18 ft car hauler trailer rebuild

[Buty]

The spacing is 24 inch on centers. It's not super heavy duty but it's not a landscape trailer either.

 

[LD1]

The spacing is 24 inch on centers. It's not super heavy duty but it's not a landscape trailer either.

I dont want to rag on your trailer, but that Is what "I" consider a landscape type trailer.

Dont take that the wrong way. You can get a 7k landscape trailer, or a 7k equipment/car trailer.

The landscapes are built lighter. They rely on the sides being a "truss" for strenght instead of a heavy 5 or 6" channel-iron side.

Given that the trailer was built to be light, I'd want to keep it that way. Pine will save you a few pounds and will still last many years.

 

[s219]

Looks like a landscape trailer to me too, but nothing wrong with that (I own one). As LD1 stated, the side rails are important for stiffness, unlike a car hauler or equipment trailer that has all the beef in the lower frame.

I'd still go with oak if you can get it. Dry pressure treated pine is 50-60% heavier than regular pine, so I wouldn't be bothered with the weight of oak (which is 50-80% heavier than pine depending on the species of each).

 

[Buty]

No offense taken at all. Thanks for letting me know that it is a landscape trailer. In the back of my mind I thought it was but wasn't sure. So quick question, would you put a tractor on it? I have an L3200. It would probably be a rare occasion that I would put the tractor on it. Mostly for carrying long pieces of material.

 

[Diamondpilot]

No offense taken at all. Thanks for letting me know that it is a landscape trailer. In the back of my mind I thought it was but wasn't sure. So quick question, would you put a tractor on it? I have an L3200. It would probably be a rare occasion that I would put the tractor on it. Mostly for carrying long pieces of material.

Yes, it's a landscape trailer. Does it have 5 lug wheels? If so its got 3500# axles so 7000# GVWR. That trailer with a spare tire weighs about 1500# so that leaves you 5500# payload.

I would just make sure your tractor and accessories like loaded tires, FEL, ect don't exceed 5500#

Chris

 

[LD1]

Looks like a landscape trailer to me too, but nothing wrong with that (I own one). As LD1 stated, the side rails are important for stiffness, unlike a car hauler or equipment trailer that has all the beef in the lower frame.

I'd still go with oak if you can get it. Dry pressure treated pine is 50-60% heavier than regular pine, so I wouldn't be bothered with the weight of oak (which is 50-80% heavier than pine depending on the species of each).

Once PT lumber is dry, it only weighs a very small amount more than non treated pine. And no where near what oak weighs.

PT lumber is heavier when first purchased because it is air dried and all the moisture used to drive in the treatment isnt dried out yet. But once dry, the treatment only adds fractions of a pound per cubic foot of board.

Buty: if the trailer is rated to handle the weight of your 3200 as equipped, I would have no issues using it to tow the tractor. IF it is a 7k trailer, deducting the weight of the trailer, you should be good to tow around 5000-5500#. A bare 3200 is around 2600#. Add a loader, loaded tires, and a heavy implement you can approach or exceed that. Just depends on the trailers rating, and how your tractor is equipped.

 

[s219]

Once PT lumber is dry, it only weighs a very small amount more than non treated pine. And no where near what oak weighs.

Not talking about wet wood, but it will vary based on the treatment type and species type. I have some marine lumber, treated pine, that is exceptionally heavy, to the point where you'd think the wood is wet!

SYP ranges from 25-37 lb/cu.ft when dry. Different forms of treatment can add anywhere from 3 lb/cu.ft to as much as 5. Oak is around 45 lb/cu.ft. If dealing with treated pine that could be in the 28-42 lb/cu.ft range, to me that's not a whole lot lighter than oak at 45 lb/cu.ft.

Right after treatment, pressure treated SYP is around 55 lb/cu.ft, not far off from straight water at 62.4 lb/cu.ft. One reason I hate dealing with large wet PT wood -- something like a 2x12 16 footer is a friggin bear when wet.

Back to the trailer -- I transport my L3200 on my 7x16 landscape trailer (7K gross with 5400# payload available) and it's no problem at all. However the standard mesh rear gate -- even with supports spaced at 12" -- does not look strong enough to me, so I do not use it with the L -- not even willing to give it a try. The gate was fine for my previous B2920 though -- I probably trailered that hundreds of times and the gate did fine. At some point I plan to buy or make proper ramps to support the L3200. Right now I just back the trailer up to a high spot on my land and creep on/off in 4WD. When I picked up the L3200 at my dealer, we backed the trailer down into a low spot that they dug just for loading/unloading.

 

[LD1]

Not talking about wet wood, but it will vary based on the treatment type and species type. I have some marine lumber, treated pine, that is exceptionally heavy, to the point where you'd think the wood is wet!

SYP ranges from 25-37 lb/cu.ft when dry. Different forms of treatment can add anywhere from 3 lb/cu.ft to as much as 5. Oak is around 45 lb/cu.ft. If dealing with treated pine that could be in the 28-42 lb/cu.ft range, to me that's not a whole lot lighter than oak at 45 lb/cu.ft.

Right after treatment, pressure treated SYP is around 55 lb/cu.ft, not far off from straight water at 62.4 lb/cu.ft. One reason I hate dealing with large wet PT wood -- something like a 2x12 16 footer is a friggin bear when wet.

Back to the trailer -- I transport my L3200 on my 7x16 landscape trailer (7K gross with 5400# payload available) and it's no problem at all. However the standard mesh rear gate -- even with supports spaced at 12" -- does not look strong enough to me, so I do not use it with the L -- not even willing to give it a try. The gate was fine for my previous B2920 though -- I probably trailered that hundreds of times and the gate did fine. At some point I plan to buy or make proper ramps to support the L3200. Right now I just back the trailer up to a high spot on my land and creep on/off in 4WD. When I picked up the L3200 at my dealer, we backed the trailer down into a low spot that they dug just for loading/unloading.

White oak air dried to 20% is 47 psf.

Assuming a 7x18 car trailer and 1.5" thick lumber, there is 15.75 cubic foot of boards.

So a dried oak deck would weigh 740#

the common ACQ treatment of lumber is 0.25psf for above ground. So the whole treatment would only add about 4# to all the lumber needed. Just about negligible.

Using your 25-37 psf for pine, it could weight anywhere from 394# to 583#. Add 4# for treatment.

So on the heavy end, it could be 150# lighter. And up to 350# lighter. Might just make a difference between legal or not. And around here, non-comm trailer tags are based on the empty weight of the trailer too. So lighter would help.

Another thing to consider is the finish. Do you want a smooth deck with finished lumber? or rough sawn like the oak will be? For a 7k landscape trailer with supports at 2', strength is not an issue with whatever you choose. Pretty much just leaves the weight and finish to be the deciding factors.

 

[s219]

Not sure where units of psf fit in here -- I haven't ever thought about it that way, only in board feet or cubic feet. A typical ACQ treatment for above ground use is 0.25 pcf (# per cubic foot) retention level. If you force dry the wood after treatment (i.e., KDAT) you can probably get the added weight down close to the retention level, which would be trivial. But for air dried wood, it ends up more like about 0.25# added for every board foot, so about 3# for every cubic foot.

 

[LD1]

I meant PCF. Brain fart.

I have dealt with both white oak boards and treated lumber for trailer decking. While the exact number is debatable, there IS a noticeable difference.