A front-end loader that works a deicing salt pile, a fertilizer dock or a coal yard looks ten years old after one season. The paint chalks and lifts, the bolt heads and hydraulic boxes bloom with rust, and the trade-in value goes with them. Fleet managers on the Ohio River and in the coal fields have been replacing loaders every two or three years for this reason, and equipment dealers with new units sitting on a lot for six months see the same thing before the machine has turned a wheel.
Three Cortec case histories from the salt, fertilizer and coal trades give two ways to stop it: a once-a-year overspray of VpCI-391, a water-based removable coating, on the whole machine in the slow season, or a single clear coat of EcoShield VpCI-386 over the factory paint on a new loader that stays on for the life of the machine.
A decade of annual overspray on Ohio River salt and fertilizer loaders
Cortec Case History #735 (2011 to 2021) covers a river-port operator moving high volumes of deicing salt and fertilizer along the Ohio River. Both materials eat paint and then the steel under it. The loaders looked ten years old after one year of use and were being replaced every two to three years, which is what sent the operator looking for a preventative maintenance plan rather than a faster replacement cycle.
The plan they settled on has run once a year, every year, for a decade or more. In the slow season each loader, new or existing, is power washed with an alkaline cleaner to neutralize the surface and remove all salt and contamination, allowed to dry, and then oversprayed with VpCI-391 across the entire machine: top, front, back, underside and everything accessible except the windows. The result the case reports is longer equipment life and, because VpCI-391 is a low-VOC water-based coating, no special permitting to apply it.
New construction equipment on a dealer lot
Cortec Case History #776 (2022) is the same coating on the other end of the equipment’s life. A construction equipment manufacturer in the Southeast builds loaders and skid steers that sit outside before and after shipment to dealer lots around the world, for six months to a year. The oil-based rust preventative it had used never fully dried: it collected dirt and bugs, looked filthy, and could wash off in a hard storm. The manufacturer wanted something removable, better looking, low in VOCs and applied once.
Starting around 2017 the plant tested VpCI-391 overspray on the fiberglass composite cabs and the painted surfaces to confirm it did no harm, then began applying it to the unpainted metal parts, bolt heads, hydraulic boxes, wheel rims, metal tubing and other sensitive areas. Appearance complaints stopped. Most dealers leave the coating on permanently rather than removing it at delivery.
One clear coat over the factory paint in a coal yard
Cortec Case History #817 (2019) is a Kentucky utility whose giant front-end loaders in a power plant coal yard aged so fast that a high-dollar machine looked ten years old after one year. The utility asked its equipment dealer what could be done, and the answer was different from the two cases above: instead of a removable coating reapplied every year, a clear coat of EcoShield VpCI-386 was applied directly over the painted surface of a new loader. EcoShield 386 is a water-based acrylic direct-to-metal topcoat with strong UV resistance; over sound paint it leaves a thin permanent acrylic film that does not need reapplication. A few years later the loader still looked relatively new, without the rust, cracking and peeling paint the yard had seen before, and the utility wanted to repeat it.
| Case | Environment | Coating | Schedule | Removable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #735 (2011 to 2021) | Salt and fertilizer river ports | VpCI-391 on the whole loader | Once a year, slow season | Yes, hot water or alkaline cleaner |
| #776 (2022) | Dealer lots, 6 to 12 months | VpCI-391 on unpainted parts | Once, at the factory | Yes, most dealers leave it on |
| #817 (2019) | Power plant coal yard | EcoShield 386 clear over paint | Once, on the new machine | No, permanent topcoat |
How to do this in your plant
- Pick the coating by the machine’s age. A new or freshly repainted loader gets EcoShield 386 clear over the paint once. A working machine in a salt or fertilizer yard gets VpCI-391 every year. Bare, unpainted parts on either get VpCI-391.
- Wash first, and wash to neutralize. Salt and fertilizer residue under a coating will keep corroding. Pressure wash with an alkaline VpCI cleaner such as VpCI-414, rinse and let the machine dry fully. If you have a wash bay with a Build-All or Magido washer for the removed guards and small parts, run them through it.
- Mask the glass and the mirrors. Everything else on the loader in #735 was coated, including the underside.
- Spray VpCI-391 at 2 to 3 mils dry. It may be thinned with water up to 10 percent, dries to touch in 30 to 60 minutes and to handle in one to two hours, and the film is hazy and non-tacky so it does not collect dirt the way an oil does. A 5-gallon pail covers about 3,300 square feet at 1 mil dry.
- For the clear permanent coat, spray EcoShield 386 over clean, sound paint; dry to touch in about 30 minutes and recoat within 1 to 72 hours. A 5-gallon pail covers about 165 to 330 square feet, so plan on several pails for a large loader. On aluminum or galvanized parts apply VpCI-373 wash primer first.
- Put the date on the maintenance calendar. The value of #735 is the annual repeat; schedule the wash and overspray for the slow season and treat it like an oil change. Our Cortec coatings application guides cover surface prep, film thickness and removal for both products.
- When VpCI-391 has to come off, spray VpCI-414 at 10 to 20 percent, wait 15 minutes and pressure wash with hot water.
Which Cortec products
- VpCI-391, 5-gallon pail: water-based removable coating, non-tacky, rated for unsheltered outdoor storage; the annual overspray in #735 and the dealer-lot coating in #776.
- VpCI-391, 55-gallon drum: for a fleet or a factory pack-out line.
- EcoShield 386 clear: permanent water-based acrylic topcoat over paint or bare steel, 0.6 lb/gal VOC; the coal-yard clear coat in #817.
- VpCI-414: the alkaline cleaner for the pre-coat wash and for stripping VpCI-391 when the time comes.
We stock VpCI-391, EcoShield 386 and VpCI-414 in Elmhurst, Illinois. If you run loaders, skid steers or yard trucks in salt, fertilizer or coal, contact us for a sample and we will help you coat one machine this off-season so you can compare it with the rest of the fleet next fall.
Sources: Cortec Case History #735 (2011 to 2021), Cortec Case History #776 (2022), Cortec Case History #817 (2019); Cortec product data sheets for VpCI-391, EcoShield VpCI-386 and VpCI-414.