I have had my van next parked outside, and not under cover, in the most corrosive environment of any
Bushtracker, up between the ocean and the Marina for going on four years now. I am about thee hundred meters or so from the surf on a peninsula of land, with the salt air blowing onshore most of the time… On the other side of the van, it is about 30 metres from the deep water marina of tidal ocean water. This is probably nearly the most corrosive environment of any stored
Bushtracker. Probably worth 2 to 1 on ageing?
This is the van on the cover of our Brochure. Total corrosion after four years? Almost nil… The cabin hooks holding open the cargo doors, are bubbling their chrome off about 10% of the area. The studs on the spare tyres and the studs on the wheels themselves started showing significant rust staining.. At about 2 ½ years I wire brushed them and applied rust killer that turned black. The bumper on the raised outside corners, has light browning of surface rust coming through the two pack paint. It has already been touched up with a spray can about a 1 ½ years ago, and is due again.. One side wall and the roof were damaged by hail, (this has happened to about 8 Bushtrackers over the years), and it was repaired by Insurance… Under the cladding? Perfect… But that is only normal, we have pulled damaged cladding off after 6,7,8 years and the frames are always perfect, that is the beauty of how they are made. Probably more significantly is that on the side facing the sun all the time; that cladding was not replaced, and you cannot tell the difference. The a-frame in the front was sprayed lightly with silver spray pack Duragal paint for the last Show a couple of years ago, suffering a little with stone chips but not much.. The only real rust is showing is on the rock chips on the paint on the wheels… Most of the stone chips on the wheels are brown with rust stain.
All in all, storing outside, there is no significant weathering in going on four years… The Body Armour still shines, the cladding still shines, all the power coating on trim and windows still shines… All the Galvanizing looks good, solar, in fact there is almost nothing suffering… Seems to me there is less than $100 in paint to tidy things up, and this beats having to build a carport or garage to house it like some people contemplate…
Going on four years, the plug is getting a little corroded, but that is to be expected, and a new one is about $15 and 20 minutes…. Will probably do that before selling it as my new updated van is due out in about six weeks… But all in all, nothing much to fuss about as they are built right…. Right from the beginning…
I myself will continue to store my van out in the open and let the Solar system maintain the batteries. Any weathering of the van is far less costly than worrying about garaging or building of a carport… And even if worried about theft, they make a good alarm system, even one that will call you on your mobile phone if you like…
Now many ask me what to do for storage, and for all the dimensions to build storage; so here is my summary analysis based on the last nearly four years in a harsh environment: I am just not sure it pays go to great expense for indoor storage of your
Bushtracker, unless you already have it… For those still in planning... Sure it would be nice, but in my opinion not necessarily worth the expense.
Kind regards to all, from the Source….