
Tell him he's dreamin….