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RUST IS A BUGGER. In fact, it ranks as the worst possible deteriorating factor in the automotive world. Engines can be replaced or rebuilt, suspensions can be re-bushed and tensioned, even the interior can be re-upholstered but if a vehicles got severe rust, it's cactus. Kaput, dig a big hole and finish the job because your vehicle has already started by returning to its natural state. Then there's the bugbear of rust affecting other components. Rusted bolts and pins on the suspension will snap, making simple repairs grow into expensive propositions. Yep, no way out of it, rust is a bugger! That's the situation and as a four wheel driver, you're no doubt more aware of corrosion than most other vehicle owners. After all, for corrosion to begin, you need what's called an 'oxidising environment', a place where moisture and bare metal can combine to begin the electro-chemical reaction that slowly returns the iron content of steel to its natural state - iron ore, Ferric Oxide Fe203 or, as we know it, rust. And that's about where most of us off-roaders prefer to spend our time - in an oxidising environment, be it the beach, where the salt content of the water puts the electrochemical reaction into overdrive, or the bush, with mud puddles and creeks keeping your extensive under-vehicle dirt collection moist. Even in our dry outback, salt lakes remind us our whole country used to be under salty water. As most of our readers are adventurous types, rust is something we have all got to come to terms with eventually. Conventional rustproofing treatments have been based on the sound philosophy that, if you coat the metal with a thick and flexible coating, it will inhibit rust growth by keeping moisture away from the metal. Simple and guaranteed to work - as long as every possible seam, surface or area is coated thoroughly. One stone chip, one drill hole or screwdriver bite and corrosion gets a start, eating away at the steel conent of your vehicle. With hidden panels and seams, and the thousands of spot welds present in modern vehicles, no coating can protect a vehicle if it's exposed to salt or moisture in the long run. Even galvanising will break down eventually. Which is why we decided to take a good look at CouplerTec's electronic rust prevention system. Most people have heard all sorts of tales about electronic rust prevention and they're not always good! Unfortunately, that's because boat technology - which takes advantage of the electrochemical reaction to direct all corrosion to a cathode - was utilised for land-based vehicles in most of these early systems. Good on paper, there was a major glitch - boats spend their lives in water, the medium required to make the cathodic system work - for the same reason your battery requires water for the power to conduct between cells. So bung that system onto a car and it's not going to work unless you park off the end of the wharf. Then there were the shonky operators, the short timers in for a quick kill who'd take advantage of the fact that if rust was an electrochemical reaction, some form of electricity would reverse that reaction. The theory was fine but in practice most of these systems did nothing except cost.
Article from Australian 4WD Monthly. |
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| Copyright © 1998-. All rights reserved. |
It
used to be economically viable to effect some rust repairs to some vehicles
- cutting out the rot and replacing it with new steel - but these days,
with modern vehicle construction utilising hidden panels and rounded corners,
it's rarely worth doing unless you've got a classic. Today's vehicles
have many hidden areas vulnerable to rust; places you can't see where
the panels are overlapped, spot-welded joins or seamed. And, of course,
modern panels are made from thinner steel.
Enter
CouplerTec. Back in 1988, an American inventor took out a patent on an
electronic rust inhibiting process. It was laboratory-tested, run through
quality control systems and then released onto the market in the USA,
where it was immediately successful. However, it took nearly a decade
for the same system to be structured for release here in Australia, mainly
because the problems left behind after previous efforts meant every step
had to be taken carefully in order to build customer confidence. The CouplerTec
electronic rust prevention system uses a process called 'capacitive coupling'
to apply a measurable current to every metallic component of a vehicle
that's earthed to the battery. A small unit, usually mounted on the firewall,
detects the amount of power required to create an electrostatic field
that will keep the metal structure electron-rich and then provides that
power, reducing the ion mobility that's the basis of the corrosion process.
The unit is fed from the vehicle's battery, drawing about as much current
as an LCD clock. So the system operates by applying one of the principles
of electrochemistry - that an oxida- tion reaction can be slowed or retarded
by creating a surplus of electrons to the metal from a supplementary source.
That means that every possible seam, spot-weld, bolt, screw or panel that's
earthed to the vehicle is protected from corrosion by this surplus of
electrons. Parts that would be impossible to coat - like the inside of
your exhaust pipe, the roof gutters, multi-folded panel seams - all come
under the influence of this electronic field. As such, there's even an
advantage to fitting it to an older, already rusted vehicle because the
CouplerTec unit will slow down corrosion that's already begun. Does it
work? We inspected CouplerTec's own four wheel drive, a two year old LandCruiser
running their 4WD unit (slightly different to the car units) and found
that its paintwork. even where stone-chipped, was remarkably rust-free,
especially for a coastal vehicle. In an obvious comparison, Mark Stevens,
MD of CouplerTec, pointed out two screws close to each other on the front
grille. One was rust-free, the other rusty. The rusty Phillips head was
holding two plastic components together - so it wasn't earthed to the
vehicle and therefore wasn't protected.
Impressive
stuff, but not necessarily proof. However, delving underneath the vehicle
- where it was obvious it hadn't been cleaned or polished, owing to an
accumulation of road grime - and we couldn't find any evidence at all
of the surface rust you'd expect in a beach run vehicle. Things were looking
really good! And they got better when we asked around the district. It
seems the Surfers Paradise Surf Life Saving Club, who operate a Ford Courier
four wheel drive that's constantly either on the beach or right next to
it, are very impressed with CouplerTec. Despite using con- ventional rustproofing
tech- niques, their vehicles were rusting very quickly and requiring constant
turnover with the consequent costs. Since fitting the CouplerTec system,
they report "no apparent corrosion at all, while the paintwork retains
an 'as new' appearance." They went on to say that the existing corrosion
(on the tray swapped from an older vehicle onto the new cab chassis) 'does
not appear to have advanced.' That includes a set of steel Sunraysia wheels
that have spent the best part of the last six years buried in sand! Very
impressive. A few calls later and we found similar testimonials coming
from all over the place, from the mechanical superintendent at Telfer
mines to the food van vender on Fraser Island. Everybody who'd tried CouplerTec
was prepared to vouch for its effectiveness - and under some of the harshest
conditions you can imagine. Obviously, there's only one way to fully evaluate
the CouplerTec system, and that's to fit it to a vehicle and monitor any
future corrosion. We're doing that right now but the fact is that the
longer you look at this technology, the deeper you dig both scientifically
and from folks who are already using it, the better CouplerTec looks.
They don't promise to rid your life of rust forever, but it it can be
retarded to the degree we believe is possible, then there isn't a four
wheel drive in the country that wouldn't benefit from a CouplerTec fitment.
For more details, or to find a CouplerTec licenced agent in your area
- because the system is still relatively new in Australia - you may need
to contact the head office on free call 1800 068 088.