www.iFourWinns.com

Holy crap was my exact though too. This will come off sounding bad but you gotta recognize rust of that magnitude at a major joint is going to cause a failure eventually.

Is this happening elsewhere on the trailer? I would really be curious what caused the metal to corrode that fast.

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2005 Horizon 210, 5.7L Volvo

My trailer is the same year and that tube is seriously thick and heavy. There's got to be more to this story. For one thing, I suspect it saw a lot more salt than the previous owner admitted. Being right in that bend has to be part of it. And maybe a defective section of tube was used in construction; maybe it's an illusion, but that doesn't look as thick as it should be, even with all the rust.

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

After that failure I would not trust that trailer to haul the garbage - even with a re-weld section of tubing. That is totally due to salt and is not a trailer defect in my opinion. These painted trailers are for fresh only regardless of what any salesman tells you. They will start to corrode in front of your eyes with one dipping in salt....as mentioned you can apply treatment before and after, but that will slow not stop the process. Saltaway is another post dunking treatment that is good....problem is there is no way to get all the areas cleaned after dunking it.

You need a galvanized/aluminum trailer for your use....and those will have probs too, just not as fast....fyi - it's not just dunking them in salt that's an issue it's storing them near the coast. My bro has a tri axle aluminum for his boat thats only been splashed 3 times (his rig is in sling) - went to use it last week and has probs. The components of the winch (corroded and shot), axle bearings (corroded and shot), shackles corroded.....he washes his down too....he just discovered the benefits of Saltaway.

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http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o71 ... wqm355.jpg


08' H210SS
VP 5.7Gi

That is a frightening photo. It brings this question - what do you all do for routine maintenance of the trailer frame? I don't mean lighting, electric, wheels, bearings, brakes -but for the frame itself? Do you inspect for scrapes and immediately use touch up paint? Do you wash your trailer? Do you grind out any small rust spots and then touch up paint? I am interested in fresh waterers only.

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2005 Horizon 250

I inspect the frame and brackets paying close attention to welds (looking for cracks)...as far as maintenance of the frame there is not really much at all other than washing it when I wash the boat. If you have some paint flaking - i would hit it with some rust oxidizer (like "Navy Gelly"), let sit til dry and then wipe it off and hit with some paint. Not an issue yet on mine though. Fresh water isn't going to hurt the frame but like anything it will rust if unprotected. Painted trailers are fine for their intended use and are nice looking trailers...only other thing in addition to checking all the moving parts you already mentioned is to hit the fold away joint with some grease every year or so.

My last painted trailer was still strong and in good shape after 15 years of use - It made at least 100 round trips to the lake and towed many a mile....

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http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o71 ... wqm355.jpg


08' H210SS
VP 5.7Gi

I'm fresh water only. I do an occasional quick inspection of the frame, and touch up any small nicks with touch up paint from FW. If anything ever happened that took off a larger area of paint, I'd sand, prime, and paint that area.

The issue, I think, is that the real damage being done is on the inside, and is undetectable and unreachable.

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

Yes, as in the case of cars, painted trailers rust from the inside out. Nice, high humidity salt laden conditions. I have a galvanized trailer made up of hot dipped parts; never immersed in salt water. Total exposure time to a coastal atmosphere much less than 400 hours. Even that is showing some corrrosion ( oxidation) of the zinc, rusting of bright zinc plated shackles etc. We have 2 houses; one 50 miles inland, one 200 yards from the sea. Similar parts last indefinately inland but identical parts rust away after 2 years at the coast, despite not being exposed to direct salt water spray. I know where I will live when I retire though, a small price to pay!

Graham

Holy crap is right! I had a cross beam split on my old 1975 Rolco, but that was after 27 years of solid service. I didn't even know it until I unloaded down at LOTO. The guy who pulled my trailer out said, "Um, you better come take a look at this". Had it welded up and painted for something like $200 and never had another problem. Scary that it could have happened while on the road and the safety chains (i.e. dog chains) to the transom held the trailer together. I'll never know for sure.

When I picked up my 2005 H260, it had some rust on a fender due to a blowout from the previous owner. I got a can of FW trailer paint, and fixed that up, as well as touched up a few minor nicks. After seeing that picture, I'm going to get under there with a creeper this weekend and give my trailer the full once over.

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2005 FW Horizon 250
8.1L VP DP

A bum one, looks like neglect to me.

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Mike
2007 Horizon 200 SS
5.0 GXi SX drive.

The trailer is completely boxed in. If water whether it was salt or fresh got into one of the holes for the wiring and never got out it would rot from the inside out. I didn't really inspect the trailer because the boat is slipped an the trailer never got used unless I needed to air out a towel. I don't know the history ofthe trailer previous to my ownership. I didn't realize what I thought was surface rust was actually rot. It is still beyond me why someone would make a painted steel trailer when aluminum is available.

That is simply a matter of cost. The raw material is more expensive, the fabrication is typically more expensive and typically you need to adjust designs when going to aluminum, which also increases cost.

That being said aluminum is a great material for many applications. It isn't magic and corrosion and fatigue can cause all sorts of issues with aluminum fabricated parts just like steel.

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Current Operational Boats:
'04-Four Winns 180 Freedom 150 HP Evinrude
'72-Chris Craft Commander 31 Sedan Twin-350Qs

Mine is 12 years old and doesn't look like that. Wow! Wnenn

I checked the price on that trailer from New Hampshire. For the same price I can get a brand new aluminum one. With no rot or surface rust.

Aluminum are not all peaches and cream, they flex,using the hull as the backbone and they heat up on long road trips, both weaken the metal. They will outlast a box frame steal trailer, but not a i-beam steal trailer, if used in inland waters. But about any trailer would outlast a Four Winns trailer.

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As someone who did a bit of metallurgy many years ago as part of an undergraduate course, I find it difficult to believe aluminium in a trailer could get hot enough to degrade, even in Death Valley. . I can imagine constant flex ===> fatigue could be an issue, it does pretty well in airplanes in that respect, but it should not be an issue if the trailer is designed and built stiff enough for the load it is carrying.

Graham