Aluminum destruction ....in a matter of minutes from gallium

[John E Davies]

The Oliver frame is wonderfully engineered, beautiful to behold, and very durable. Just don't bring any gallium (or mercury) along on your next camping trip.

 

This is undoubtedly a pointless post, but the video is really cool and more than a little scary. Especially since you can have a small vial of gallium shipped free to your home for $10 from Amazon.....

 

 

This stuff, as well as mercury, is absolutely forbidden on airplanes, because a tiny spill could cause hundreds of thousands of $ worth of damage to the structure.

 

Yikes.

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

[Chixter]

Speaking of aluminum, does anyone have knowledge of the specific alloy used in the frame of the LE2? 7000 series (ie 7068), 6000 series (ie 6061).  If not does anyone know who I can contact at Oliver to obtain this information?

[topgun2]

Try asking Tommy Staggs at tstaggs@olivertraveltrailers.com

 

Bill

[Chixter]

OTT got back to me rather quickly with an answer to this question.  The chassis is mostly 6,000 series aluminum, specifically 6061 T6 alloy.  This is a very strong alloy with very good welding characteristics.  I am quite familiar with this material.  Back in the day when I was machining parts for Boeing aircraft, this was the alloy that was specified.  It is a very strong and high quality alloy that was adopted for structure material for commercial and military aircraft.  Some chassis components utilize a higher nickle content 5052 aluminum.  These are sections that require bending or shaping before fabrication.  I am satisfied that the 'aluminum' chassis is constructed of top quality materials, engineered for this type of application.