oak v. mesh 5x8 trailer opinons

[JerryK]

The ' L shaped ' metal is angle iron, and is pretty standard in trailers built like this. If you clean up the metal, and give it a good coat of satin black Rustoleom...the treated wood will not cause much of a problem. You will get more rust underneath from salt, sand blasting of the paint off by gravel/etc. that will do more damage in the long run. As stated above, the wood planking makes the trailer more sturdy and tends to spread the weight out more than a mesh covering would do. Put some good heavy treated planks on it or oak...and tilt the nose up or down to let the water run off when it is stored.

 

[Marveltone]

The manufacturers of pressure treated lumber were made to change the way they treat the lumber a few years ago. The new chemicals tend to eat up metal.

Thanks for the info. I didn't know that.

Joe

 

[2manyrocks]

The "angle" is 1.5 x 2.5 x 1/8, but it seems lighter than other angle material I've seen. Here is a picture of the tail light bracket. It almost looks like the factory took some flat stock and then bent it to this shape to make the angle.

 

[crazyal]

I've never been a big fan of expanded metal decks but I inherited a 4x6 trailer from my father that has the metal deck. For a small trailer I kind of like it. It has lots of places to hook bungee cords and ratchet straps. The metal is not going to hold a lot of weight so you're not going to go to the local gravel pit and get several yards of crusher run but you can always throw down a couple of sheets of cheap plywood if you want to get a small load of bark.

 

[2manyrocks]

I am leaning towards the oak floor right now.

This trailer isn't built stong enough to haul gravel regardless of the floor, but since you brought it up, I am in the processing of getting a 3/4 ton trailer for that job and might be posting something about that a while later.

When my wife finds out about the 3/4 ton trailer, I may have to convert it to a camper instead.

 

[Scooby074]

personally id save the oak and just go with the spruce. Cheaper and no use wasting good oak :thumbsup:

Give it a good coat of pentox (or diesel or oil or whatever) and call it a day.

A good method to attach the boards is to use the self taping flooring screws. Available as either self drilling and tapping or just self tapping.

Self tapping only ones are good on a heavy trailer as the self drills have issues with heavy angle iron frames and require a pilot drill anyways.

 

[2manyrocks]

I redecked a 6 x16 tandem with 2" sawmill oak a couple of years ago. It was something to see when the oak first went on the trailer, and I hated to see the oil spills and so forth that got on it before I sold it.

 

[RobertBrown]

The 2 trailers I have are decked with PT and the manufacturer used self tapping metal screws to secure the boards to the angle iron. They are called TEK screws and will be much easier to install that through bolts and no pre drilling through the angle.