The decking on my trailer had seen better days and so I gave it an upgrade. I primarily use it for hauling vehicles so I wanted something stronger than wood for where the tires would sit. I had seen a post on another forum where someone had redecked their entire trailer with C purlins so that got the wheels in my head spinning. My trailer is a flush deck and I found they make purlins in 1.5x3 or 1.5x4 that would match the thickness of normal 2x wood.
I decided to use the 1.5x3 for added stiffness/durability and spaced everything 1/4" apart for water drainage. The purlins were welded to every crossbar and I used a 1/4" spacer to weld them to each other from the top so I wouldn't have to weld the one side from underneath. While I had the deck off I also repainted the frame and reran all the wires through plastic tubing.
So why half metal, half wood? I use the trailer primarily for hauling my jeep and wanted to beefen up the trailer where the jeep sits. I didn't want metal underneath the jeep because I would be laying on my back in that area at times for repairs and wood also does better with any possible fluid drips.
Walking across the trailer you can really tell the difference in stiffness between the purlins and wood. There are some disadvantages though. The purlins cost twice the price of decking the same area as pressure treated wood. They are also 50% heavier but with the smaller area that I did the weight gain was about 75lbs total. The metal decking is also slicker and retains more heat. I used grey paint with fine grain sand mixed in and it has some grip now while being much cooler to the touch.
I decided to use the 1.5x3 for added stiffness/durability and spaced everything 1/4" apart for water drainage. The purlins were welded to every crossbar and I used a 1/4" spacer to weld them to each other from the top so I wouldn't have to weld the one side from underneath. While I had the deck off I also repainted the frame and reran all the wires through plastic tubing.
So why half metal, half wood? I use the trailer primarily for hauling my jeep and wanted to beefen up the trailer where the jeep sits. I didn't want metal underneath the jeep because I would be laying on my back in that area at times for repairs and wood also does better with any possible fluid drips.
Walking across the trailer you can really tell the difference in stiffness between the purlins and wood. There are some disadvantages though. The purlins cost twice the price of decking the same area as pressure treated wood. They are also 50% heavier but with the smaller area that I did the weight gain was about 75lbs total. The metal decking is also slicker and retains more heat. I used grey paint with fine grain sand mixed in and it has some grip now while being much cooler to the touch.
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