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OT Trailer flooring


mickeyw

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I got bored replacing the bed of my beavertail every 5 years when it rotted out, and even more bored of having vehicles drop through it.

Since it's almost always used for shift Landies, I got four 2m lengths of deck from the bay of e, and a few metres of angle, and spent an afternoon with the welder...

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Cant remember the exact cost, but was about double the cost of covering the whole bed in b&q 18mm ply sponge. £200? Maybe £250.

Worth every penny, and more grippy than chequerplate when wet.

 

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On 2/15/2017 at 9:17 AM, Retroanaconda said:

Old thread I know, was wondering how you got on with this Mickey?

My trailer needs a new floor and I'm looking at the options available. It also needs new wheels, tyres and lights so there's gonna be some expense whatever happens!

Crikey - three years have passed, and I've still not re-decked the trailer. I've not needed to use it to transport vehicles, but there are many holes in the floor and sides that let things like aggregate fall through. I don't think I'd dare carry more than one bulk bag in its current condition.

The ply got hijacked and used for something else - in fact some of it was used for a smaller trailer, and actually some of that has rotted out already. I can't remember what we coated that with, but it was some kind of outdoor wood preservative, and it has not protected the edges at all well.

I think the old floor on my Ifor was decent birch ply (£50+ per sheet), as opposed to lesser WPB, which no doubt was how it came to last so much longer. Unfortunately I suspect the pukka £££ phenolic coated board is going to be hard to beat.

The Ifor is now in desperate need of a complete overhaul. It looks distinctly scruffy, rather like those tatty old cars that have 'pull me' written all over them. I don't use it much, mainly local trips, so the cost is hard to justify...never mind finding time work on it.

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When I refurbed er indoors' horse trailer I changed it from phenolic (read "rotten") board flooring to an alloy floor. The pukka Ifor williams stuff is like tongue and groove alloy boards....looked great once done, it was a shame to fit the rubber matting over it.

Our new cattle trailers are all chequer plate now, all seam welded with drains and catch tanks. One of the first Ifor flatbeds we had was a chequer bed but the current 17ft has phenolic boarding. It does help its longevity being stored inside though...

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It generally lives in a barn, but does spend periods of time outside now and then.

The proper Ifor Williams phenolic ply sheet for my trailer is about £260+VAT it seems, gonna be pretty hard to beat that considering it's made to fit so there's no messing about with cutting and sealing edges.

IW do a tread plate floor to fit it as well, which is slightly dearer. It actually doesn't look as bad as I'd feared but I think I'll still prefer timber. Will see if I can drop in to the local Ifor dealers and get a look at some. 

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Mines getting ready for doing again. Couple of patches where its going soft which is annoying as the rest is really solid. Thought about Ali tread plate but wasn't sure how much support it would need or how to make up the difference in thickness between the ply and the Ali so that it remained level.

Might just go for trailer board again for ease :/

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  • 1 month later...

I'm not sure if this thread is still relevant but ; -

When we bought our Ifor LM146 it had of all things a caravan on it (prev owner wanted an offroad caravan) and the only piece of phenolic still left was under the front which had been made into a gas bottle store.  

Once the "van" was removed  I priced up new phenolic board but even then, about 2008 they were £100 ish/sheet which was too expensive.

I used to sell waffle boards and thought the same material would work perfectly well as a deck so we used some 22mm thick with approx 6mm holes in which has been excellent and is still on there now and was lat used at the weekend for Sodbury.

It doesn't hold water, won't rot and has a fine grip on it and  apart from vehicles and general treasure (tut) I've had plenty of bulk bags of various building materials on it and it works perfectly well. I've even had loose soil on and all I did was lay a tarp down first and wrap it like a parcel.

I don't know if that's of any use as an idea or if you've already done it but its possibly food for thought !!!

Mark

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Mel, waffle material is not something I would have thought of. Sounds like it has worked well for you.

Do you recall what it ended up costing you? I have a set of fairly thin waffles, but at the price I paid for those I can see covering a 12' x 6'6" deck getting pretty costly.

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  • 4 months later...

James,

Yet again I'm pushing it...

Chris @ CLH Trailers has always been very helpful and cheap for supplies. Last time I was down there he'd also taken delivery of a load of the marine based ply stuff they use for flooring. And I mean a big load! I'm sure if you mention my name he'd be willing to sell materials to you.

I'm down there on the 11th Sept so if you wanted to order some stuff I could collect it and bring it eastwards. I seem to remember you saying your folks were down this way / Sussex. I'm now part of a stalking syndicate near Gatwick so head that way reasonably often and could deposit it for when you're next down. Depending on size I'm also going to be heading back up to Scotland (just came back actually) for some more stalking.

