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Redecking my car/tractor trailer. What fasteners to use?

D

Dave Westlund

Member
I'm going to re-deck my trailer with 1.5"x 10" treated pine. From your experience what is the best fastener to use to secure the planks to channel iron? I'd prefer to use self-drilling fasteners but would pre-drill holes if that is a better approach.

Regards
Dave
 
I am not sure how thick the channel is on your trailer,or what your ground clearance is,but I would use carriage bolts with washers if it's easy enough to get under trailer.

Rock
 
Use floor screws. They are self tapping but you do have to drill a hole. They are available at Redneck or most other trailer places and fastenal has them. They are 1/4" but hard and they grip well. For thin and soft metal drill 3/16" holes. For quarter inch steel you may need a bit larger hole. The won't rust out and are stronger than carriage bolts. I recommend rethinking the treated lumber.
 
Company I used to work for we used self taping screws on our low-boy trailers, we where using 2"x 10" lumber.
 
Your reply jogged my memory. We used rough sawed oak, pre-drilled the holes and used self tapping screws. Maybe it was 1.5" instead of 2", I know it was't dried and 12 foot boards are heavy. We used the forklift to move them.
 
I capped each end with angle iron pre drilled for each board then put flat bar pre drilled for each board over every other cross member attached with carrage bolts . Little more work but never any problems. Used a wood router and dadoed the boards for the metal for a flush surface.
 
The chemistry used to treat wood are quit corossive and will take their toll on whatever steel they contact. todays fasteners are either stainless or painted.
 
I bought some self-tappers years ago, they worked OK, but were very brittle, a few of them have broken, so I just put a new one beside it. Maybe that's why they were cheap!
 
My 1995 trailer had treated lumber from the factory. Most of it is still quite serviceable. There are a few planks that need replacing. Some of the screws have broken from the wood expanding and shrinking. Other than that no issues with the treated wood.

Some of the floor screws are plated to work with treated wood.
 
mine used no fasteners! left the wood float around. used a top plate that didn't allow the wood to jump out. never had a trailer like it before but it sure worked good. getting the green wood in tight was a chore but then as it dried everything fit nice and moved around just enough to keep gravel or dirt from sitting on trailer floor! I had it 25yrs after i redecked it and was still perfect when i sold it!
 
The last time I decked mine I used the self drillers from Fastenal they were around .25 a piece and I bought a box of 100. There are two kinds of self drillers,one made for steel, and one made to drill wood first and then steel. It is about time to deck it again,the screws have held up fine.
 

When I redecked after almost 20 years, I went a little silly and bought all 1/4" SS hardware in bulk from TS. They were 1/3 the cost of the same from ACE, and were actually cheaper than std steel from ACE. I counter sunk the heads to make a flush surface. Seven years now and the fasteners still look new.
 
Blue "Tapcon" screws on my treated trailer deck are perfect after 12 years. They are for concrete, but work very well in wood and steel crossmembers. Tough enough to screw into concrete. Jim
 
When I put new White Oak on my semi trailer a few years ago I counter bored the top for regular stainless bolts with a washer then used locking nuts has worked fine and can get them out if need be. Those trailer screws suck to get out. The torx bits suck too. I think When I did the refloor I broke a few of those stupid torx bits. I can't say where the guy that come up with them should shove them.
 
That is all i use still have a half a box I bought from Fastenal a thousand times better than some cheap carriage bolt but to each his own
 
Wouldn’t 10 inch boards tend to warp? We get a lot of rain and humidity down here.I guess using 2 screws on the ends at least would prevent that
 
Having built a lot of trailers and repaired more it's my experience that treated wood does not last as long. Seems backward but consistently untreated holds up better. Treated is for where it's consistently wet and not for the wet/dry cycles you get with trailer floors
 
That was the way mine was, floating treated planks. No trouble with the floor, my trouble was a Jeep wagon at 50+ MPH hitting it in left side bending frame and axle. Only would have needed one plank broken from wreck.
 
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