Trailer WOF upcoming. What to expect?

Bought this old Sea Nymph, nice tidy boat. Trailer is a far from new though, shall we say. It has surface rust and some pitted areas here and there, though no actual holes. I wire brushed and sanded, then painted on some black KBS rust encapsulator stuff. It's come up good and looks the part, but the old pitted areas are still visible through the paint obviously. Before I take it for a warrant and potentially waste my time, what are the rust tolerances WOF places are looking at for trailers? If I have to get something welded, I will. What else would they pick on that I'd prefer to get fixed beforehand?

Vtnz are cunts so dont go there. We had a customers trailer failed by them last week for rust on the springs, not bad just the normal surface rust they have all had for a hundred years.....

The virm is free to use on the nzta website
Look for in service wof then general trailer and have a read

It will depend on how deep and bad the rust actually is. They are quite nervous about it now.

If you paint over it now some places that's an instant fail.

If the trailer is old and in need of major work maybe think about replacing it with a new one. Pouring money into a knackered trailer is a waste of time.

To be honest mate it all depends…
If it’s structurally sound then it will be fine but without seeing it I can only comment on the obvious.
The axle needs to be up to it as does the drawbar.
You could possibly weld flat bar along any lengths that need ‘tidying’ ?
As I say, rust can hide a real weak point and or it may look worse than it actually is.
I had a tow ball on a Ute ‘fall off’ and it didn’t look bad at all.

Jack the trailer up, turn the wheel, shake it and if it rattle or make a noise
highly likely bearing need replacing.
obviously check the lights and stuff.
light surface rust is ok and will pass wof but not at VTNZ thou.

Having just given my small boat trailer an attitude adjustment, I've come to the conclusion that it won't get a WOF because the hubs have some surface rust.

They're still solid and only carrying a 12 foot tinny.

As the hubs are not made anymore, new hubs and axle $900.

I'm thinking a Warrant ticket once a year or so, might be a better option.

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Originally Posted by MarkN

Having just given my small boat trailer an attitude adjustment, I've come to the conclusion that it won't get a WOF because the hubs have some surface rust.

They're still solid and only carrying a 12 foot tinny.

As the hubs are not made anymore, new hubs and axle $900.

I'm thinking a Warrant ticket once a year or so, might be a better option.

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Had a quick trawl through NZTA website.
They bought in demerits for us motorcyclists not registering all our bikes especially older seldom ridden one.
May pay to check because the fine wasn't to bad but the demerits along with the usual speeding ones made loss of licence a probability.

Another vote to say avoid VTNZ - they are populated by relaives of Wayne Barnes

[fine wasn't to bad but the demerits along with the usual speeding ones made loss of licence a probability.]

Just be aware that at FAL renewal time this may well be a topic of discussion, at least it seems to in Marlborough/Nelson area. Twice now this has come up at referee question time for me. “Do you believe applicant is a law abiding individual?” then referenced demerit points/traffic offences. Fuken little hitler cunts.

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Originally Posted by woods223

[fine wasn't to bad but the demerits along with the usual speeding ones made loss of licence a probability.]

Just be aware that at FAL renewal time this may well be a topic of discussion, at least it seems to in Marlborough/Nelson area. Twice now this has come up at referee question time for me. “Do you believe applicant is a law abiding individual?” then referenced demerit points/traffic offences. Fuken little hitler cunts.

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Really?? Thats hardly relevant. Anyone can get a ticket for a couple of kays over the speed limit. That isn't an indication that the have criminal tendencies or are dishonest and shouldn't have a FA licence.

Thats an extreme view.

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Originally Posted by MarkN

Having just given my small boat trailer an attitude adjustment, I've come to the conclusion that it won't get a WOF because the hubs have some surface rust.

They're still solid and only carrying a 12 foot tinny.

As the hubs are not made anymore, new hubs and axle $900.

I'm thinking a Warrant ticket once a year or so, might be a better option.

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You may be able to take them off Mark and give them a wire brush up and galv paint them. They dont seem to pay too much attention to the hubs as long as the bearings are good. What sort of hubs are they?/ I have a selection here if you need a new one

Or sand blast them

Zinc it spray paint. Cures a world of ills re painted rust repairs... Wire buff the old galv and rust off, chemically treat the steel and remaining corrosion and then hit it with the treatment coat and allow to dry. Then zinc-it with two or three coats, and if VTNZ fail it it will be due to them disliking all galv finishes. Which is not out of the question...

x4 on the Avoid VTNZ advice. Total arses. Not only are they ridiculously pedantic but also charge like a wounded bull. $69 for a trailer warrant and the local ~garage did one for $40 in ten mins while I waited.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by woods223

[fine wasn't to bad but the demerits along with the usual speeding ones made loss of licence a probability.]

