It all depends on the fittings and quality of them and the environment… I learned many lessons on my sailboat boat for 10 years poking around the south coast and Caribbean… I bought 250 ft of 3/8 inch , Hot dipped, Triple B , chain, 42 years ago for anchor chain…for my sail boat …( it wain’t cheap back then at all) .I still have half of it outside in my truck and yard and shed….I sailed with it for ten years …I think I read from Unistrut catalog that zinc electroplated "pre galvanized" could hold up outdoors 5 years, vs. hot-dipped galvanized 20 years.
Some of my hardware is just welded 1/4" plain steel. It has a nice brown patina.
My ground mount array is mostly 2" galvanized conduit, galvanized or aluminum brackets, aluminum rails, stainless hardware.
Stainless hardware on clear anodized aluminum I was able to unbolt 18 years later. I think the mill finish too.
Mild San Jose environment, away from the coast, 10 miles from the Bay, not in the fog.
and have drug everything I have owned since then around at some point, over every surface imaginable with it and it is still perfect… no rust, no enlongation or deformation. , no nothing… it will be here long after I’m gone for sure…
I hope the next owner pays it the respect it’s due..It’s old school stuff.
BUT, in the eighty’s most all of this was made here in the US… . Nowdays I would say who knows what stuff will do… let the buyer beware…
buy as good as you can…..it’s a new world with different ways, new expectations .
J.