Rubber matting in trailer with wooden floor... Yey or nay?

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wench

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Just after opinions really; is it worth investing in rubber matting for my trailer with a wooden floor or not? Or is it to much of a pain to unscrew them periodically to check floor?
 
We've got an old Ifor with a wooden floor and rubber mats.. the mats are so heavy and fitted well that we've never needed to screw them down and have never had a problem with checking trailer etc with them in there (have travelled oldies right down to foals in it)
It may be silly but its peace of mind for me that they have rubber to stand on rather than straight on the wooden floor!

I often check the floor by myself and its not a problem.. hope that helps :)
 
Our trailer has wooden floor with rubber mats. The mats are heavy so don't move but we do pull them out every so often to clean and check floor so although heavy they are moveable enough after some heaving!
 
My only caveat would be to check the integrity of the wood regularly.

Rubber mats seem to "sweat" or maybe they are just very good at trapping small amounts of water underneath. Anyways, my friend was cleaning out her (metal floored) lorry the other week, I casually flicked the rubber mat back and we were both surprised to find that the floor was very wet underneath and some of the rivets were a bit rusty (we think a bit of water leaks in through the jockey door).

So I'd definitely lift the mats on a regular basis to check the floor. Some of the most horrific injuries you will ever see are caused by horses falling through trailer floors.

One of our equine lecturers at vet school told us the worst call he'd ever had to do was to go to a horse that had put both hindlegs through the floor of a lorry. He said it looked like it had put its feet through an electric pencil sharpener.
 
We've just put a new floor in our trailer. It's currently two layers of ply sheets. There are rubber mats running the full lenth of each horse section, these are screwed down so we can take them up and check the floor, as well as air it out and dry it out.
 
Plywood isnt very good for a trailer floor!!! but rubber mats are fine as long you remove them and check the floor and allow any damp to dry out as untreated ply rots quickly in damp conditions.. keruin or phenol flooring are the best wood based floors or the best is aluminum planks ....
 
Mine has a wooden floor and rubber mats - if its not in use for any length of time I take the mats out so the water doesnt get trapped underneath :)
 
perfect11s said:
Plywood isnt very good for a trailer floor!!! but rubber mats are fine as long you remove them and check the floor and allow any damp to dry out as untreated ply rots quickly in damp conditions.. keruin or phenol flooring are the best wood based floors or the best is aluminum planks ....
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We did ours on the advice of a trailer man... It's two lots of Brazilian hardword (3/4" each). It will have an aluminium sheet (3mm) when it goes off to have all its metal work done. The plywood has had some treatment, but I can't remember what it was :rolleyes:. It's cleaned out every use. Everything can be unbolted to check condition (only finished it about a month ago, so not taken it apart yet :cool:). The rubber mats are screwed down, but allow air to get between the layers. I wanted to put the liquid rubber down, but was advised against - the smallest nick will allow the fluid to get in and the rotting will start, unseen.

We were advised by various people agains using the marine type ply as it's not designed to cope with horse poo and wee (sorry, don't know the name of the preservative other than the title 'marine ply').
 
Mine has hardwood flooring, not ply. Everything on it is kept in good working order, as I value the health of my horse, and no points on my lisence
 
MrsMozart said:
We did ours on the advice of a trailer man... It's two lots of Brazilian hardword (3/4" each). It will have an aluminium sheet (3mm) when it goes off to have all its metal work done. The plywood has had some treatment, but I can't remember what it was :rolleyes:. It's cleaned out every use. Everything can be unbolted to check condition (only finished it about a month ago, so not taken it apart yet :cool:). The rubber mats are screwed down, but allow air to get between the layers. I wanted to put the liquid rubber down, but was advised against - the smallest nick will allow the fluid to get in and the rotting will start, unseen.

We were advised by various people agains using the marine type ply as it's not designed to cope with horse poo and wee (sorry, don't know the name of the preservative other than the title 'marine ply').
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Yes marine ply isnt great the best thing to use is the redish lorry flooring phenol ply ,if you have used that thicness of ply,and keep an eye on it should be fine esp if you soak it well with presrvitive ....
 
perfect11s said:
Yes marine ply isnt great the best thing to use is the redish lorry flooring phenol ply ,if you have used that thicness of ply,and keep an eye on it should be fine esp if you soak it well with presrvitive ....
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Thank you :). It got well soaked in preservative (still no idea what - D did that bit and he's gone to bed :rolleyes:). I'll look into the aluminium planks when it goes to the metal man :)
 
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