I am in the process of shopping for a trailer. I do not have a large budget and most of the trailers in my price range are old (like mid-late 90s). Pretty much everything has rust. Some just a little, some need to be used as scrap metal. Obviously if it looks like a rust bucket Im steering clear, but where is the line? And what would be considered structural rust? What rust can be sanded and treated?
T
Suggest this book: The Complete Guide to Buying, Maintaining and Servicing a Horse Trailer by Neva Scheve --answers a lot of your questions --can find it used on-line.
As to rust --it isnât going to get better. Structural rust is anything that is rusting on the supporting (weight/stress) bearing parts of the trailer --the axels, wheels (metal parts that hold brakes, bearings, tires), walls (especially where wall meets floor, floor supports, hitch supports --doors --especially at the bottom.
Honestly, I would save my $$ and wait for a better trailer than buy one with rust issues. I have SEEN 4-H kids with horses in old livestock stock trailers that have daylight showing between walls and floor --when you think about the damage that could do to horseâs legs --and remember --the horse doesnât every ASK to go in the trailer --they go in because we ask them to do so --we should not put them in something unsafe.
I would avoid a trailer with visible rust. You will hear the term âjust surface rustâ used frequently. But rust is rust, regardless of whether it is on the trailer skin or inside structural tubing. To me it means that someone did not care enough to take care of their trailer.and if they let rust spread, did they maintain the wheel bearings, brake shoes and drums, and suspension parts - likely not. A few rusty stone nicks on fenders may get a pass from me, though.
While on used trailers, another thing to look at.carefully are the tires. Many used trailers have tires with a good amount of remaining tread. But because the trailer is not used all that frequently, the tires may be 10 or more years old and prone to catastrophic failure. Check the dates of manufacture which is required to be on the sidewalls of all DOT-approved tires. If they are over 5 years old, you should plan spending up to another $1,000 right away to replace them. And check out the breakaway electric brake system too - owners too often ignore these,
And I will take a contrary opinion here. As a metallurgical engineer, surface rust has nothing to do with structural integrity. Look at most ships in the ocean, the axles and frame of your truck, even the inside of steel barns. Aluminum rusts. Titanium rusts, all metal rust. Some faster than others.
I would take a screw driver and punch at the rusty areas to feel the metal. You can tell if it is surface or deeper. Surface rust can be sanded and treated and painted over if you like the trailer. Deeper rust, where you can feel the metal give is indicative of true issues. You can also test using penetrant dyes and eddy current methods.
Surface rust would not bother me knowing I can fix that. It is only a cosmetic defect.
Dear Scientist,
My point was that a person who will ignore âjust surface rustâ is likely to ignore rust in important structural components. I had no intention to pass myself as someone as educated as you.
LCDR
A relevant course on trailer safety that just came across my facebook feed from a group I follow (Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue group)
Iâve listened to some other webinars by the instructor. Some are very basic, but they always have useful info. I might take the course, I know a lot about trailering. But so much of what âI knowâ is received info. Is it still relevant, is it correct, is it grounded in fact?
https://thehorseportal.ca/course/horse-trailer-safety-pt-1/?fbclid=IwAR350JyjqhYDMpbCJuBGcSv8gLa4OlkF6xnJd_EGEWgGlwgJbmwlJP3cYu0
Agreed, surface rust is not of concern.
Anywhere that gets snow and ice, and thus the roads salted all winter, this would be a full-time job to ensure a vehicle didnât get a single speck of rust anywhere. IMO, this is an unfair assumption.
It might be worth it to reach out to trailer repair shops in your area and see if the know of any trailers for sale.
If you find one that youâre ready to purchase, see if you canât send pics to a repair shop and get an estimate. Theyâll be able to tell you if the damage is too great to bother with.
if the road crews use Magnesium Chloride for ice melt I would skip on the trailer as Magnesium chloride can aggressively attack many types of steel, including galvanized steel . Wet magnesium chloride is more aggressive than dry.
Ugh, just recently went through purchasing a trailer that had âsome rustâ and turned into a miniature nightmare. Our budget only allows us to purchase used, decently-rusty trailers so we are always willing to put some work in to get them tidied up⊠As long as the damage is relatively cosmetic and doesnât impact major structural elements.
Unfortunately this time around, the depth of the damage was invisible until the wooden floors were pulled up after we got it home. We had to have the local trailer guy build us a new chassis on both sides as the original was crumbling away. 
My husband had a gut feeling that it wasnât a good buy, but I cajoled him into getting it anyway as we had invested quite a bit of time and money going to view it.
So follow your gut; if you see one that youâre not super convinced on, itâs usually safer to walk away. Unless you have a great repair person who you are confident in and have the money to pay for support!
At least we now know that our new chassis will last at LEAST 20+ years, long after the rest of it has disintegrated 
The rest of the rust is treatable, although annoying.
Always climb under the trailer and check underneath. Yes thereâs a big difference between surface rust and penetrating rust. The problem with old trailers is you end up investing so much to repair them itâs better to just buy something better.
I sold my old trailer for $1000 and it needed a new floor, new paint, and new back doors. It wasnât worth spending $2-3k to repair it. I bought a newer trailer for $4k. The back doors on the old one were wood with a metal coating. They had rusted and rotted out on the bottom. New owners are still using it as it was. No repairs. Itâs dangerous and that was why I sold it.
But if the frame is intact and itâs just surface rust you can get it sand blasted and repainted. Usually they need maintenance on the brakes, new tires, new lights, etc. It quickly adds up to what something newer will cost.
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