Any updates Snowflake? Add me to the list of brenderup owners that will need a new floor sometime soon. 
Perhaps this is obvious, but why can’t you put in an aluminum floor?
I also have a question as a new owner of a used Brenderup. I bought the trailer knowing that there was a bit of softening by the groom doors (original owner thought it was best to “air out the trailer” by keeping the windows open. . .argghhh! I got an amazing deal on the trailer though so I shouldn’t complain.).
Anyways, what is the best way to handle this? The rest of the floor is 100% fine. I checked it with a screw driver like everyone else recommended and there is no softening anywhere else. The trailer place that I brought it to recommended putting 3/4" advantech OVER the existing floor and then chalking the entire thing to preserve the floor. I asked about treating the area that has some softening but he did not think that was necessary.
FWIW I am very confident in the trailer place I took the Brenderup to. They had never serviced Brenderup trailers before but came highly recommended from a professional horse hauler. They listened when I explained about the brakes and the bearings, etc. They were able to adjust the brakes without any problems. The owner had never seen a Brenderup before and was very impressed with how it was made, etc. When he pointed out the features he really liked on the trailer, he almost sounded like a salesman!
Also, I’d like to thank everyone who has posted about Brenderup trailers in the past. Searching the archives was very informative.
I am “in” for getting a floor replacement. If enough of us need one a container shouldn’t be too expensive to split. Please let me know if anyone goes further with this. I have a 2000 Brenderup Royal TC. Floor is still okay but getting soft in spots at the back. I really want to keep this trailer going. I LOVE it.
[QUOTE=Snowflake;6902639]
Brenderup fabricates their own 1" Baltic Birch Hardwood Floors in one piece sheets. They are 7’1" wide by 11’4" long for most trailers. I have tried to source a 8’x12’ 1" sheet of birch or any other hardwood/marine grade lumber and I have been told by several lumberyards and custom hardwood wholesalers that such a beast does not exist and they know of no fabricators in North America that could laminate something that large. The largest 1" hardwood ply I was able to find were 4’x10’ sheets.
I have a 1994 Royal TC with the original floor. I’d gladly pay $2000 for a floor that will last me 20 years. That’s $100 per year investment. I’m hoping with the waiting list of 20+ people that Traveled Lane has for Brenderup Floors that we’ll be able to work something out.
Too bad I didn’t win the powerball or I’d be working with Thule to reopen the distribution lines to America. The newest Brenderup models look quite spiffy.[/QUOTE]
There just have to be some wooden boat builders who can do that!
Please add me to the list if you find a way to get the one piece floors. Having a hard time finding a place in Northern California that works on these trailers.
It seems like a fairly simple project to make your own big piece of plywood with 1/4" sheets of plywood. As long as you have a garage floor or driveway (don’t make it in the house – it won’t fit out the door!), you could place two sheets of 1/4" 4’x12’ plywood side by side, making an 8’x12’ rectangle.
Layer sheets on top to make your own plywood: glue (use a waterproof wood glue) three sheets of 4’x8’ on top (to make that 8’x12’ shape with seams running the other way), and repeat the two steps so you end up with four layers. You might want to use an extra piece so you can stagger the joints.
Screw all the pieces together , especially around the edges which will be cut off later, and place HEAVY weights on the whole surface (I’m thinking more plywood with sandbags or cinderblocks on top) and leave it for a few days to dry well. You might want to clamp it from the sides to squeeze all the joints together.
When it is done, remove screws (unless they are in a spot which won’t pose a problem), fill holes, and paint with a good hard acrylic or polyurethane finish.
Then, using your old floor as a pattern, cut the new floor to shape with a jigsaw, circular saw or whatever works for the shape.
You could get fancier with additional steps like making an interlocking seam, using biscuits or dowels to reinforce the joints (1/4" might be too thin for that but it might work), using lap-cut plywood, or making a scarf joint (see link). Personally, I wouldn’t worry too much about perfect seams since the plies will give you plenty of strength, and the stresses on your finished product will be more compressive from horses standing on top, rather than tensile, pulling-apart stresses which would happen in something like a boat.
Also, for a prettier floor and stronger top surface, you could use birch-faced plywood for the finished top layer. Usually the pretty stuff comes in thicker sheets so you would want to account for that in your construction project.
Some references:
http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/05/articles/scarfs/
http://www.woodworking-online.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5368
If anyone tracking this thread is still looking for a solution for their floor, I started a new thread about how I repaired the floor in my Brenderup.
Resurrecting this ancient history to see if anyone else has updates.
I left my Brenderup Solo with the trailer repair guys this morning. They’re going to take a look and give me my options. They do trailers of all kinds, including custom work and insurance/rebuilding, so if anybody can figure this Brenderup floor conundrum out, it’s them. Also, much to my delight, they think they can retrofit my chest bar with a quick release safety feature. ::drool::
[QUOTE=jn4jenny;7442312]
Resurrecting this ancient history to see if anyone else has updates.
