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Thad in AR. 
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 Topic: Trailer floor opinions
Posted: 14 May 2024 at 5:41am |
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I’m going to put a new floor on my trailer.
I’ve priced 2x8, 2x10 and 2x12
Narrower the cheaper.
I plan on soaking it with used oil on a hot day.
Will soak the underneath before installing the boards.
Treated are around $ 70.00 higher than standard. Wondering if the treated is worth it where I plan to oil it?
Previously had 2x12 treated that I never did anything to. They lasted 17 or so years.
Edited by Thad in AR. - 14 May 2024 at 5:42am
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DMiller
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Posted: 14 May 2024 at 5:44am |
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Treated is only for bug attacks, only bugs to worry of are Carpenter bees or carpenter ants oil fouls both
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nella(Pa)
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Posted: 14 May 2024 at 7:35am |
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Locust wood if available. Drain oil works the best apply liberly when wood is very dry with a paint roller. Up to eight inch wide boards to prevent warpage if boards are oak and only one inch thick.
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steve(ill)
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Posted: 14 May 2024 at 8:07am |
I have had standard PINE floors and they do not hold up like the pressure treated..
PT PLUS the used oil will last forever..
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Like them all, but love the "B"s.
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Darwin W. Kurtz
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Posted: 14 May 2024 at 8:57am |
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I would go with the treated, it should last much longer than standard pine
Factor in that narrower boards may be cheaper, but it takes more boards to cover the trailer and the wide ones will be stronger and take less of them
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WF owner
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Posted: 14 May 2024 at 10:29am |
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If it's going to sit outside, I would definitely use pressure treated. Narrower boards have less strength if a tire happens to be on only one or two boards.
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WF owner
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Posted: 14 May 2024 at 10:33am |
 DMiller wrote:
Treated is only for bug attacks, only bugs to worry of are Carpenter bees or carpenter ants oil fouls both |
I have no idea where you came up with that statement. Pressure treated wood is weather, rot and decay resistant, in addition to being termite and insect resistant.
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BuckSkin
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Posted: 14 May 2024 at 11:45am |
Thirty years ago I would have said pressure treated; however, this politically correct sustained yield crap that they have been selling the last several years, after a couple years, you had best be careful where you step or you will fall through.
Good old Yellow Poplar will outlast anything available today treated.
If you know your woods, then White Oak is a good choice; however, any other Oak will rot about as quick as you get it put down and sawmill owners can pick up on it right away if you can't tell the difference and sell you the stuff that won't last.
Like someone already said, Locust is good - Yellow Locust -- the white stuff not so good; however, it is nigh impossible to find Locust big enough to saw out a plank.
Walnut or Cherry will probably outlast anything else so long as you avoid the sap wood.
HackBerry is a good choice.
Pine, treated or not, would be my last choice of any of the above.
Twenty-plus years ago, a friend dismantled a thirty-yr-old deck to make way for an addition; he gave me all the old pressure-treated lumber; he had even already cleaned away all the nails and screws.
I used some of it and leaned the rest against a tree.
I was needing a few deck boards to finish something I was doing and happened to remember that old lumber.
When I sawed it to length, the cut end was as hard as stone; and, the rings were tiny - extremely close together - good old Arsenic of Lead.
The modern sustainable yield crap that ought to be illegal to sell had rings over an inch apart and soft and pithy; it doesn't lend much confidence that it will hold up long and it won't.
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BuckSkin
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Posted: 14 May 2024 at 11:53am |
Thad in AR. wrote:
I’m going to put a new floor on my trailer.
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I didn't see anywhere where it said what kind of trailer so I am assuming a utility trailer or maybe a flat-bed.
With the floor out of the way would be a good time to double or triple the amount of cross-members under the wood and maybe reinforce the frame.
The closer the cross-members, the less the wood is going to warp and twist and the stouter the floor.
I don't like my cross-members to be any more than a foot apart on centers; no matter the wood, it is hard to break a piece of wood that ls less than a foot long.
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Thad in AR.
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Posted: 14 May 2024 at 12:12pm |
Darwin W. Kurtz wrote:
I would go with the treated, it should last much longer than standard pine
Factor in that narrower boards may be cheaper, but it takes more boards to cover the trailer and the wide ones will be stronger and take less of them |
$70.00 less to use 2x10x16’ treated than 2x12x16’ treated. Seven 2x12 as opposed to nine 2x10
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steve(ill)
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Posted: 14 May 2024 at 12:46pm |
narrow boards normally warp less than the 2 x 12...( across the 12 inch width).
I prefer the treated with pleny of oil soaked in... after the boards dry for a year.
Edited by steve(ill) - 14 May 2024 at 12:48pm
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Like them all, but love the "B"s.
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BuckSkin
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Posted: 14 May 2024 at 1:11pm |
You already know this; whatever you use, be certain to turn the heart away from the cross-members.
The rings want to be flat and will flatten themselves over time as much as they can.
With the heart out, the rings will tighten against whatever they are fastened to.
Flip the plank over and the rings will pull the connection apart and make for those boards that always want to raise above their neighbors and make a stumbling block.
Like already said, modern Pine is much too small for sawing lumber and is why wider planks are worse to warp.
The only way to saw out a 2x12 is to flat saw right through the heart; so, you have bark and sap on both edges and a quarter-sawed heart in the middle of the plank.
A good sawyer ?might? get two 2x12 out of a Pine log; but, more likely not, which is why 2x12 cost so much more than 2x8.
Find yourself an old wrecked dry-van trailer and salvage the laminated floor from it.
That rubber stuff with the steel rod reinforcement that Gooseneck uses for trailer flooring is a good choice as well.
