Aluminum or steel trailer...

[DeepI In The Rut]

I am upgrading trailer to dual axel. Previous trailer was aluminum, single axel, 14'. Typically haul CanAm defender max, so 14' is minimum length; looking to go 16-18'. I know aluminum is nice (no rust and lighter) and I certainly like the price of steel vs aluminum. How much regret, if any, would one have going the steel option? (I've been searching FB marketplace - would love to find aluminum for ~$5,000 or less). Thanks.

 

[WeiserBucks]

If you can afford aluminum it's not even a comparison in my opinion.

 

[Billy Goat]

Anymore I think I'm pretty heavy in the camp of steel trailers, especially for any off road use.

My aluminum stock trailer is getting cracks all over, mostly just in doors. Its lasted longer than a steel trailer for certain (manure is reallyhard on steel stock trailers if you dont clean), I just get nervous about structural areas that I don't crawl under and look at.

For an open equipment trailer personally I'd much prefer steel, mostly because I think they probably have a similar service life and ones cheaper up front.


I could be wrong in my opinions tho. A guy I know has gone all aluminum on his equipment trailers, so far so good. He got tired of the steel rusting out, but I get nervous of the stress cracking. These are 25-35k trailers.

 

[Choupique]

STEEL

Aluminum is for beer cans and air planes. I've owned quite a few aluminum boat trailers and even with the most premium fully welded ones, there's a plethora of problems that steel trailers just don't have. Wallowed out bolt holes, tons of flex, leading to more wallowed out holes, corrosion around those holes, the list goes on and on. Difficult to repair if you don't weld aluminum. Don't get me started on erector set aluminum trailers. I have been party to quite a few violent boat trailer failures and they were all aluminum.

Unless you have some specific weight concerns, steel is the far superior choice. Get a galvanized frame if you are ultra concerned about corrosion. Aluminum trailers when done 100% correctly are good for hauling cargo when a specific GVWR target needs to be hit but otherwise, they suck. Stay away.

 

[Choupique]

. He got tired of the steel rusting out, but I get nervous of the stress cracking.

I've had a boat trailer aluminum I beam that totally separated. The flange tore off the web over a length of about 5 feet. It was a nightmare to straighten all that out and weld it all back together and we're lucky the thing didn't completely explode when it happened. The trailer wasn't overloaded (per the sticker GVWR) or abused or anything. You could watch the main beams flexing in the mirror going down the highway though and when you do that to aluminum, it is going to fail. Not if but when. It is definitely not going to take that. Steel doesn't care. Treat it as horribly as you want. As long as you stave off the rust it'll last forever.

Aluminum doesn't have nearly the fatigue strength that steel does. You have to be super diligent about not overloading it, ensure it was designed and built by a very reputable company who specializes in building aluminum structural frames, not abuse it, etc. Things like airplane structure are designed and built and inspected to the Nth degree because they must be. Aluminum trailers are far too often built by steel trailer guys who just slap some beer can material together and mark it up as a premium option over the steel trailers.

If corrosion is a serious problem for you, either have it hot dip galvanized (bomb proof, very heavy) or strip it to the steel and have it professionally blasted and painted. Paint jobs on most mass produced non-premium trailers is generally absolute shit and having it redone professionally isn't super expensive and will last forever. We dunk our trailers in salt water all the time and the only structural failure of a galvanized part I can remember was a 25 year old axle tube.

 

[Billy Goat]

I've had a boat trailer aluminum I beam that totally separated. The flange tore off the web over a length of about 5 feet. It was a nightmare to straighten all that out and weld it all back together and we're lucky the thing didn't completely explode when it happened. The trailer wasn't overloaded (per the sticker GVWR) or abused or anything. You could watch the main beams flexing in the mirror going down the highway though and when you do that to aluminum, it is going to fail. Not if but when. It is definitely not going to take that. Steel doesn't care. Treat it as horribly as you want. As long as you stave off the rust it'll last forever.

Aluminum doesn't have nearly the fatigue strength that steel does. You have to be super diligent about not overloading it, ensure it was designed and built by a very reputable company who specializes in building aluminum structural frames, not abuse it, etc. Things like airplane structure are designed and built and inspected to the Nth degree because they must be. Aluminum trailers are far too often built by steel trailer guys who just slap some beer can material together and mark it up as a premium option over the steel trailers.

If corrosion is a serious problem for you, either have it hot dip galvanized (bomb proof, very heavy) or strip it to the steel and have it professionally blasted and painted. Paint jobs on most mass produced non-premium trailers is generally absolute shit and having it redone professionally isn't super expensive and will last forever. We dunk our trailers in salt water all the time and the only structural failure of a galvanized part I can remember was a 25 year old axle tube.

