Trailer manufacturers have been at war with corrosion since the first rust spot popped up like an ugly pimple on a painted trailer. Corrosion had the upper hand in this battle for many years thanks to gravel roads, U-bolt scars and the use of nonmarine-grade hardware.

Twenty years ago the painted trailer under a well-used boat often looked like it had been shotgunned and soaked in salt water. The best defense for boaters who trailered a lot was to stay away from trailers that were custom painted to match their boats and buy an uglier, but more practical, galvanized model instead.

Trailer makers counter-attacked with more durable paint covered with a chip-resistant, clear-coat finish and better quality galvanized and stainless steel hardware. Companies like Ranger Boats introduced a rugged finish similar to a spray-on truck-bed liner in colors that compliment its boats. Now, thanks in large part to research and development done by EZ Loader Custom Boat Trailers, a company called CounterAct has sparked a new, pre-emptive weapon that hits corrosion at its roots.

KNOW YOUR ENEMY

Corrosion has a powerful ally in Mother Nature. CounterAct defines corrosion as the natural process by which metals and alloys return to their unrefined, naturally occurring ores and minerals.

Metals like iron, nickel, zinc, aluminum and copper occur naturally as oxides, sulfides and carbonates -- meaning they are combined with oxygen, sulfur, or carbon and oxygen. Refining these ores converts them into metals that are less stable under natural conditions. Corrosion follows the law of entropy, the natural tendency of things to proceed from an ordered and less stable state to a more disordered but stable state.

Gary Potter, president of EZ Loader Trailers, explains that iron and oxygen have opposite charge natures and therefore seek to combine to form rust. It seems that steel doesn’t like being a refined metal; it prefers to be rust, and it spends its life trying to corrode its way back to it.

Three things are necessary for metals to follow this path back to their roots:

First, they must be in contact with an electrolyte, a solution that can conduct electrical current and support ionized particles. The electrolyte is usually water in the case of boat trailers, and often there is enough moisture in the air to do the job. The rate of corrosion increases with decreasing pH (increased acidity), so dunking the trailer in waters with high acidity or exposing it to acid rain can speed the process.

Second, the electrolyte must contain dissolved substances like the oxygen and hydrogen gasses found in water to serve as corrosive agents.

Finally, two portions of the metal surfaces on a trailer must electrically connect by an electrolyte “bridge”. One surface becomes the corroding anode that gives up metal ions and the other surface becomes the cathode that collects them. The all-too-familiar symptoms are surface pitting, crevice corrosion, and, in extreme cases, cracking from stress corrosion.

CounterAct describes the recipe for rust as two parts iron combined with three parts oxygen, add water and salt to taste. Increase temperature to speed the process.

WRECKING THE RECIPE

Corrosion is a natural and normal electrochemical reaction that takes place when metal objects like boat trailers are exposed to an oxidizing environment, usually under wet or moist conditions. Traditional marine prevention measures use sacrificial anodes designed to wear away instead of the metal surfaces they protect. These are engineered to work below the waterline while a boat is in the water. However, trailers don’t stay submerged long enough for these traditional measures to be effective, so CounterAct’s system works in the open air, a boat trailer’s natural environment.

A CounterAct capacitive coupler attaches with peel-and-stick, aircraft-grade adhesive right over a trailer’s paint. A power supply/control module then applies a carefully measured negative electrostatic charge to the coupler making it act like the positive half of a capacitor. The protected metal trailer underneath acts like the negative half of a capacitor and the resulting negative surface charge interferes with corrosion’s natural electrochemical reaction.

EZ Loader's Potter explains that the negative surface charge and its corresponding electrostatic field create an electrical double layer that reduces the rate at which the iron and oxygen can combine. This results in a reduction in the rate at which the corrosion process may proceed.

SO, DOES IT WORK?

EZ Loader developed its boat trailer system based on CounterAct technology back in 2000, after a year and a half of testing and modification. The company’s goal was to minimize corrosion on trailers used in salt water, tidal estuaries and bodies of fresh water with a high salt content.

The system was tested on a trailer with an aluminum I-beam frame, galvanized steel cross-members and zinc plated hardware. After one year of use in Florida’s saltwater environment with no special freshwater wash-downs the trailer showed little to no corrosion, and the hardware showed absolutely no corrosion. This trailer was used to introduce the system at 2001 dealer meetings and was taken back to these meetings in 2002 and 2003. It was finally sold, still rust-free. The system is now offered as an option on all the company’s trailers.

It takes under 50 milliamps to power the system, less than it takes to run an average digital clock. There is no electrical shock danger because its output is measured in microamperes and the electrostatic surface charge is less than the normal static charge that accumulates on a vehicle under normal driving conditions.

The system is powered by the tow vehicle’s 12-volt electrical system. When the trailer is disconnected from the vehicle, a solar charging panel provides power during daylight hours. A portable charging unit the size of a cell phone charger can power it from any AC outlet when sunlight is not present.

CounterAct uses solid-state technology with no moving parts, and internal components are encapsulated in epoxy. It could outlast several trailers and can be moved from one trailer to another. The capacitive couplers install permanently, so new couplers are required for moves.

THE RUST-FREE BOTTOM LINE

EZ Loader believes in these systems. If the company can keep a trailer rust-free for years in salt water then it should protect a trailer used in fresh water practically forever. The systems retail for $299 to $350, and can be purchased on any new trailer manufactured at EZ Loader’s custom facility in Midway, Arkansas.

SOURCES:

EZ Loader Custom Boat Trailers

Dept. BWB

P.O. Box 270

6533 Hwy 26 North

Midway, AR 72651

870/481-5138

/ezloadercustoms.com/



CounterAct

Dept. BWB

950 Oakwood Drive

Clarion, PA 16214

877/363-7878

/counteractrust.com/