The first trailer that was introduced in late 1950s was a horse trailer. Steel was the only metal at that time that was provided for building the trailer and buyers did not have much choice in that matter.
Steel had a problem of being rusted at that time. Even now, day’s steel rusted only after the duration of a year. Because of that people has stopped to buy a steel trailer over the years.
In 1970s, all-aluminum horse trailer were introduced and as a manufacturing material, it has a great advantage over steel. It is lighter in weight so is easy to pull and it does not have any rusting issue. It gives a better gas mileage to the trailer so that it is more famous than steel trailers. However, they are more expansive and it has been claimed that they are not stronger in comparison with steel trailers. So it is hard for a buyer to choose between a steel trailer and aluminum trailer.
It is still hard for steel companies to keep it from rusting the only thing that they have come up with is galvanizing and galvannealing process. In this process a protective layer of zinc is applied that can hold back the corrosion. However, this is a short-term process and only last until the layer is unbroken. Painting the steel trailer can also prevent it from rusting but as this trailer, remain in tough weather for most of the time for their work so paint cannot stay for very long time. Galvanizing and galvannealing process is also very expensive so not all the businessperson can afford it.
Both the steel and aluminum trailer required high maintenance but the biggest issue with aluminum trailer is that its parts such as hinges and cam latches need to be greased. You will make sure to clean both trailers but it is important for aluminum trailer to clean it with acid after some years so that its exterior can be renewed.
For steel trailers it is important to be examined and to retouch the paint if necessary. Make sure all the parts are layer including the screws and the welded area of the trailer. Steel repairs are often more expensive than the aluminum trailers because it want oiling and painting constantly to prevent the rust. Steel trailer repairs are usually more expensive than similar repairs to an aluminum trailer because trailer dealers have to repaint it to prevent rust.
If we talk about which is better on the road the owner who owns both type of trailer claims that it is easy to pull the aluminum trailer and a loaded one is easy to ride then moving a empty steel trailer. The low weight of aluminum trailer allows you to load more items than steel trailer.
The resale of steel trailers is not good because. It starts looking old because of the rusts problem, which make hard to sell it. On the other hand, sell of aluminum trailers is easy because with good caring it can be kept like new for a very long time.