O/T Need stock trailer flooring ideas.

When the floor gets slicked up with rain, snow, cow pee and poop, the cattle exit the trailer and half of them slip and fall on the way out or worse, one will go down in transport and get trampled by the rest of them.
I don't want the expense of replacing with a new type of flooring, but have you guys tried anything cheap that works. I have heard of placing a galvanized stock panel on the floor for traction, but hard to clean out the trailer later I would think. What have you guys tried?

On exterior stairs I applied a coat of paint then a heavy coat of sand then another coat of paint. Lasted years.

Cut strips of tire tread and use Stainless ring shank nails to attach it to the floor. Space pieces in stripes sideways in the vehicle. then put narrower pieces between these at 6" intervals. Stripes should be maybe 4" wide and 6 inches apart. JimN

Go to the local farm store, spend $25 bucks on one of those galvenized cattle panels. Cut it to fit your trailer and nail it down accross the front and along the sides.

This is how i solved the slippage problem with my trailers.

I might add, on mine i only used about 4 fence staples in the front. When it comes time to clean, rarer then you think, i pull the 4 staples out and pull the panel out hosing it down as it comes outta the trailer. After its out then clean away in the trailer. Then slide it back in, renail and go.

The cattle panel is the best idea. Thats what I use. Cut it to size and dont worry none about nailing it down.

Slippin, here are my thoughts....
1. Being an old cowboy first! Cattle panels in the floor are NOT GOOD! They will jerk shoes off of a horses hoof faster than a good farrier can refit them! Plus they are a pain to clean, only way is to power wash.
2 Slats: work well but are less of a pain to clean than the cattle panel opition.
3 I have seen guys take a brand New trailer or Floor, heat up Tar and throw on pea gravel. It is sure enough a good rough floor not too much chance of stock sliding down. But you will add 200 lbs or so of wt to the trailer standing wt.
4 Best opition IMO is a clean floor on a trailer, wash it out regularly!!!! I have hauled a lot of cattle in various weather condition, with my trailer and others too. I always had more problems with trailers of others for they would never clean them out! I don't know what it is with folks seems to me they want the guys at the Coffee Shop to see they were actually doing something with their trailer so they left all the manure in it, strung down the outside of the trailer to the point the trailer starts rotting out.
A clean trailer is the best way to keep cattle upright, Followed by not driving like a Drunken Indian going to a Fire! Hope this helps!
Later,
John A.
PS.... I may have gone to meddeling here,But,,, Part of how cattle exit a trailer is directly related to how they are handled prior to an during loading. Weather the guys loading are hotshoting and whipping on them and shouting and scaring the thunder out of them. You load up a bunch of gassed up cattle and they will exit that trailer in the same gassed up fashion. Load easy, unload by opening the gates and let the cattle ease out of the trailer. No loud talking or shouting at the time of unloading.
JAS.

I have rubber floor mats in my stock trailer and then i bed it with planer shavings or sawdust to keep it from getting slippery manure and urine. After using it. I shovel out the sawdust , etc and pressure wash it to clean it. The manure and sawdust goes into my wife's compost pile.

Im on my 3rd floor since 1983 when I bought the trailer new. Its white oak 1.5x6x8 with a cattle panel stapled to it. Boards are spaced 3/4 inch when green so it doesnt trap much manure and such. It sure cut down on the slipping and sliding with the wire in there. Horses arent a concern to me since I dont own any but I can see how the wire would be hard on them. This floor has been in since 2000.

Something very similar to what the hayman does, except I used lumber made from creosoted utility poles......... 2 x 8 x width of trailer; 3/4--one inch crack between planks with cattle panels stapled over planks. If you look at the local sale barn, EVERY SINGLE TRAILER belonging to a commercial grower or custom hauler has got the same floor (type of wood may vary). Trailers are never cleaned out........

I use rubber mats. But straw or sand work good too. Like dad always said, "Clean it up or cover it up"

I'm with cowman.

Throw about 6 shovels of sand in it.

The local sale barn has a sand pile right by the load out. Everyone one around here uses sand.

Gary

The floor in my trailer has been replaced with 2x6's crosswise. Lets them get more traction for when they feel the need to jump out.

Sand would be cheap and easy we also used to use a lot of lime around the dairy barn to keep the cows from slipping same as sand just looks nicer.

Here is what I did to my last 3 wooden floor trailers. Take an old combine ground drive belt and cut it to length of the cross width of your trailer. Bolt the strips down to the floor using 5 each 5/16" carriage bolts. Put the first cross belt at 15 inches from the back end of the trailer. Two more at 15 inch spacings so you have 3 traction clips for the cows to hook their feet into. Does not bother that much when cleaning out with a flat point shovel.

Pieces of round baler belts with big diamond side up, use it in cow trailer, portable squeeze chute, and allie of working pen in barn.