Trailer deck lumber question......

Bob Bancroft

Well-known Member
Location
Aurora NY
I have an old Rogers tilt bed trailer I haul my little dozer around on. I replanked it with oak some years back. I am surprised how quickly it seems the oak is rotting away. But maybe I did it all wrong. It wasn't totally green when installed, but wasn't totally cured either. I coated it with used motor oil. Then I couldn't get a bite on it with the dozer! It wanted to slip right off! Now I don't remember if I ever oiled it again.

It almost seems like I'd be better off with 2" pressure treated soft wood, if there was such a thing. Any suggestions?
 
How long has the Oak been on? In my experience untreated lumber is better on a trailer than treated. That may be because of the quality of the lumber to start with tho. I have had trouble with treated shrinking so much it pulled the boots out of the ends of the boards too.
 
I did my gooseneck with 2" rough cut white oak about 9 years ago, coat it every summer with old motor oil cut with a bit of diesel.
Only had 1 board go bad.
 
What ever wood you use make sure to install it the right way up. Look at the end grain and put the board on with the growth ring circle up so water sheds like a hay stack and not holding water like a cup. Do the same when you build a deck onto your house.
 
(quoted from post at 07:42:08 05/26/16) I have an old Rogers tilt bed trailer I haul my little dozer around on. I replanked it with oak some years back. I am surprised how quickly it seems the oak is rotting away. But maybe I did it all wrong. It wasn't totally green when installed, but wasn't totally cured either. I coated it with used motor oil. Then I couldn't get a bite on it with the dozer! It wanted to slip right off! Now I don't remember if I ever oiled it again.

It almost seems like I'd be better off with 2" pressure treated soft wood, if there was such a thing. Any suggestions?

Yes, you can get 2" PT yellow pine. Of course it's actually only 1 3/4" or somewheres around that thickness. You can also get PT trailer decking if you can find a place to order it from. Internet search time.

White Oak should last about forever if it was sound wood to start with. You can add cleats at right angles to the decking for grip.
 
White Oak turned right should last about as long as anything you can get. We run about 6 heavy haul rigs and are constantly having to replace a board where something got pushed thru it or something. I have tried other things and always go back to white oak. Hickory stands up pretty good but nothing like the white oak.
 
I am NOT a fan of putting used motor oil on wood to preserve it. I am a fan of boiled lindseed oil,cut with varsol. This mixture absorbs and protects yet leaves a dry surface that you shouldn't slip on. I agree with you that motor oil makes it hard to get traction,motor oil (used) is acidic as well. If you got twenty years out of decking that is exposed to the weather 24-7 you haven't done too badly. Where I live we have access to white ash and elm. The elm is harder to find because of Dutch elm disease. Both last a very long time. Good luck with your project
 
I've never seen any full 2" treated wood. You might find someone that has a bandsaw mill and re-saw some 4x6's into a little less than 1 3/4". A waste of wood but a 4x6 could be surfaced through a planer to what ever thickness you wanted.
 
Cottonwood.2" rough cut. Tough stuff.The twisted grain doesnt split.It twisted and shrunk as it finished drying,but absolutely no signs of rot. Been on over 10 years.
 
We usually use white ash or hard maple. I think that stands up to weather about as good as anything. Pop always used old oil, mainly because we had it on hand. I expect the linseed oil solution would be pretty good, too. And yes old oil makes for a slippery surface for a few months. We used to unload hay on a barn bridge at about a 10 degree angle. A freshly oiled hay wagon deck made for some interesting gyrations (and photo ops)while trying to drag or carry hay bales from the back of the wagon to the front! Lol! Pop used to get about fifteen years on the dump truck decks with either of the two woods mentioned above, but they were getting pretty bad by that point.Pop never paid too much attention to the moisture content of the wood for hay wagons, but I believe he always wanted dry plank for the truck decks, mainly because it minimized the amount of caulking required to hold oats.
 
Anybody seen C purlins used for a floor? I saw a trailer with the purlins (10") if I remember right, that were tack welded to the crossmembers. The guy hauled pole barn kits, over 20k#s, said they would hold up for yrs. I guess they could be too slippery for some applications.
 
Hemlock does well too. Sawmills use it for sawbox parts as it lasts & is dimensionly stable.
 
(quoted from post at 09:37:20 05/26/16) I don't know anything about larch, so I assume we don't have it. Years ago, fence posts here were locust. Barn siding was hemlock.

Larch is tamarack. Good stuff.
 
On my 70s Miller tilt deck, I added a 4 foot fore deck, made it hydraulic instead of gravity tilt, and decked it with PSP jungle mat.
36384.jpg
 
When I rebuilt my trailer I used Yellow pine treated non-tongue and groove, the way I was told that is the only way you can get treated Yellow mine, it's holding up good, been 5 years and it sets out all the time.
a227973.jpg
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top