This is what powder coating does for you, folks. It hides the rust behind a durable, glossy exterior, so it can do maximum damage before you notice it. The holes in the front were all covered with a nice layer of good-looking powder coat until not long before they broke through. By then, of course, the hitch was seriously compromised. I didn't know how bad it was until I saw the gaping holes in the back side while I was under the Jeep for something else. I punched through intact powder coat on the front holes. With my finger.

 

sweet.

 

Powder coat may have hidden it a little longer than paint would have, but its common for boxed structural members on vehicles to rust from the inside out regardless of how they are coated. Water/salt gets inside and starts the rusting process (and often becomes "trapped" accelerating the damage) and often doesn't become visible until it has rusted through (or nearly so). It is just lucky you caught it before it failed catastrophically while towing, and that the hitch is a relatively cheap and easily replaced part on an XJ.

 

I've seen this many, many times with powder coating. It hides the rust, where paint would fail much sooner, and give you time to recover before there is structural damage.

 

Usually caused by shoddy powdercoating and/or incomplete coverage.


If any part of the surface can rust (weak coating or bare metal), it will basically allow the rust to spread under the powdercoating over time.

Solution - make everything out of carbon-fiber???

 

It'd be nice if they made them out of stainless steel or aluminum.

Ford's making truck frames out of aluminum now and they weigh less and are structurally just as strong. The catch is that for a hunk of aluminum to be as strong as a hunk of steel, it needs to be thicker.

 

and $$$$$$$

From a repair standpoint, aluminum body panels and structural components are a pain in the butt. The main reason ford went to aluminum was in an effort to drop weight and increase fuel efficiency across their fleet.

 

This should really never be needed, as the corrosion of aluminum is very low in numerous circumstances. That's why engine blocks are now made of the stuff.

While I know full well the extent of Ford's reason to move to aluminum, the benefits could be reaped across all forms of metal used for undercarriages of cars, which includes hitches.

For what it's worth, when shopping for LED light bar brackets for my JK, I had the choice of steel or aluminum, and I bought the aluminum. They were a little bit more than the steel ones, but not by that much. If a company mass-produced them, or it became the new standard for cars, the price would drop also.

 

If it was never needed then auto body/collision centers wouldnt exist.

I wasnt talking from a corrosion standpoint. Aluminum is expensive, very rigid and takes twice the amount of time to repair vs steel body panels.

 

No offense, but that isn't what I meant.

I see WAY more mangled trailer hitches by way of rust and corrosion than I do by way of auto accidents. In many cases, when a hitch is bent beyond recognition, so is your car's frame, and this leads to it being totaled many times.

To my credit, I'm not saying it isn't possible, but I don't think it's common for a hitch to be destroyed in an accident without some form of frame damage too.

 

I don't like aluminum for structural members. I work in ship repair. Aluminum is a PITA to work with compared to steel. To get good welds on aluminum involves much more expensive welding processes. Cleanliness is much more critical with welding aluminum also. Aluminum costs much more per pound than steel.

 

I think he was referring to repair work on aluminum body panels.

 

I know, the conversation I was trying to convey about corrosion got shifted to repair work lol. It painted a dirty picture over the nice picture I was trying to paint for aluminum for sure.

Anyways, I'd be happy with stainless steel too. Either way works for me. Steel is just cheap and easy, and companies gobble up our money by making it out of junk materials.

 

No, it's caused by the inherent properties of powder-coating, as you point out here:


Solution: Use paint, which will allow the rust to come through, thus alerting the owner to the presence of rust in time to make repairs (clean, repaint) long before any structural damage is done.

Try spot-repairing a powder coated structure some time.