Just be aware that at FAL renewal time this may well be a topic of discussion, at least it seems to in Marlborough/Nelson area. Twice now this has come up at referee question time for me. “Do you believe applicant is a law abiding individual?” then referenced demerit points/traffic offences. Fuken little hitler cunts.

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"I am not aware of..." "To the best of my knowledge..."

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Originally Posted by tac a1

Really?? Thats hardly relevant. Anyone can get a ticket for a couple of kays over the speed limit. That isn't an indication that the have criminal tendencies or are dishonest and shouldn't have a FA licence.

Thats an extreme view.

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Yup, but people keep commenting that this is the sort of questions they get. I'm not sure what the end goal is for the line of questioning though, as it really does seem to stick with a lot of applicants that the people interviewing them are quite retentive with some of their questioning. The last lady I had interview me as a referee was brilliant though to be fair - took 1.5 hours at least if not more but she was thorough, fair and even gave me a few bits of advice re what she knew of the re-licencing and what could possibly save me a bit of money going forwards. Cannot complain!

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Originally Posted by No.3

Zinc it spray paint. Cures a world of ills re painted rust repairs... Wire buff the old galv and rust off, chemically treat the steel and remaining corrosion and then hit it with the treatment coat and allow to dry. Then zinc-it with two or three coats, and if VTNZ fail it it will be due to them disliking all galv finishes. Which is not out of the question...

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As I've already naively painted it with "fail me instantly" gloss black, would coating over the black with Zinc It help the cause? Or is it still too obvious that I'm potentially hiding something. Think I'm gonna have to weld over some of the worst pitted spots as a starting point. Anyway, I'll take it for the WOF and see what they say. Not VTNZ though obviously. Never take my car there. Trailer no different.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tac a1

Really?? Thats hardly relevant. Anyone can get a ticket for a couple of kays over the speed limit. That isn't an indication that the have criminal tendencies or are dishonest and shouldn't have a FA licence.

Thats an extreme view.

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I was asked about speeding/parking at my last renewal in 2017, they didn't even talk to my referees

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Originally Posted by No good names left

I was asked about speeding/parking at my last renewal in 2017, they didn't even talk to my referees

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Careful with that one - had a couple of people now that have had their referees re-interviewed and the status of their licence queried due to that issue. Part of the confidence checking that everything was done correctly at that time - could be worth dropping the new firearms licensing MP a note because it adds to the list of issues that have gone on with firearms licensing in the past...

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Originally Posted by Pepo1

As I've already naively painted it with "fail me instantly" gloss black, would coating over the black with Zinc It help the cause? Or is it still too obvious that I'm potentially hiding something. Think I'm gonna have to weld over some of the worst pitted spots as a starting point. Anyway, I'll take it for the WOF and see what they say. Not VTNZ though obviously. Never take my car there. Trailer no different.

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You need to have a look at how deep the pitting is - anything deeper than 10% over an area is cause to suspect what the structure is like overall, I would consider if you can get to the area easily enough putting a small hole through a pit to check for material thickness before chamfering and spot welding it up. Take photo's of what you've done, the painting as you've noted just shows that there's been work done not what was done and the reason for the work. Zinc it tends to look like a coating repair rather than a bodge job - although if they haven't detailed exactly what the cause for the WOF failure is then that's slack as f. They should have marked the areas of concern with a paint marker and had it rectified spot by spot with photo's at their end to verify the repair.

I've had one trailer failed through corrosion, went and had a look with the guy and he had seen some blown galvanising which was poorly adhered to the structure and had lifted off as a sheet. I knocked the entire piece of galv off and said where's the corrosion? The inspector had to pass me as there wasn't any - just some surface rust on the steel box section. He didn't really know what to say from that point on and gave me the warrant - it wasn't a 'failure' item as such but as I said to him it definitely needed to be noted on the WOF sheet for remediation as the trailer would have rusted out in the next two WOFs if not the next one...

Trailer WOF is a complete ripoff. They check the lights, jack up and spin the wheels and poke any rust. Pretty much that is it and then charge a fortune for it.