New Floorboards for an Old Trailer

We have had this trailer for nearly 12 years. It is well used for hauling mowers in the summer and the quad with plow in the winter. It has even carried logs. While the metal body is hard looking, it is what it is. Can’t do much about that now. We have known for a while that the floor boards needed to be replaced. One of those jobs you keep putting off for later. Well, we don’t have much choice now. Jim was stepping up onto the deck of the trailer to get on the ride-on mower and he put his foot right through the floor. Ouch.

First thing we had to do was remove the old boards. You can see how the boards rest in the channel at the front of the trailer and are screwed to the frame on the back.

Easy enough except a few of the long screws had rusted out and needed a little persuasion.

While Jim had the grinder out he changed the head to a wire wheel and went around the frame of the trailer cleaning it up.

Then it was time to spray rust check. I know..I know.. sort of like locking the barn door after the horse runs away.  Our thinking was we would like to get a few more years out of this trailer. I swear our next one will be a galvanized trailer. They cost a bit more but will not rust. Ever. We did remove the floor boards and rust check the frame when we bought it but not since.

With the trailer prepped all we needed were some new boards. Jim jumped in the skidsteer and brought a hemlock log to the mill where we proceeded to mill the lumber. We needed the boards to be 1 1/2 inches thick and 5 1/2 inches wide. Oh, and we needed 10 of them…or so we thought.

We managed to get 10 boards from one log plus a few with rounded sides. We were thinking, how lucky was that. Getting all the boards from one log. Whoo…Hoo. Then we carried all the boards over to the trailer only to discover we needed 11 boards. Sigh. We did have those two with rounded sides we could use.

At the trailer we squared of one end of each board, then measured the length we needed and cut of the other end. We got the boards in place and Jim had to drill holes into the boards and through the trailer frame.

With all the bolts in place, Jim went underneath to add washers and nuts.

It is so neat to start and finish a job like this without having to pick up supplies at the store first. Thats why be bought the mill in the first place. We will never run out of lumber. And I do mean never.

Here is the finished trailer deck.

Jim said the new floor boards will outlast the trailer. Another thing crossed off the to-do list. And after we finished Jim thanked me for my help. LOL, was that for supervising? Helping to carry over the boards? Or just keeping team moral high? Either way I said “Your welcome.”

Later