Because trailers take a beating in transport, a protective coating is essential to keep them in good condition for the long haul. If you work with trailers daily, you know how quickly they can start to deteriorate.
Regardless of what you’re using the trailer for or the distances you’re going, several factors can damage the equipment over time. These damages can result from road hazards, weather conditions, accidental spills, or cargo wear and tear.
While it may be nice to keep the original steel, aluminum, or wood finish that most trailers have, it’s more cost-efficient to prevent repair or replacement down the line with a protective coating.
Best Coating Options for Trailers
Plenty of trailer coatings on the market can offer support, but the ones that provide unmatched protection are polyurea and polyurea hybrids. Each protective coating has its own benefits and drawbacks. Which one you choose depends on your needs and the type of trailer you’re protecting.
Polyurea
The type of coatings that everyone looks to first are typically polyureas. These are advanced materials with premium properties due to the raw materials used to make them. Due to their extremely fast cure speed, they are sprayed through high-pressure equipment. The benefit of this is you have a quick return to service once your trailer has been sprayed.
VFI’s most recommended polyurea for trailer protection is our general-purpose VFI-201 50 D Polyurea Coating. It has great adhesion with prepared surfaces and can be sprayed vertically and horizontally without sagging. With excellent physical properties, it’s made to last and hold up in the roughest conditions.
Polyurea’s moisture insensitivity is one of the factors boasted about the most. While that is important to consider, it isn’t always necessary. Their features and properties may seem worth the uptick in price, but they’re not the be-all and end-all for protection. They also aren’t the easiest to work with if you don’t have experience with them or high-pressure equipment.
Also, some manufacturers might say their coatings are polyureas, but it’s more likely that they’re polyurea hybrids in disguise. Check out our blog on how to tell the difference between a polyurea and a hybrid coating.
Polyurea Hybrid
Before you’re set on polyurea, determine if your trailer even needs it. If you’re not working in an environment where moisture is an issue, you can usually switch to a polyurea hybrid coating.
A perk of polyurea hybrids is they are a combination of polyurea and polyurethane, so they provide a good balance of performance, properties, and price. They also offer more application options depending on your processing needs. While they are typically sprayed through high-pressure equipment, they can be used in low-pressure and cartridge-based systems as well.
Like polyureas, hybrids have rapid cure times, allowing you to return your trailer equipment to service in as little as 4-24 hours. These spray-on coatings will typically also offer the same Shore hardness (around 40-60 D) for durable yet flexible protection. The only real negative effect of using them is that they are more moisture-sensitive. This means that they may bubble if exposed to too much moisture.
VFI manufactures several polyurea hybrid coatings for trailers:
- VFI-542 High Pressure Spray Bedliner is a standard high-pressure coating with a fine, durable texture for abrasion, impact, and slip resistance. It is almost 60 D Shore hardness with high tensile and tear strength.
- VFI-543 Low Pressure Spray Bedliner is the low-pressure version at a 40 D hardness for more flexibility to withstand cracking, warping, and peeling in extreme temperatures. It will provide a less fine texture on surfaces.
- VFI-544 Qwik Spray Bedliner is the economical Qwik Spray version used with the VFI-7500 Qwik Spray Gun to allow for easy, portable spraying. It will also provide a larger, less consistent texture on trailers.
- VFI-206 60 D Polyurea Hybrid Coating is a polyurea hybrid. It’s similar in hardness to VFI-542 but provides higher tensile strength, elongation, and tear strength for properties like a polyurea. Like other hybrid coatings, it protects against chemicals, impact, abrasion, and more. It sets very fast using high-pressure equipment, allowing you to spray it on vertical, horizontal, and even overhead surfaces.
Benefits of a Protective Coating
Both polyurea and hybrid coatings offer plenty of benefits for trailers, including:
- Extended service life. Probably the most important benefit of these coatings is their ability to extend the working life of your trailers. Because they are formulated to be durable with impact and abrasion resistance, they’re strong enough to ward off daily wear that causes cracks, tears, and peeling. Daily wear includes extreme weather like rain, heat, or snow and road hazards like rocks, dirt, salt, or chemicals.
- Rust and corrosion-resistant. These are the best coatings to protect trailer parts from rust and corrosion because they create a seamless, watertight barrier. The coating prevents water and other contaminants from reaching the original surface and causing deterioration. They also have chemical resistance, which prevents oil, fuel, and other chemicals from causing corrosion, stains, and more. This feature is especially useful if you are hauling livestock or sensitive cargo.
- Anti-slip protection. Applying a textured protective coating on the floor of any trailer can help prevent slipping and skidding. When you constantly haul cargo in and out of the trailer, you want the utmost safety for workers to decrease slip and fall accidents. The textured surface provides more grip, which also helps prevent cargo from moving around too much in transit. Some of VFI’s products provide increased anti-slip protection with a larger, more coarse texture.
- Sound dampening. The original wood and metal surfaces trailers are made of can be loud with cargo clinking around on the drive. A softer, rubbery coating will mute the sounds of shifting cargo and eliminate vibration noises. It will also help protect your cargo from bumps in the road.
- Improved aesthetics. While painting your trailer might improve the aesthetics, it will scratch and fade more easily than a protective coating. Not only is a protective coating functional, but it’s also fashionable. These coatings can transform new and worn trailers with a customized finish and various color options. Because they are scratch and abrasion-resistant, your trailer will also be protected from future scrapes, dings, and dents.
- Higher mils = better impact resistance. These materials are used as sacrificial coating as well, because of the amount that can be applied compared to a standard industrial coating. This allows for more resistance to wear and tear and greater impact resistance, providing more protection for the metal.
What Types of Trailers Can Benefit?
Because these coatings are sprayable, they can be applied to just about any prepared surface, no matter the shape or size. We’ve seen doors, floors, sidewalls, frames, wheel wells, and even entire trailers sprayed. The most common trailers that use protective coatings include:
- Open
- Enclosed
- Tag along
- Gooseneck
- Flatbed
- Boat
- Etc.
Contact VFI if you’d like more insight on the best protective coating for your specific trailer project.
