I've got a great wholesale metals supplier here in town with every kind of sheet, rod, angle and tubular stock you can imagine. I try to avoid the big box stores when I can. Better pricing and service at the "mom and pop" specialists and lumberyards. We have a huge building and architectural materials recycling place too, "Construction Junction" which is on my way home from work. Worth a stop there to see their lumber and miscellaneous metals stock.
PT 3/4 plywood for the deck, simple, cheap and fast. It will be much easier to secure to the trailer frame. It will last a long time, and be lighter then using 5/4 by 6 boards, each of which will have to be fastened to the frame, and each other. It’s what I used on my utility trailer that lives outside.
I used 3/4 plywood Painted it, Sitting outside for 6 years, Mississippi humidity, hurricanes, tropical storms. no rot.
When it’s not in use the tongue is on a cinderblock so there is about a 20 degree slope on the deck, drainage is not an issue. When it is in use it’s moving along at 65 mph which also promotes drainage.
What’s a deck plank ? native hemlock is somewhat rot resistant.
If using untreated wood, painting the areas supported by the trailer frame with thinned linseed conditions both support and wood surface.
Blue loctite bolt n nut areas then paint exposed fastener surfaces with white Rusto.
When wood shrinks, the locktite will allow tightening the fasteners. Wood absorbs moisture, swells then shrinks when drying into smaller dimensions. Fasteners need periodic wrench checking
transport and handling Appreciate the feedback on your experience with plywood, but it will be easier for me to haul and unload the deck planks on my own since I can lash them onto the car roof rack. Until I get the trailer deck built, hauling sheet stock is problematic for me. And cost for a sheet of marine grade plywood is more than that of the equivalent area of 5/4 x 6" lumber stock of most types.
I also think I will make the perimeter of the deck double thickness so I can attach galvanized stake-side pockets (the brackets are 2 1/2" high). Being able to attach sides will be useful down the road.
re plywood Appreciate the feedback on your experience with plywood, but it will be easier for me to haul and unload the deck planks on my own since I can lash them onto the car roof rack. Until I get the trailer deck built, hauling sheet stock is problematic for me. And cost for a sheet of marine grade plywood is more than that of the equivalent area of 5/4 x 6" lumber stock of most types.
I also think I will make the perimeter of the deck double thickness so I can attach galvanized stake-side pockets (the brackets are 2 1/2" high). Being able to attach sides will be useful down the road.
steel is a PITA Pay a welder, pay for the steel which’ll cost more than wood (which is good because it’ll weigh more also). Then continuously touch-up each stone ding so it doesn’t rust.
DK, you try my patience I should just ignore you. But I have to ask why don’t you check the dates on those dusty archives that put you in such a tizzy before making rash statements? CCA has not been used since 2003 in PT wood and the admonitory articles in the other searches you posted date to the 1960’s and '70’s. THOSE CHEMICALS ARE NO LONGER PRESENT IN PT WOOD and they were not the huge danger you claim them to be in the first place, at least not in the small amounts to be found in the average homeowner DIY project.
Here is a CURRENT and very informative link on the chemicals used in pressure treated wood now. There is even a linked page on the recommendations for using it for garden enclosures.
I researched this topic thoroughly before using such products as I rebuilt a vintage motor home interior over the past 2 years. Since I work in the construction industry I also had access to MSDS sheets and industry safety standards.
Turn off the computer and step into reality every once in a while.
the current batches of PTW’s I was in contact with was highly toxic, looking like the same old toxic pressure treated wood of 20 years ago.
There are grades of PTW including PTW graded for contact with grains. Not processed grains. Are you or your surroundings processed or unprocessed ?
I raised the point that trailers are not immortal nor is immortality a requirement for building and operating kayak/small appliance trailers. People get into this groove.
I do not know what you meant as a ‘deck plank.’ I apologize for asking.
Read the posts, maybe? DK: I specifically referenced (early on in the string) the standard deck boards which are 5/4" x 6" (x 8’, 12’, or 16’). This is a very common piece of lumber stock due to the proliferation of outdoor decks.
I notice you do often have good information but you neglect to follow the course of the strings and miss out on the thread of conversation. And you tend to add confusing and irrelevant asides in your posts which make it difficult to tease out the useful “data” you do proffer.
I don’t want to be disrespectful, but you often don’t seem to respect the people who are trying to follow the threads. You get indignant when we don’t understand you, but if you won’t write in coherent fashion, that’s not OUR fault.
I certainly don’t expect to build an immortal trailer. I will be lucky to live another 15 or 20 years myself, and at 65 my time of being able to load anything on a trailer is probably nearing it’s end. But having just spent 100’s of hours replacing completely rotted wood in a 39 year old motorhome, I am inclined to want to to build something reasonably durable with minimal maintenance.