What do you guys think, what would you prefer on a utility trailer, a wooden floor or one with that expanded metal diamond shaped stuff? I know one advantage of an expanded metal floor and that is that if you haul equipment that has a lot of mud, you can wash off the equipment and the mud will just fall through. But that's not a big advantage, as I don't get my ATV that muddy. I have a trailer with the common 2x6 or 2x8 floor, I rarely clean the floor but I have blown bark off with a leaf blower. Looking at a larger used trailer, 5x16, with expanded metal floor that does have some appealing features and price is right. Has 28" sides of expanded metal, that's unique. The end gate is not as heavy duty as I would prefer, though. Expanded metal with only two braces in center. Has nice toolbox, spare tire. It says "heavy duty expanded metal floor." Whatever that is. Seller has a title, that's a plus, lol. I don't like the jack, it's not far enough back to not mess with my tailgate coming down I don't think. But that's common. If I spend twice to three times as much on a trailer, you can get one that is farther back, and adjustable. It's only money, eh.
I prefer the trailers with wooden floors. I have a 6x16 foot tandem axle that I purchased in 1985. Re-floored it with treated lumber in about 1995 and the floor is still holding up well. I try to keep the deck boards reasonably clean. The new boards were screwed down with self tapping screws which helped stiffen lateral movement. The only thing I don't like about it is the floor does get slick when you load a muddy tractor or other piece of equipment. I have seen the floors and ramps of the smaller trailers with expanded metal bowed due to the weight of loading a side-by-side or other ATV's. I haven't seen a large trailer with a "heavy duty expanded metal floor" so this may not be an issue with the heavy gauge metal. May be able to avoid this by adding additional cross beams.
The floor of our 4x8 with the expanded metal floor has bowed, at the back and the welds broken. I need to reweld them down and probably add a couple of braces underneath. The grated steel sure is nice for crap to fall off though. If you need to haul mulch or dirt, you can put a piece of plywood down with maybe a tarp to keep the material from getting lost.
I like the wood floors on trailers. I’ve had the wood and metal varieties. The metal doesn’t do as well under significant weight as the wood. The wood more evenly distributes weight. The metal just bends.
My vote is for wood. Any expanded metal will hammock under a load and is no good for hauling dirt or gravel. Metal is also a pain to replace. Trailers I have made have always been smaller (5' X 10' or less) but I always used treated car decking (2" X 6" T&G). Looks great and distributes the loads to adjacent boards!
I've never had a wood floor trailer but have heard good and bad. Tougher than expanded metal but prone to rot and splinters for little kids that like to play on them. The expanded metal is typically lighter but weaker. Ive got a 6'x10' aluminum trailer that i highly recommend. Little pricer than others its size with a wood or expanded metal, but the savings on weight alone sold me. The only steel is the axle, everything else it aluminum. It has a bi-fold ramp which we've found to be pretty handy. Weve used it more than we thought we ever would.
Those aluminum trailers are really nice. How do they hold up to chucking big logs and tools and such into them? I have a big tandem axle steel trailer with a wood floor. It takes a beating but has held up extremely well. It is super heavy though. The trailer alone is just over 3,000 pounds.
My dad has a 10k double axle dump trailer with a steel bottom. Its 10 years old, has had a ton of different things in it from numerous yards of road base, dozens of trips to the local landfill with you name it in it, dirt, rock, as well as many cords of both split, rounds and log length wood in it. I've chucked so much junk and rounds of wood into it and the floor of the trailer is still in great shape. No broken welds, no rust and still strong as ever. Anything we put in it will slide right out with the hydraulic lift. Steel floor seems to work well in this trailer.
Looks like you got some nice lodge pole there my friend! Is the grass still green there, or was a summer pic?
Yep!!! I love Lodgepole, this picture was from August of 2019. It's all split and stacked. No green grass here, with snow forecasted off and on for the next week plus.
I prefer wood. It will rot at some point but if you use treated lumber and treat it right it will last year's. Get the old style arsenic treated wood if possible. The new copper crap will cause accelerated corrosion of the steel frame. The only steel deck I like is solid plate...and it's worse than wood when it's wet and muddy.
I like it too. It’s so easy to CSS. We have mostly ponderosa pine here. It gets as big around as a truck. A 200 pound ponderosa log can be super tough to work with. I feel like it tends to be a little sappier (sp?) than lodgepole too.
Same here. Mostly Jeffrey Pine and Ponderosa here. They split the same as each other (pitch, a lot of messy bark and if really green can be stringy) and have the same heat output. The Lodgepole is so much easier to split and I love the thin bark, much better and easier to clean up than the Ponderosa and Jeffrey pine. I do like the smell of all three though.
Being a welder, when I made my utility trailer, I went with wood floor. Easy to replace. Most stuff sweeps right off, it's durable. Problem with expanded metal is if it isn't truely heavy duty, 3/16" thick or so, your going to have issues with it getting stretched and the floor sagging. If it's raised expanded nothing slides on it, which is a good and bad thing. It's a real pain on my log lift on my splitter, hard to turn the wood the way I want it. Can't haul dirt or gravel with expanded. Well, not very far . They do make heavy duty expanded, but without seeing pictures, I doubt it actually is. If your braces/supports are any further than 16"-18" apart, your going to get there sag overtime loading heavy stuff or just throwing firewood etc on it. Diamond plate/tread plate is great stuff, but it can still be pretty slippy if it's painted and you get snow on it. Same there though, but it's a bit tougher than expanded in the dance thickness.
Sounds like a nice tough trailer you have. Ive only thrown maybe 14" rounds on it and havent seen any damage yet. Ive thrown chain and load binders on it and didnt see any damage either. Its great for moving limbs around with the gate off. Hauled the mower and side by side and golf carts too. First time i had it loaded with limbs i decided to unhook it,pick it up by hand and empty it that way. It worked, but wont do it again. It weighs 400 pounds so it pulls nice behind the buggy. I think any trailer is asset and im happy to see others talking about them in such a positive way.
My trailer has a grated tailgate/ramp and a wood floor.. the wood floor can looks brand spanking new in a few minutes after power washing and a quick coat of deck sealant. the grating is bent, broke, and ive had to hit it with the grinder so it doesnt tear up tires of equipment i am loading up. wood is super easy to replace... a saw and a screw gun. Metal would require more specialty tools. id go wood 100%
I have a 40 year old trailer that I believe has the best of both. The floor consists of 1 1/4" thick plywood from a old railroad box car covered with 14 gauge galvanized steel. The plywood takes the impact while the galvanized steel protects the wood. '
That's cool, the 1.25" ply with metal sheath. Awesome! Is there a pic, looks like there should be one above but the image isn't there.
Wood You can screw down two buy fours for chocks you can screw down wood for blocking loads in place there’s just so many advantages to a wood deck
