New trailer decking

[ohsoloco]

Well, the tires were the first to go on the trailer, and I got them replaced when I peeled one off the rim a few weeks ago  :  The treated pine decking is getting pretty tired, and I have some nice whilte oak logs that I'm going to cut the new decking from. 

Because the deck is 14' long, and I can't cut that long on my mill (nor do I have white oak logs that long), I am going to go with 10' and 4' pieces with the joints staggered.  Because of this, I have to fasten the ends down with screws or carriage bolts, and I'm wondering how long I should let the wood dry before fastening it down to avoid large gaps.  I'm planning on cutting it 6/4 and probably 8" wide. 

Oh, and one more thought.  Is there a best way to orient the boards?  I know boards want to cup towards the bark side of the board (the dip being in the middle of the board), so would I be better off to put the bark side down since the top face will get a beating from the sun, and be more prone to drying out quicker  ???

[bitternut]

I put mine down green and butted them as tight as I could get them. I now have close to 1/4" gaps between the boards. I actually like having the gaps as water runs right off easily. I don't know how you plan to screw them down but I found some 1/4" dia stainless flat head screws at Jamestown Distributors. They were self tapping but I found that it was easier to drill with a 1/4" bit till I spotted the metal and then drill with the tap drill. Then I ran a 1/4" tap into each hole. I also chamfered the holes so that the heads of the screws would be below the boards. Since I have accumulated a couple of extra cordless drills I set each one up for each function and it made the job real quick.

Since I was putting two screws in each 8" board I put the bark side up. They stayed pretty darn flat. Mine were also white oak and I did run them through my planer to get them all to the same thickness. I also painted the top side of the boards with TSC oil base tractor paint. White oak sure makes a nice deck. I am very happy with the way the deck turned out.

[Gary_C]

As a general rule, oak will take a year to air dry per inch of thickness. So even if you wait till the oak is down to fiber saturation or less, it could take a year and even then you will get some small gaps. My old 24 ft GN had 20 ft long oak deck boards and it had 3/8 to 1/2 inch gaps between the boards. They were random widths, between 6 and about 9 inches wide.

I don't think it matters which side is up. White oak will probably last longer than the rest of the trailer unless you  sandblast and paint that frame while you have the decking off. But maybe that is only for us northerners that have salt on our roads.

[beenthere]

ohsoloco
Put the best side up (usually it will be the bark side), as regardless of the ring structure (bark side up or bark side down), deck boards usually cup. Figure it is because top side dries and the underside gets wetted and doesn't dry much.
Look at most deck boards (like 5/4 radius edge decking) and you will see them cupped, regardless of which side is up. 

[Saki]

Good luck with your project. Sounds like you have a pretty good plan, and have already gotten some good advice. Only thing I can add is you want to minimize your gaps even more, instead of simply butting them together, you can put the squeeze on them by using a handman/farm jack or a few large pipe clamps to reall hold them together tightly. Fellow I know does this when repairing the floors in horse trailers/ He works in from each side and often has to trim the center board to fit, and still sometimes drives it into place with a sledge and a chunk of firewood.

[Dale Hatfield]

Treated decks in trailer floors.
Mine went south last summer. So i replaced it with white oak. But when I cut old decking out, It was only surface treated lumber .looked like it was painted on. Not pressure treated lumber. If I remember correctly im thinking it was white on the bottom side at the cross members. So if your buying a trailer id look hard at what lumber is on it.
Dale

[Weekend_Sawyer]

My brother brought me a very large dead white oak. we didn't measure it but it had to be chainsaw quartered before i could put it on the mill. I milled 16' long x 6/4 random width. widest was 14". when I was done I didn't want to put it on the trailer because it was gorgeous wood. But that's what it was for so I bolted it down. it has nice gaps that dirt and bark fall through now but it is solid and much better than the PT that was on it.

I was lucky. I had planned on milling 8/4 thick but a friend stopped by who used to work at a sawmill. He convinced me that 8/4 would be too thick and a waste of wood. He was right and they were pleanty heavy at 6/4.

Jon

[Dale Hatfield]

I cheated to save on lumber and weight I put 8/4 on the 3 outside boards and 5 /4on the middle

[ohsoloco]

Thanks for the help    I haven't been around a computer much at all since I posted this, and actually forgot I posted the question  :  I have to mill it at 6/4, cuz on each end of the trailer the deck boards slip into some channel.  I guess gaps aren't really a problem since I typicaly only haul logs, lumber, and the occasional car on the trailer.  When I hauled my old roofing materials to the transfer station I just put a huge tarp down first to keep all of the nails on the trailer  ;)  Guess I'll put it down green, and try to keep it in the shade for a while or covered with a tarp till it dries out some to keep down on the cupping. 

I still haven't decided if I want to go with tapped holes or carriage bolts  :-\

[Fla._Deadheader]

Tapped holes might be fine, BUT, when and if ya ever have to change boards, them rusted in corroded threads will be a bear. Carriage bolts, bust 'em off and punch 'em outta the hole. 

[Dave Shepard]

When I put a new deck on my 24' GN, I bought 8' red oak 8/4 lumber. The deck was originally inch and a half finished lumber, so I  rabbeted the ends of the boards with the chainsaw and slipped them under the lips on either end. In the middle, where the two joints were, I took two pieces of angle iron and welded them together to form a T and slipped the post part of the T in the joint and let the top hold the boards in place. I then welded the ends of the angle to the outside rails of the trailer. I ended up with about 3/8ths gap between all the boards. I bought about nine million carriage head bolts, but never got around to putting them in. ;)


Dave

[rebocardo]

If you want to min. warping and prevent end splitting, here is what to do. Lay everything down, leave enough room on the ends for holes 5/16 or 3/8 (depending on what you are hauling) bolts.

Drill a piece of 1/4" flat bar with holes that match up to frame members (if you do not have cross members in the exact spot needed, weld bed frame or angle to the closest member if you need to extend the flange).

Use the flatbar to clamp the wood. This helps prevent splitting the ends if you used washers instead and helps prevent warping because you are clamping the whole end. If you do this on every cross member every two feet you can use almost anything for wood without it twisting. Including PT wood from Home Depot.

When drilling through the flat bar, use low speed in case the bit gets angled and use a handle on the drill.