Thinking of putting steel floor in grain truck.

Lonn if you are going to overlay the wood floor with metal, it will not take a heavy gauge material, but if you are replacing the wood, the you will need a heavier gauge for the strength. I would think it would be better to replace the rotted wood and then use the lite ga. It will be slicker if you use it to carry pallets and/or seed or chemical tubs.  Decisions, decisions, right? there's always that darned trade off!!!!!

I'd look at the cost factor..

1) replace all the planking with new pt material and a thinner gauge steel...

2) use a thicker gauge steel only BUT be sure it'll be properly supported ! You might not have enough ribs right now to prevent 'craters' forming when heavy loads go in.

 

Me, I'd go option #1 as it's already setup for the wood BUT i'd be sure to paint the underside of the steel maybe a month or two after the light oil comes off.

 

Either way you choose, it'll probably outlive me....

 

hth

jay

 

Just replace the wood with new pressure treated wood. your current box was not designed for steel flooring. just welding steel to your existing cross members will make for a floor that will bend easily. If you want to cover the wood use heavy poly floor sheets. it comes in one piece sheets for whatever lenght box you have. just attach at the front of the box and the reast will stay in place. All the grain trucks around here use it. makes everything slide out and is easy to clean. At the end of the year we remove and clean it and under it. let dry reinstall and put he trucks back in the shed till next year.

Got it. pt = Pressure treated. Thanks. Might just stick with putting in new treated planks. I'm gonna talk to a local who would know what works and get his opinion too. He's not scared to try something if he thinks it wil work. He converted his two big pit haul trucks to giant self propelled grain carts. No auger though. He just built a dump door on each that used a hand crank to slide up and dump into a pit with an auger to load a semi trailer. Worked great and are easily changed back to pit haul trucks.

Dakota Dave wrote: \If you want to cover the wood use heavy poly floor sheets. it comes in one piece sheets for whatever lenght box you have.

Where do you find these poly floor sheets?

Thanks for the link.