I have bent frames on steel trailers, one company warrantied and replaced an 8 ton trailer for me. It wasn't overloaded by gvw, but uneven, off road conditions stressed the frame different than it would under normal road conditions.


Just how aluminum will suddenly crack from unseen work hardening is a little scary.

 

[Dukhtr3]

If u buy a used aluminum make sure to check for weld cracks. Don't buy a powder coated steel trailer either. It's like cancer and rust from the inside out. I have a few painted steel trailers that are 20+ years old that are still in great shape compared to my 10 year old PJ trailer that is powder coated. Complete junk in opinion

Sent from my Pixel 10 Pro XL using Tapatalk

 

[Choupique]

uneven, off road conditions stressed the frame different

Our roads in Louisiana are awful and violent boat trailer failures are something we all deal with at some point in our lives here. The aluminum erector sets are by far the worst offenders.

Our stock trailers and equipment trailers on the other hand hold up pretty well. The mileage is generally pretty low compared to the western cowboys but again, the roads are just so horrible. The few people I know who have had aluminum stock trailers didn't keep them long due to the reasons you cited - spooky looking cracks.

Having a fair bit of experience with fabricating aluminum workboats and living with aluminum boats and trailers, give me steel 100% of the time for any trailer application that will be used on the highway.

how aluminum will suddenly crack from unseen work hardening is a little scary

Yea. Airplanes can handle the high cycle count fatigue well because the design is so thoroughly engineered, the manufacturing so tightly controlled, the materials so carefully selected and controlled, etc. The average aluminum trailer is just a bunch of junk MIG'd together and scrubbed shiny to look good going down the road. No preheat, no NDT, no nothing. Cracked and cratered welds everywhere.

A REAL aluminum trailer like a maxi-miser is a different animal all together.

 

[Billy Goat]

Our roads in Louisiana

Wait ain't that flat??




I'm of course picking.

But its the off camber stuff is where I see the damages come from.

 

[Tmac]

Where Aluminum is great imo is for a light boat trailer, using a good grade of marine rectangular tube aluminum, like 5086. I’ve had one for my drift boat for 20 years. Was welded & gusseted by a boat builder with a 1,500 lb. torsion axle. Rides smooth and is always well under its capacity. It is often in salty water crabbing and fishing. Perfect for its intended use imo.

Now if I used that same boat 100x a year, drove it all over, often on rough roads, I’d probably have gone with galvanized steel, like we have on the 21’ almost 4k boat. I do know a couple ranchers that have gone with riveted stock trailers and like them. Not sure on their longevity yet.

 

[Choupique]

Wait ain't that flat??

The land is usually flatter than the roads. The roads look like bombed out air strips. They are absolutely terrible. Driving in Texas is a treat for us because we can go fast and not get beaten to death.

An unfortunate consequence of being flat with tons of rain is you need drainage ditches everywhere and those are pretty hard on equipment and stock trailers. We don't need to cross those too often in the grand scheme of things though.

The Fn roads though man. Did I mention the roads are really bad?

Every trailer we have around here that is more than 15 years old and still in good working shape is steel.

 

[Billy Goat]

The land is usually flatter than the roads. The roads look like bombed out air strips. They are absolutely terrible. Driving in Texas is a treat for us because we can go fast and not get beaten to death.

An unfortunate consequence of being flat with tons of rain is you need drainage ditches everywhere and those are pretty hard on equipment and stock trailers. We don't need to cross those too often in the grand scheme of things though.

The Fn roads though man. Did I mention the roads are really bad?

Every trailer we have around here that is more than 15 years old and still in good working shape is steel.

I haven't been in Louisiana much at all.

But driving around on flat gravel roads in the eastern "green" part of Texas, I was like to hell with buying the cheap trucks you see come up for sale out of Texas. Things are gonna be beat to death. I let the air out of the tires and didn't put more in til I was east bound on I-30 around Texarkana.

 

[flat rock]

Utah salts the roads big-time during the winter months so all aluminum was a must have when i purchased my hauler.

 

[DeepI In The Rut]

Utah salts the roads big-time during the winter months so all aluminum was a must have when i purchased my hauler.

Same here in MN (the salt) - partly my concern with steel

 

[Choupique]

the salt) - partly my concern with steel

Valid concern, but a good paint job or galvanizing solves that problem. If you get a good trailer like a diamond C you dont really need to worry about it.

If you can find a GOOD aluminum utility trailer its a good option. Even on aluminum trailers, the important parts are steel.