Trailer flooring suggestions?

[1danny]

I have a 16' trailer i use to haul my 1610D and other things around. It came with the tractor when i bought it several years ago. It had 2x10 painted pine (not pressure treated) flooring planks that have rotted out since it is out in the weather.

I was planning on replacing with 2x10 pressure treated, then seal with Thompsons water seal or an equivalent product to extend the life. I was wondering if there are some other options that might be more durable but not too much more expensive.

I searched around on internet for some other options and found "Rumber board" but the support irons are up to 2'6" apart. Rumberboard specs i read call for 12" spacing. I couldn't find heavy extruded aluminum planks but it is probably out of the question expense wise. I was wondering about some surplus metal planks like the military uses around aircraft and i suppose for firming up soft ground for driving over.

Ive also thought about Cypress but have not priced it. Isn't Cypress more weather resistant? I do have a friend who is the plant engineer of a local sawmill but haven't discussed options with him yet.

Any suggestions?

For what it's worth, we use PT 2 x 8's. 2 x 10's are prone to split more. We build trailers every day and I've seen trailers that we sold 15 years ago with the same floor in it. The new PT lumber should be used with the galvanized floor screws for the ACQ treated lumber.

Danny

 

[E_Sanborn]

Cypress is somewhat rot resistant, certainly more so than untreated pine. Strength and durability is comparable to Pine, likely slightly less so than SYP.

Older "treated" pine, using CCA was relatively compatible with steel, but the CCA treatments were largely phased out due to PR issues. I would hesitate to use current production "treated" pine on a trailer - it is less compatible with steel and incompatible with aluminum, due to the nature of the wood treatment using copper, which causes accelerated galvanic corrosion when adjacent to the listed metals. If you are in a coastal environment or a high humidity / high rainfall area I'd say it would create structural problems in short order. If you live in a dry state AZ, CA, NM, etc should be fine.

Woods (domestic) having inherent rot resistance include Redwood, Western Red Cedar, White Cedar, White oak and Cypress. (there are other superior exterior woods available, bois d'arc, etc.. but they are not produced in quantity or are only regional) White oak or Cypress would be the only of these that is durable enough for trailer decking in my view.

I would avoid any synthetic decking like the plague. These have little structural value, and require structural support at unrealistic spacings.

Imported rot-resistant deckings, including apitong, ipe, etc are great - if you can afford them. These woods have tremendous strength, are very rot resistant, and look good to boot, even over time. However, they are pricey, and will run $3-6/ board foot. For typical equipment trailers 1-1.25" thick stock will outperform 2x pine by several orders of magnitude in terms of longevity, durability and load bearing. So the initial cost is high, but the cost over time is low. No treatments are needed or advised for most of the tropicals, and they do not typically fail from weathering or rot within 30 years

 

[kenmac]

I have a diamond plate steel floor.. I had to install a winch on the trailer. Because when it's wet. It's slippery

 

[1danny]

I have a diamond plate steel floor.. I had to install a winch on the trailer. Because when it's wet. It's slippery

Somthing like this?

 

[kenmac]

Somthing like this?

Yep, like that. That's a good looking trailer !!. I didn't mount a batt to the trailer. My winch runs off truck batt.

 

[George2615]

I'd talk to your friend at the sawmill and replace your deck with rough cut 2x8 or 2x10. The rough cut is thicker and wider than the finished 2x10's you are replacing. and will work fine. They will also be cheaper than buying finished 2x10's.

 

[evofxdwg]

Thanks for all the good input guys! I did read elsewhere about the new pressure treating chemicals were very corrosive. I will talk to my friend at the sawmill about some rough oak and consider the used oil trick as i change my own in all my vehicles. Trailer was designed for 1-1/2" max thickness as the front and back rails form a slot using 2 welded angle irons that the ends of the boards fit in. If i go thicker I would have to dado or rout a step in the ends to fit in these slots.

If i go with pressure treated, I was also thinking about sandblasting or power-wire brushing the rails and prime and paint with appropriate rustoleum wherever the wood will touch. This trailer had 16 ft boards captured at either end with the welded-in angle irons. But that is the only hold-down. Ive got to cut welds at one end to slide new 16' boards in or use 2 shorter lengths and bolt in a plate to cover the seam over a rail near the center.

I had added my own reinforcing crossrails under the floor to bolt tractor tiedowns thru but i used all galvanized hardware and the rails are from a surplus piece of galvanized lentil angle iron.

TIME FOR A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE:
I do have some long ago experience with oiled floors. When i was a teen (circa late 1960's), my cousin and mom co-owned a grocery store in rural TN and i worked there. Once a month on a Saturday nite, after we cut meat, made hamburger and sausage, and sold groceries to the saturday crowd for about 14 hours, I had to help mop the heart pine floor with commercial floor oil. Kept it looking good and prevented rot and drying out and splintering. I hated that Saturday nite! The crap gets all over you and you are slipping all over to push the mop around. We didnt get out till 9PM and everybody else was already gone to town or out on their dates.

 

[frankmako]

There was a post here a while back about sealing of trailer planks. One guy stated that he uses used motor oil to saturate his and it has never rotted. Environmentally you would need to make sure it didnt drip on the ground when doing this. He claimed that after it soaked in for a few days, he had no transfer problems like walking on it and then back into your house and that is was no more slick when wet than standard sealants and rain water runoff had not oilly sheen run-off. I guess that would depend on the application rate and the amount of absorption of the wood.
Just passing this along, and this is not an indorsement to do this, but if money is an issue, this is certainly the no cost way of rot prevention and I guess if you used waste oil from a diesel engine, it would look like the boards were painted black.
Again, I have no personal experience with this method but a search of this forum might turn up the contributor.

growing up on a farm using old motor oil was how we did it on all of the trailers and the beds of the pickup trucks. remember how the pickup trucks had wood in the beds. work just like the new water seal stuff that costs big $$.

 

[buppy69]

I have an 18 year old trailer with pressure treated floor. It has never been sealed and is still not rotten. I've hauled dirt, mulch ,tractors and every thing else I need to haul.

Eugene

 

[tallyho8]

My new trailer had an oak floor that rotted out in 2 years. I replaced it with treated pine 12 years ago and it is still holding up fine.

A little trick to connecting metal to treated wood, whether it is a trailer floor or putting sheet metal on a building: Cover the metal struts on the trailer with strips of tarpaper then place the wood on it. On buildings with treated wood, cover the wood with strips of tarpaper as wide as the wood, hold them in place with staples then add the sheet metal.