Never posted about this before, but, I replaced several Bup floors with 2 x 6 treated boards, added a few 2 x 2 x 1/4 galvanized angles so there was something to attach too, the installer must notch / reduce / rip the 2x boards at the back to 1" so the rear ramp will be able to close. ( was told about doing this by the guy that used to put together Bups in TX, and briefly sold parts ) Works out fine as far as I know, surely stronger than the original, never had any call back on any replacement
Risa
HappyTrailsTrailers.com
Risa, thanks so much for that info! I’m emailing my trailer guy with all the options I’ve found so far, so I passed along your suggested fix.
I just bought a Fautras so will be selling my Baron, but I have found the information on this site extremely helpful for all things Brenderup-related, including floor replacement ideas:
http://brenderhelp.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2012-11-30T06:49:00-08:00&max-results=7
jn4jenny- Did your trailer guy have any other ideas not already mentioned? Did you make a decision on which to go with?
grinanride- Aren’t the 2x6 boards significantly heavier than a plywood floor? Any idea how much heavier the trailer was with the new floor you described?
Thanks!
[QUOTE=BK6756;7532766]
jn4jenny- Did your trailer guy have any other ideas not already mentioned? Did you make a decision on which to go with?
grinanride- Aren’t the 2x6 boards significantly heavier than a plywood floor? Any idea how much heavier the trailer was with the new floor you described?
Thanks![/QUOTE]
Brenderup floors were birch laminated sheets, we did add a little weight with the addition of a few angles and the 2 x 6 boards, probably not more than 100 lbs, this would not be significant. The way the Bup was built it needed the rear bar and floor in tact to prevent the frame from flexing too much, the fellow that used to assemble Bup trailers in TX suggested this way to replace the rotten floors…
Risa
[QUOTE=BK6756;7532766]
jn4jenny- Did your trailer guy have any other ideas not already mentioned? Did you make a decision on which to go with?[/QUOTE]
Alas, I lucked out–my trailer guy said the floor was in awesome shape and that I’d be a fool to replace it. So we didn’t discuss other ideas. Sorry.
On the upside, my trailer guy did a beautiful repair on one exterior wall where the vinyl sheeting on my plywood had been split open and allowed water to leak in. I told my trailer guy we could just sand off the surface damage to the wood (which was minimal) and paint the wall with outdoor latex paint (which is what Simon Barr had suggested to me for my previous Brenderup), but my trailer guy proposed to clean it up, sand it, and put a piece of white aluminum sheeting over that whole panel + use a water sealant along the edges. It looks gorgeous. Because of the angle at which I park my trailer, that was the side that most boarders saw when they pulled into the barn parking lot, and two of them honestly thought I’d bought a whole new trailer.
I’m bummed. I took my '99 Baron to have the floor checked out in March 2013; the one area that they put an epoxy patch on was in the back left corner of the horse compartment. F-forward to last weekend when I realized that there is at least one small but seriously “punky” area in the tack compartment …
so they are now thinking that the floor does indeed need to be replaced. Whimper.
By the way, we think the problem in the tack compartment is thanks to the weatherstripping having shrunk on the left side, so it allows rain to seep in and flow down to drain at the bottom of the door, onto the floor and thus rotting it.
I don’t know if you guys might find these products useful, but there is a company called Abatron that has made wonderful wood rot killer and filler products for more than a decade. They have a two part epoxy liquid called Liquid Wood and a two part paste called Wood Epox. They also have a paste called Abo-Weld 55-1. From my personal experience their products really do work well. They are allowed for use in historical restoration.
Perhaps some of their products would help on wooden trailer floors.
http://www.abatron.com/
Update:
Connecticut Trailers in Bolton, CT has a source to make a large enough sheet of plywood! I let Conn. Trailers take a core sample from my tack compartment to make sure the source could make something like that. He can!
My trailer’s been at Conn. Trailers for a little over a week. When they took the floor off, they found the problem was worse than the two isolated punky areas we knew of: there was rot all the way around under the walls!! They’re going to coat both sides of the floor (with a bedliner product, I believe he said) so this won’t happen again (fingers crossed on my part!)
I am hoping to bring it home today, and I plan to take pictures of the original floor.
Update:
Just brought my Port-a-Potty-on-Wheels home, sporting a nice new floor!
I was horrified at the photos of the old floor that the service manager showed me on his phone (he promised to email them to me so I’ll be able to share them). I shudder to think that the last time I used the trailer, I trailered my mare and a friend’s pony home. That bad.
I now have a shiny new floor … literally, since the top & bottom were coated with “Scorpion Product Coating” (per the invoice). One single piece of plywood, like the original. No new supports needed! About $1500 for the floor replacement. Well worth it, as I now have a reliably safe trailer for many years to come!
Just bumping this, as I am wondering if you ever got the photos.
unfortunately, he apparently had deleted the photos from his phone by the time I reminded him I wanted them. grrrrr.
Is is baltic birth? Or did they end up using a different type of wood?
