Would you buy a box/trailer with a wooden floor?

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SWE

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As above, looking at trailers and lots have had the floors replaced. Should i be dubious about wooden floors or if you were able to lift mats and there were no signs of damp, would you be happy?

Has anyone had any bad experiences of flooring of any sort in trailers?

Thanks
 
SWE said:
As above, looking at trailers and lots have had the floors replaced. Should i be dubious about wooden floors or if you were able to lift mats and there were no signs of damp, would you be happy?

Has anyone had any bad experiences of flooring of any sort in trailers?

Thanks
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A wooden floor is only as good as the person who checks it (regularly)Aluminum will also corrode . dont kid yourself. Get an expert to check and KEEP THE BLOODY THING MAINTAINED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apologies for the rant!
 
SWE said:
As above, looking at trailers and lots have had the floors replaced. Should i be dubious about wooden floors or if you were able to lift mats and there were no signs of damp, would you be happy?

Has anyone had any bad experiences of flooring of any sort in trailers?

Thanks
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Ime they're fine once you keep an eye on them. My current box is aluminium. The previous ones had wood floors but were all bought second hand and lived long lives. If you check under the mats and they look good I don't see that there'd be a problem.
 
Personally I would replace a trailer floor straight away. I did this when I bought my last second hand trailer as previous owner used to power wash it each time (found out later that this had caused the walls to rot too🙁). Bought new the next time.
 
I don’t think it matters, apart from the weight. A decent wooden floor feels more substantial to me but both should be perfectly capable of carrying horses.
 
I don't think it matters, any floor can deteriorate. I considered redoing our lorry with aluminium as I assumed this would be better but the guy doing it for us pointed out aluminium also corrodes especially around the fixings so either way they need to be well maintained.

I personally think wood is easier to check, I have always regularly gone under ours and prodded it with a screwdriver. Easy to see when it's starting to break down and replace, I think I'd struggle more to assess corrosion under fixings on aluminium
 
Wood rots, aluminium corrodes. Aluminium is presumably lighter, but the weight of wood may give a steadier, less bouncy ride.
I do have a trailer with a wooden floor, part is buffalo board, I look after it and regularly check its condition.
 
Wooden floors can last 50+ years if they're not left damp under rubber mats. My first trailer was from the '40s, and had the original floor with no rot at all (and leaf spring suspension :D)

Personally, I'd rather have a wooden floor which I can physically check myself, and will fail gradually over many years, than a 'looks perfect' ally one which could fail with no warning.
 
My trailer is buffalo board and was well maintained by its previous owner and will be well maintained by me. I've had it looked at by an 'expert' and they were happy with it and I'm happy with it. A bad floor is a bad floor regardless of the material used and vice versa. Dont be put off by a trailer with a wooden floor, you may be cutting your nose off spite your face!
 
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As others have said, check and keep checking. I personally wouldn't have a wooden floor again. I had one and replaced it before selling, it was an old trailer and was expensive to replace, I couldn't take a risk so buyer got a bargain!
Someone on my yard a while ago had their horse put his foot through a weak patch and degloved his leg. He had to be Pts.
 
As has been said, there is nothing wrong with wooden floors providing you periodically examine them & maintain them. I hace a wooden floor in my lorry, there is nothing wrong with it & I examine it occasionally to ensure it's in good order. When it meeds repairing/replacing then I will consider what material I will use, but I wouldn't rule out using wood.
 
CavaloBranco said:
As others have said, check and keep checking. I personally wouldn't have a wooden floor again. I had one and replaced it before selling, it was an old trailer and was expensive to replace, I couldn't take a risk so buyer got a bargain!
Someone on my yard a while ago had their horse put his foot through a weak patch and degloved his leg. He had to be Pts.
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That's due to poor maintenance though and the same could happen with an aluminium floor if the fixing are corroded and the whole panel goes through.....
 
Yes I'd buy wood, I had a Pegasus with 1" marine ply and it lasted me 9 years and a few more with its next owner. Wood shows its deterioration gently and gradually, just check it regularly and it's fine.
 
Just to jump on thread with another question. I have a wood floor and although it's fine, it is damp under the mats along the edges where the horses wee. Wee gets caught under and then stays there. Any way of avoiding this? I have removed mats, dried floor and replaced them but it's a heavy stinky job! So prevention is a better pption. Shavings down? Wood pellets??
 
