Shops, Barns, Varmints, and Trucks - Wood for trailer deck

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Wood for trailer deck

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Topic: Wood for trailer deck

Posted By: Dave (Mid-MI)
Subject: Wood for trailer deck
Date Posted: 13 Apr 2023 at 8:08pm

I need to replace the wood deck on my 25 + 5 tri-axle gooseneck trailer. I bought it used, and don't know what species of wood the original deck is made of. It is 1.5" thick hardwood. Would treated 2 x 8's be strong enough, or should I replace with hardwood planks? The steel cross supports under the deck are on 16" centers. Thx.

Replies:

Posted By: nella(Pa)
Date Posted: 13 Apr 2023 at 8:32pm

White oak and paint it with drain oil every six months or as needed.

Posted By: DiyDave
Date Posted: 13 Apr 2023 at 8:37pm

What are you hauling on it?

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Posted By: Darwin W. Kurtz
Date Posted: 13 Apr 2023 at 8:48pm

I put treated 2 x 12's in a heavy trailer that we haul equipment on. If you could get oak from a saw mill it would probably be better, but there are no saw mills around here. So went with the treated.

Posted By: KJCHRIS
Date Posted: 13 Apr 2023 at 8:51pm

Apitong wood is what was used on semi trailer floor decking in past.

BUT it's pricey, a 2x8x8' is $70 plus freight. I looked that up online. But it does last it's strong and tough.

Last I was around came from near or in Omaha, Ne. Can't think of name they used to make wooden truck beds / boxes.

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Posted By: Dakota Dave
Date Posted: 13 Apr 2023 at 9:54pm

I put 2x10 treated on mine it's been 20 years and it's looking pretty tough. I did oil it a couple times many years ago and it sits outside all the time. Just sweep it once in a while to keep dirt from building up and park it with the tounge a little high so water can run off.

Posted By: thendrix
Date Posted: 14 Apr 2023 at 5:51am

There's a small saw mill close by that I use for trailer flooring. He will saw 1 1/2 white oak whatever length. Usually you give him the width of the floor and he cuts enough boards to cover the floor plus about 2 feet. The width of the boards will vary a little but he doesn't want a bunch of odd width boards laying around that can't be used for anything else. It's been about 10 years since I bought any flooring from him but the last time I did was for a 6x16 floor and the wood was around $100. Even for odd sized boards that's pretty good I think.

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Posted By: DMiller
Date Posted: 14 Apr 2023 at 6:09am

Old friend of mine years ago knew a Sawyer in Hardin IL, had a old tractor driven blade mill. Had a water supply so could cut such as Cottonwood. Two men would drive wedge into cut as the wood was sawn and he had several trailers decked with the gnarly cottonwood lumber. Mix of diesel and waste oil to seal it then reapplied every other year the trailer floors last some twenty two years hauling heavy machinery, were sold with those same floors. Nearly all the sawyers that once cut that wood are long gone these days.

Posted By: Dave (Mid-MI)
Date Posted: 14 Apr 2023 at 8:18pm

Hauling tractors and farm equipment and an H3 dozer. Pretty much anything that I decide to drag home.

Posted By: steve(ill)
Date Posted: 14 Apr 2023 at 10:17pm

Our trailers have pressure treated 2 x 8 on them....The wood will dry out the first year, then you can paint them with used engine oil... soaks in and seals them up.. redo every couple years.

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Posted By: BuckSkin
Date Posted: 15 Apr 2023 at 12:10pm

White Oak, untreated in any way, will last for years and weigh like lead.

Any of the other Oaks, Red Oak, Pin Oak, Jack Oak, and dozens of other names will not last as long as untreated Pine.

Old-timey arsenic-treated slow-growth Yellow Pine, with rings so tight you need a magnifying glass to see them will last indefinitely, wearing out long before it rots.

Modern "sustainable" rapid-growth Pine, with rings an inch apart, no matter what it is treated with, give it a year and you had better step on the joists, else you will fall through.

Hackberry, Walnut, and Cherry will all outlast any of the above and Walnut and Cherry are not so apt to warp and twist as any of the above.

There are far better alternatives out there than any kind of wood.

If you are fortunate enough to find a pile of old Aluminum double/triple deck livestock trailer decking --- remember we used to have to add/remove and raise/lower the decks depending on what we were hauling --- that makes for a really stout long-lasting floor, even after it has been laying in the weeds for years.

That steel-rod reinforced T&G rubber planking that Gooseneck uses to floor their livestock trailers with is probably the best choice of all.

Plain old 1-1/2" x six or eight channel-iron, spaced about two inches, with expanded metal tack-welded on top makes for a really good stout floor and is no heavier than wood and probably a lot lighter than wet wood.

Unless you have a bandmill and access to trees with veneer-grade knotless logs, wood is no longer a very good choice at all; as, most anything available is going to be full of defects and compression wood; I know you have seen planks so warped that a bulldozer won't flatten them as it drives across.

If you do use wood, run it all through a planer and don't use it straight from the saw.

It don't take but a few minutes to even it all up with a planer; whereas, if used straight off the saw, there will be little variances from board to board that will catch your boots and make you fall when trying to boom stuff down or get away from a runaway piece of equipment.

Posted By: BuckSkin
Date Posted: 15 Apr 2023 at 4:24pm

A seldom thought of reason to avoid a wood floor, especially an Oak floor, is that the acid in the wood will attack the steel of the trailer.

Treated is no better as whatever that stuff is is highly corrosive.

There has been many a stout barn lean over and collapse on account of the Oak eating the nails in two; if you build with Oak (or any kind of treated), you had better use hot-dipped galvanized nails and plenty of them, or stainless; however, the problem with stainless is that many of the so-called stainless nails are not true stainless and will soon succumb to the elements.

Posted By: steve(ill)
Date Posted: 15 Apr 2023 at 4:54pm

there are special "coated" screws made to attach pressure treated wood.. frame should be painted prior to installing wood. .... paint the wood with a good coat of used engine oil every couple years and it will last a long time..

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Posted By: nella(Pa)
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2023 at 5:31am

I did 2 18' bale thrower wagons last winter for a neighbor, one in white oak and the other in locust, got the lumber from a saw mill at 1.75 a BF. I liked the locust a little better than the oak. Coated everything with drain oil as I put it together.

Posted By: Codger
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2023 at 7:04am

This AC2 treated pine crap we are blessed with doesn't hold up but maybe 10 years on an outdoor deck. My daughter just had hers replaced last month that was new in 2002 after the BBQ pit dropped on one end after the 2X6 board gave way as rotted so badly. This flooring was very soft eight years ago when they purchased the house.

I decked my car hauler trailer in 2006 with this crap and it again needs redone. This one has been "treated" both purposely, and inadvertently many times over the years with waste engine and hydraulic oils. It's been turned over twice with the shop crane to give a good soak to the underside with paint rollers and five gallon buckets. Skid loader trailer was decked in 2002, (new 1996) and needs decked again. Again, the AC2 treated lumber doesn't hold up so well. The old .40CCA treated lumber was much better.

I have about 170bf of white oak purchased from a local sawmill back in 1994 for my semi trailer inside my shop. This was dried, planed, and squared being still straight without warp. My trailer is only wood in the center with steel runners for hauling rubber tired equipment but this lumber will go down after a "soak" in waste oil as I have a trough for the purpose built.

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