Sloan Transportation Products announced June 10 that Eager Beaver Trailers has specified the company’s MaxxDuty hose assemblies as standard for its line of trailer products. MaxxDuty hose assemblies feature a new plating material designed to withstand corrosion caused by new de-icing agents that are increasingly being used by many municipalities and private snow removal companies to treat highways.
Tony Spence, warranty administrator for Eager Beaver Trailers, says the company challenged its vendors to find solutions to prevent the premature corrosion failures they were experiencing due to calcium and magnesium chloride increasingly being used on roadways instead of salt. Spence said the new de-icing agents led to an alarming increase in the corrosion of heavy-duty vehicle components on their trailers.
“I am so appreciative that Sloan responded to our challenge and came up with this new coating for their hose assemblies,” Spence says. “It says a lot about their company and its commitment to quality. They basically went back to the drawing board to engineer this solution, and now we have a great preventative maintenance item on our trailers.”
Chris Terryn, product manager for Holland, Mich.-based Sloan Transportation Products, says that previously manufactured parts could better resist salt’s corrosive nature. “Standard platings no longer offer the same level of protection from these new de-icing agents,” Terryn says. “Of particular susceptibility to corrosion are the steel crimped fittings attached to the brass part of the hose assembly.”
Sloan tested several different options to plate the steel crimped fittings before settling on the MaxxDuty plating. The material was originally designed for the military in naval applications to protect parts exposed to severe salt spray that often required frequent replacement due to corrosion. Assording to Sloan, testing conducted by an independent lab in a CASS (Copper Accelerated Salt Spray) cabinet demonstrated that its MaxxDuty hose assemblies, when compared to a control sample, are better able to resist corrosion than is common with conventional plating processes.
