bobbolotune wrote:
Now these responses are convincing me to go with steel.
mlts22 wrote:
I'm looking at the Talons myself. My concern is metal fatigue, since aluminum has only a certain number of bends in it before it shears...
ticki2 wrote:
One thing to keep in mind , aluminum is not corrosion proof , especially where roads are treated with salt or brine n winter .
Choose steel for cost, those two reasons aren't valid.
Every metal can shear after bending a certain number of times. I doubt mlts22 has seen a Talon up close, and as I noted they are thick aluminum. I'm unclear why he thinks they bend enough to work harden and shear, otherwise.
In my area of the country, we use aluminum hulls for boats in saltwater. Those hulls are just a fraction of the thickness and have almost no protection from the elements as they are bare aluminum. Guess what, we use them in saltwater without springing a leak. The Talons are powdercoated. Sure, you could knock off the powdercoating and eventually corrode.Anyone who's seen what salt does to steel where they use salt on the roads has seen the body panels on trucks loose thickness and break. Thinking that the Talons would be damaged similarly is mistaken. In fact, one of the ways people deal with damage from road salt is to use aluminum trailers instead of painted steel.
Finally, I hope you realize that commercial airlines make their hulls out of aluminum. They are both exposed to salt and deicer and they flex.
