Cub camper chassis coating?

[JeffreyGeofferson]

Hey all,

Looking at the Cub Escape and I was surprised to see the chassis is not hot dip galvanized, which seems to be pretty standard in off road campers these days. They have it as a $1000 option. I imagine this would add some weight to the camper if ticked.

Not sure what coating they use over their galvanized steel, but would there be any issues with not going hot dipped? Would I expect stone chips to pepper the draw bar and underbody, and rust?

Thanks for the info!

Cheers

[Spada]

We has a cub supermatic regal for about 6 years which wasn't hot dipped. It was just a painted chassis. The gravel roads sure did pepper it and it suffered a little bit of surface rust. I gave the surface rust a scrub with a wire brush then squirted underneath with septone stone chip paint (https://www.supercheapauto.com.au/p/septone-septone-stone-shield-paint---black-1-litre/33204.html) It goes on easy with a splatter gun (https://www.supercheapauto.com.au/p/car-builders-spray-gun/SPO7481126.html#q=spray%2Bgun&lang=en_AU&start=28) and a couple of cans will see all the exposed edges protected. Water clean up, so easy to work with. Every year or two I'd squirt another can onto any stone chipped areas, but generally it stood up to the elements pretty well. $1000 buys an awful lot of septone  , and if put on when the trailer is new, then the metal bits would be well enough protected. At a guess, I'd be surprised if the hot dipping added more than 20kg to the chassis?

[outbackogre]

I had a Cub Escape years ago and ordered the gal option.  I was surprised to find they'd painted over the gal, and it looked pretty ordinary after a trip to the Kimberley and back.  The stone chips didn't rust but you could certainly see them and I ended up painting the draw bar with gal hammertone type paint before selling.  If you go for the gal option, ask if they have to paint over it. 

[JeffreyGeofferson]

Thanks for the info Spada. Doesn’t sound like the hot dipping is too crucial. As a previous Cub owner, would you recommend the Escape?? Did you find it reliable for off-road work?

[Bird]

You should look at the used market - there are some unbelievable bargains out there at moment - probably going to be many over next few months too..

[Spada]

Thanks for the info Spada. Doesn’t sound like the hot dipping is too crucial. As a previous Cub owner, would you recommend the Escape?? Did you find it reliable for off-road work?

When we bought ours (2007) we weren't into off road travel (or even touring), so we just bought the bare bones on-road version as we were were towing with a sedan and only really wanted a tent on wheels with a fridge & basic kitchen. It only had a light weight chassis & suspension and was un-braked. Didn't take long for us to get the bug and buy a 4wd, and then we started taking the trailer to a lot of places it simply want designed for, and it stood up reasonably well. I did have a couple of spring failures on our 1st big trip because I was taking it beyond the limits of it's design (it only had a thin 50 x 50 chassis, small round axle, & maybe 3-leaf springs). After that 1st big trip (8000km through the red centre) I upgraded the axle & springs and fitted electric brakes. All was good for another couple of years until one trip in central Qld where I noticed a small crack where the ladder frame was welded under the drawbar, which suggested the draw bar was flexing. This didn't surprise me given where we had taken the trailer. I ended up cutting off the ladder frame, welding 50 x 50 x 5 angle to the full length of the A-frame, and reattaching the ladder frame. Never had an issue after that.

These days, even their road versions are far stronger than what we had, and their of-road versions have an even stronger chassis again. I doubt you'd have any of the problems like I did, and I need to stress that my problems were all self created out of my own ignorance, and abusing the trailer on roads/tracks it was never designed for.

With the hot dip gal option, the big advantage is that it also protects the internal surface of all the metal bits, where as a painted coating wont. This might be worth considering if you plan on any regular beach trips (although you dont see too many hot dipped car's on the beach )

[JeffreyGeofferson]

Thanks for the feedback Spada. Sounds like it did fairly well for what you put it through!! The Escape these days just comes in the one spec, which is off road orientated. The drawbar on the Escape is now 100 x 50 x 4 compared with 75 x 50 x 3 on the on road models. I think I might take your advice and keep my dollars, a bit of surface rust isn’t a massive deal and when it gets too bad I’ll treat it as per your advice.

[GBC]

Thanks for the feedback Spada. Sounds like it did fairly well for what you put it through!! The Escape these days just comes in the one spec, which is off road orientated. The drawbar on the Escape is now 100 x 50 x 4 compared with 75 x 50 x 3 on the on road models. I think I might take your advice and keep my dollars, a bit of surface rust isn’t a massive deal and when it gets too bad I’ll treat it as per your advice.

It depends on how you use them. I've had 2 galv and one painted (trakshak). The trakshak chassis needed exponentially more work done to it to keep it looking at all good. My current trailer chassis is hot dipped and I look at the painted swingarms etc which are copping a hiding and cringe to think what it would look like if it was all undipped. No chance I wouldn't buy a hot dipped chassis again.