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Ed,

Thanks for the kind offer. I fear that the bulk of sheets required means that transporting it would be a pain (i.e. require a trailer) and cancel out any saving over the 'proper' stuff from my local Ifor dealer.

Alas I've not got round to sorting this yet, however the floor has even more holes in it now so I really need to do something soon. I also want to replace all the lighting so will try and do that at the same time. Needs four new wheels and tyres too really :(

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4 minutes ago, Retroanaconda said:

Alas I've not got round to sorting this yet, however the floor has even more holes in it now so I really need to do something soon. I also want to replace all the lighting so will try and do that at the same time. Needs four new wheels and tyres too really :(

The trailer equivalent of Trigger's broom!

Seriously though, try any local coachbuilders/commercial vehicle repair place, a word with the foreman might get you something for around cost price.  Failing that, you might get a lead on somewhere else from them

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1 hour ago, UdderlyOffroad said:

Seriously though, try any local coachbuilders/commercial vehicle repair place, a word with the foreman might get you something for around cost price.  Failing that, you might get a lead on somewhere else from them

Ultimately what I should have said with regards to CLH - for largish quantities it's cost (although normally rounded up by me to nearest convenient denomination). Smaller ones he normally has offcuts for free or a few beer tokens.

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On 26/08/2017 at 4:52 PM, Ed Poore said:

Ultimately what I should have said with regards to CLH - for largish quantities it's cost (although normally rounded up by me to nearest convenient denomination). Smaller ones he normally has offcuts for free or a few beer tokens.

Diesel for a trip south and back is about £180-200 unfortunately, so some way towards buying the 'proper' stuff.

 

On 27/08/2017 at 2:43 PM, muddy said:

James price up to swap to a new trailer it may work out cheaper. A company called gwaza offer very well priced wheels and tyres.

 

will.

You may be right, however the trade-in value of my trailer plus perhaps £400-500 worth of floor/lights/wheels etc. would maybe get me a 5-7 year old Ifor trailer, which may then need similar treatment in 3-5 years.

I figure spend it on my one and then it should be good for some time. Better the devil you know and all that :)

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  • 2 months later...

Finally got around to doing something on this. Went and picked up some 18mm wire mesh resin coated plywood sheets this morning.

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These were £38 a sheet so enough to do the trailer for less than £120. The higher quality Buffalo board stuff is around £75 a sheet, and the Ifor Williams one-piece sheet over £300 with a 6-week lead time. I’d have liked to have gone for the middle option but the ability to go and pick these ones up rather than have to arrange delivery etc. made the first option the best at the moment.

Any thoughts on products to seal the cut edges? I see references to acrylic paints but can’t find anything online that looks suitable.

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Def. seal the edges - otherwise the sheets will split very quickly...

I'm awaiting deliver of a 200 x 400 one for the 3-axle as it is used primarily for hay transport and they need to be kept dry..

 

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I’ll certainly seal them, it’s just what to do it with that is the question. I think the liquid rubber roofing sealant type stuff could be a good bet, however it generally only comes in larger quantities than I would need.

Ripped the old floor up this afternoon, just pulled it off in pieces by hand it was that rotten. Now left with a rather skeletal trailer.

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Got to sort the lighting while the floor is off and access to the cables and junction boxes etc. is nice and easy. Picked up some new lights already, just need to sort cable etc.

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I use cut edge sealer like you'd use for decking as it soaks in rather than sits on the surface but I guess a bitumen paint / sealer would work too?

 

I'm doing exactly the same job on mine at the moment and have gone for exactly the same stuff. The problem with my trailer is I figured if I was going to put an expensive floor on I might as well have it blasted and galvanised (it's painted at the moment), and if I'm going to that I might as well make some sides for it to make it more useful and drill all holes before it's galvanised, and if I'm going to do that I might as well throw 1800kg axles on it instead of the current 1300kg to make it more useful which means new wheel and tyres too, and if I'm going to do all that I might as well sell it and just buy a ready made one. So I figured just od the cheapest and easiest :lol: 

 

Edited by Cynic-al
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Glad you've found an opportunity to do this James. The board sounds quite reasonably priced. I'm sure it'll last OK if well painted.

The galved sides haven't fared so well either! Did it live by the sea once?

 

I have ended up buying a new (to me) LM146. In fact it's 15 years old but been well looked after, and has sides, ramps etc, and the floor has been good enough to carry a car three times now, so can't be too bad.

It even got used for piggy back duties the other weekend when I used them both at our local bonfire night.

 

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Now I need to get around to selling the old trailer.

 

 

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