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Sheet metal rust
I bought a piece of 20 gauge "electro-gal" (whatever that is) steel to lay in the bottom of the dump trailer. It seems nobody in town carries galvanized that was large enough and thick enough for this application. The electro-gal steel develops a sort of white rust when exposed to weather. Anyone familiar with this stuff? Is there a good way to keep this metal from rusting badly short of painting it?
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Sheet metal rust
Ken electro galvanizing is applying the Zinc coating from an electrolytic bath rather than molten zinc. The layer is much thinner than the traditional hot dip. It is similar to the thin coating on the galvanized nails for the air gun. So thin you hardly know it is there.
The white on the surface, zinc oxide also occurs on the traditional galvanizing. I would think the first scratch on it will rust unless you keep it oiled.
What other materials have you considered?
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Sheet metal rust
I wanted real galvanized but I couldn't find a place that would shear it to size and sell it to the public in a reasonably thick gauge. Some HVAC shops would sell me 24 gauge but that seemed pretty thin to stand up to the abuse of dumping firewood, etc. on it. Would real galvanized get scratched up and rust anyway? Maybe I'll just screw it down, keep it tarped when not in use and when it rusts out replace it.
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Sheet metal rust
IMHO oiling the floor of a dump trailer wouldn't be the best idea simply because of safety issues.
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Sheet metal rust
Ken: Any galvanized surface will rust in the spots that get scratched. If you haul any stone, or use a shovel to remove any contents, you'll begin the process. Like was said, the electro stuff is real thin.
I just leave my trailer bed get rusty, but keep it out of the rain. Local farmers put a heavy coat or more of paint on the bed surface. They then line the bottom and sometimes the sides with a material that is like UHMW (kinda like nylon). It comes in big sheets and comes in several thicknesses.
It can take a real beating if you dump stone on it, absorbs shock so it is dent resistant, doesn't rust and is real slippery for dumping. They usually fasten it with countersunk screws and chaulk edges so moisture doesn't get underneath it.
Suggest looking into this as a possible approach.
Happy haulin'
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Sheet metal rust
I think this is what yooper is referring to. Check out the Heavy duty stuff.
Link:
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Sheet metal rust
I think Denis is on the right track.
We use a sprayed on lining on all of our dumps. One of the boys bought a small dump trailer of his own to collect firewood for his personal use. He just bought the DIY roll-on bed liner goop from the auto supply place and then thinned it just a little so it would dry to as smooth a finish as possible. It seemed to work pretty good and everything slides out of it well, but sticky topsoil or clay or something might be different.
I've also seen people succesfully use similarly coated plywood in the bottom of small dumps. The wood seems to absorb the impact better if wood is tossed in it on a regular basis, and is readily available.
Best of luck.
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Sheet metal rust
Ken: Denis's suggestion was what I was working around to. UHMW is Ultra high molecular weight polyethylene. You can purchase it in sheets from somewhere like US plastics. Normal high density polyethylene would work also and would be much cheaper.
The urethane coatings like Murf suggest would work, but many have abrasive in them to increase friction. Murf mentioned that one of his guys thinned it down, there are some coatings that come with the abrasive separately. The urethane coating will not be as slick as the PE.
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Sheet metal rust
Thanks, guys. It's all a learning experience. I'll just keep the sheet metal dry, oil it before the rainy season starts and use it as-is. When it gets too beat up or rusty I'll replace it with something else. It's always interesting to learn what solutions other folks have used to solve a problem like this. I suppose a stainless steel sheet would be too expensive.
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Sheet metal rust
Since you really only have things sliding in one direction... I.E. front to back..... I wonder if you could "shingle" the bed with strips of sheet metal starting at the back and working forward.
A roll of aluminum flashing from the local home improvement store comes to mind.
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Gas Generator Weather Protecti
08-15-2006, 19:25 
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