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BuckSkin
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Posted: 14 May 2024 at 1:16pm |
To keep the edges nice and even, rout or saw 3/4-wide grooves in both mating edges and add splines of 3/4 treated plywood.
I say "3/4" but make the grooves a tight fit to the thickness of the plywood.
Bevel the edges of the splines and make the grooves a wee bit deeper than the splines are wide.
Splined as thus, if one plank rises, it's neighbor will have to rise also.
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Thad in AR.
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Posted: 16 May 2024 at 6:13am |
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$300.00 for 2x12x16 MCA
$220.00 for 2x10x16 mca
16’ car hauler
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Codger
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Posted: 16 May 2024 at 6:32am |
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I did my skid steer trailer floor back in 2001 and it's still in usable condition with 2X10 and a single 2X6 to close up the gap. Boards went down straight and are fastened every 16" IIRC with semi trailer decking screws. Spacing is about 3/8" between edges. Wood has held up respectable except where a forklift setting between two crossmembers on a long ride broke through. Tube frame trailer hasn't seen a day inside over the years and is getting rusty, so will probably be replaced rather than decked again.
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A career built on repairing and improving engineering design deficiencies, shortcomings, and failures over 50 years now.
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ACinSC
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Posted: 16 May 2024 at 10:02am |
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My new 12' utility trailer has 2" by 8" PT boards on it . Guess it sat on the lot a while as the boards looked pretty dried out . I brushed a good coat of linseed oil on , mostly because that's what I had . Does look better . Thanks
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Thad in AR.
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Posted: 18 May 2024 at 5:36am |
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Was in the lumber yard after work yesterday.
The boss called me in the office. Says he will let me have 2x12x16’ treated for $29.00 each.
I told him I’d be in Monday to pick them up.
I think I’ll strip stack them in the shop with a fan on them for a couple weeks before installation.
Should I coat the underside with oil before installation?
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WF owner
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Posted: 18 May 2024 at 5:57am |
The pressure treated available at our local lumber yards has very high moisture content as it comes off the pallet. I can't picture much oil soaking in it, even after a couple weeks of drying time.
I, personally, would use linseed oil on it after it had dried for a year. I'm not a fan of used motor oil, especially on pressure treated wood.
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steve(ill)
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Posted: 18 May 2024 at 8:22am |
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If he has trouble selling the 2 x 12 , they may have been setting around for a few months. If they appear "DRY" then i would put a coat on the bottom first.. If they are still WET, your not going to get much soaking in, so just install now and wait a year.. Not important that they be SEALED within the first year or two... You have plenty of time.
Edited by steve(ill) - 18 May 2024 at 12:32pm
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Like them all, but love the "B"s.
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BuckSkin
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Posted: 18 May 2024 at 9:04am |
WF owner wrote:
The pressure treated available at our local lumber yards has very high moisture content |
Same here = soaking wet and makes your hands do funny things if you handle it.
WF owner wrote:
I'm not a fan of used motor oil, especially on pressure treated wood. |
I know many swear by it; but, everything I ever read about wood always said that petroleum oil would break down the fibers of wood and cause separation of the grain.
But then, oil does repel water and water is probably worse for the wood than the oil; so, maybe, even though it is detrimental to the wood, the wood being so soaked with oil that there is no room for water to soak in may be the lesser of two evils.
My opinion of so-called pressure treated wood has went way down the last forty years.
First, they outlawed the good stuff and I figure the big lumber companies were as much at the back of that as the greenie-weenies.
Then, they came out with this genetically engineered "sustainable yield" stuff that has no structure nor strength; you can look at a freshly sawn end and it looks like a stack of drinking straws just waiting to soak themselves full of water.
All of that being said, there is a reason besides ease of handling that the big mills dump all their logs in a "mill pond"; wood that is never allowed to dry will last indefinitely; it is after wood drys that all the problems begin.
Smaller mills have constant sprinklers on their better logs.
They fish sunken logs off the bottoms of lakes and rivers that have been down there for hundreds of years and solid as a rock.
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DougG
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Posted: 18 May 2024 at 10:38am |
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Just my experience - got some 2 - 8,s 10 foot long , pressure treated straight from Lowes to the trailer- 2 screws in every board 2 foot apart, some warped, some split, guess I should have let them dry out?? Always have used oak before,, kinda getting hard to find locally
Edited by DougG - 18 May 2024 at 10:39am
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Thad in AR.
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Posted: 18 May 2024 at 4:56pm |
steve(ill) wrote:
If he has trouble selling the 2 x 12 , they may have been setting around for a few months. If they appear "DRY" then i would put a coat on the bottom first.. If they are still WET, your not going to get much soaking in, so just install now and wait a year.. Not important that they be SEALED within the first year or two... You have plenty of time.
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They just got these in Thursday. They’ll go out fast which is why I need to pick them out on Monday morning. I’m sure they’ll be soaking wet and heavy. I’ll strip stack them in the shop for long as I can stand.
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steve(ill)
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Posted: 18 May 2024 at 6:04pm |
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I would just install as time permits or as needed.... Run it for a year and then soak the top and sides with oil. Bottom should be fine... If you WANT to do the bottom, use a weed sprayer / paint gun and spray with diesel.
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Like them all, but love the "B"s.
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Thad in AR.
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Posted: 18 May 2024 at 7:03pm |
steve(ill) wrote:
I would just install as time permits or as needed.... Run it for a year and then soak the top and sides with oil. Bottom should be fine... If you WANT to do the bottom, use a weed sprayer / paint gun and spray with diesel. |
That’s most likely how it will go. Right now the existing boards are rotten. No way I could haul a car or tractor on it. At work we always wait at least 6 months before we stain or seal decks.
Edited by Thad in AR. - 18 May 2024 at 7:13pm
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