Ambers Echo said:
Just to jump on thread with another question. I have a wood floor and although it's fine, it is damp under the mats along the edges where the horses wee. Wee gets caught under and then stays there. Any way of avoiding this? I have removed mats, dried floor and replaced them but it's a heavy stinky job! So prevention is a better pption. Shavings down? Wood pellets??
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I always roll the mats forward between trips. My trailer is over 20 years old and still as sound as the day I bought it (trailer lives in a shed and is checked very regularly). My old lorry had oak flooring; the metal girders underneath went, the wooden floor was fine...
 
AE that's why I won't have mats. I currently have a sealed rubber floor. As soon as I get the first sign the seal has gone, the rubber will come out and be replaced with wood. I find it much less slippery for them and me, and easy to know whether it's sound or not.
 
Having witnessed a terrible accident with a wooden floor (that looked in a decent state but clearly wasn't) I would personally never take the risk of a wooden floor again. If you do go for it, get an expert to check because the untrained eye can sometimes not identify areas of weakness. If you go for a metal floor it obviously also needs checking regularly but is normally slightly easier to spot defects.
 
Ambers Echo said:
Just to jump on thread with another question. I have a wood floor and although it's fine, it is damp under the mats along the edges where the horses wee. Wee gets caught under and then stays there. Any way of avoiding this? I have removed mats, dried floor and replaced them but it's a heavy stinky job! So prevention is a better pption. Shavings down? Wood pellets??
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Hi

We put bricks under out rubber matting whenever the trailer is stood so it's always drying out :)
 
alexomahony said:
Sorry to jump on this thread, but what do people think of the rot-proof plastic that Bateson use?
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It would worry me. Years ago, when restoring an old house with wooden windows, I found a brilliant piece on how wood ages gracefully and gives you plenty of notice that it needs maintenance, plastic (windows in the article) can fail without showing many warning signs. And ally is a bit the same.
 
Blossom117 said:
Having witnessed a terrible accident with a wooden floor (that looked in a decent state but clearly wasn't) I would personally never take the risk of a wooden floor again. If you do go for it, get an expert to check because the untrained eye can sometimes not identify areas of weakness. If you go for a metal floor it obviously also needs checking regularly but is normally slightly easier to spot defects.
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It's easy. You sound it with a hammer and poke anything remotely suspicious extremely hard with a long screwdriver. Wood which is wet or rotten sounds dull, not hard. As people have said above, aluminium rots too, but I think it's easier to check wood than aluminium. I always have two floors, for safety.
 
Blossom117 said:
Having witnessed a terrible accident with a wooden floor (that looked in a decent state but clearly wasn't) I would personally never take the risk of a wooden floor again. If you do go for it, get an expert to check because the untrained eye can sometimes not identify areas of weakness. If you go for a metal floor it obviously also needs checking regularly but is normally slightly easier to spot defects.
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This. I towed someone else's box that seemed absolutely fine with a wooden floor only to have a panel drop out when travelling with 2 on board! Luckily a friend behind alerted us & we stopped straight away on the hard shoulder & had another box collect the horses. I frightened me beyond belief! Needless to say on purchasing my own it has an ally floor & expertly serviced yearly.
 
alexomahony said:
Hi

We put bricks under out rubber matting whenever the trailer is stood so it's always drying out :)
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This, after every trip I clean and air out the floor under the mat. Ali floor in an Ifor 510, owned from new. Would do the same if it was a wood floor.

Agree with the poster who mentioned powerwashing as being very bad for trailers - water gets into places it shouldn't be and can't get out.
 
I wouldn't buy one with a wooden floor, personal choice after a friends horse was pts having gone through one, she checked it regularly and thought it was fine, I have one with an ali floor and pay for servicing and checking every year.
I have enough anxiety towing the trailer without that worry aswell!
 
Mine has a solid hardwood floor, then a second floor of aluminium sheeting. Its not thick enough to be used on its own, but does give an extra layer of protection, and its also not in contact with steel etc, and has all the right fittings so shouldn't corrode too much. I've then got sealed rubber mats on top
 
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