Diamond tread steel or wood deck.

[IchabodCrayne]

Nothing lasts forever but for my money I choose wood everytime. Rough (unplaned) is best.
No plywood. It does not have the strength of solid boards required for hard use.
Temporary blocking, wheel chocks etc. need only a couple screws, a minute of your time and are easily removed. Anything tied down to a wood deck moves less, especially steel tracks.
Look at equipment trailers the big rigs use, you will see wood decking is the norm. Even on decks with a lot of steel there are still wood planks where tires/tracks run.

 

[Reb954]

Wood here also. A little snow or frost is bad enough on a wood deck, let alone a steel deck. That is also one of the reasons I didn't go with a tilt deck.

 

[4570Man]

I’m getting tired of handling ramps a dozen times a week with more use planned next year. This is going to be a tilt trailer and probably wood deck. My mind was pretty much made up when I started this thread and I haven’t heard any good reason to change yet.

 

[Ritothebull]

Most of the trailers I see that have rotten wood are because the manufactures used cheap junk lumber, when you do it yourself and use some good quality treated lumber it will last for years.

 

[atsah]

PT decking is hard to beat IF you take care of it..

 

[4570Man]

The first swap is essentially free since the steel cost was higher to start with. Assuming I got 10 years per swap it probably wouldn’t be my problem any more after the first swap. I foresee a lot use for this trailer and I’ll probably buy a new one before 20 years.

 

[two_bit_score]

The first swap is essentially free since the steel cost was higher to start with. Assuming I got 10 years per swap it probably wouldn’t be my problem any more after the first swap. I foresee a lot use for this trailer and I’ll probably buy a new one before 20 years.

218 Diamond C Hydraulic Tilt 2X82 Equipment Trailer | D&D Farm and Ranch Trailers - Seguin, Texas

 

[Fallon]

I had an older steel gravity tilt trailer & it was good, other than being to short. My new deckover power tilt is a wood deck, mostly because it was in stock & cheaper. The deckover is a fair bit harder to load, but that's pretty much all because the deck is over 3x up rather than a foot & a half. The resulting angles are over double. Both sucked if it was icy & the angle is more relevant than the material for traction.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

I wood get the lighter trailer of the two. If you let the water run off the wood deck, it will last 10-15 years easy left outside.

Every trailer I have used has been wood decks and I have yet to have one with bad boards, 90% sit outside.

A trailer can only carry X amount, lighter the trailer, more cargo it can legally carry.

 

[joeu235]

My dad has a 32' deck over built in 1996 with the original wood deck that still functions fine. My 5 year old deck over I've already had to replace the wood because i guess they didn't use PT.