Loose floor board in horse trailer

[4horses]

I’ve been doing some repainting on my trailer when i happened to notice one of the boards is slightly loose. Do you know what the cost will be to fix? The floor is in good condition - floor is solid with the exception of this board. This board slightly wobbles - it looks like the screws are in place in the middle. The prior owner appears to have drilled a new hole in the board but didn’t get a screw in there, is what it looks like.

The board is firmly wedged under the trailer walls. I don’t see how you could replace it without removing the entire floor. I can’t check the screws under the walls? Perhaps i need to climb under the trailer and look?

Trailer is 12 years old.

[gottagrey]

prices are going to vary from area to area so hard to give any kind of idea. Best to talk to or take it to a trailer repair/maintenance place and have them take a look. I wouldn’t fool with it - get it repaired before loading any horses in there. It’s not pretty sight when the floor goes out from under them

[4horses]

I have a friend who has re-done floors. I plan to have him look at it first. He wouldn’t charge to look at it.

[TCA_Arabians]

Do get it fixed before loading. Your post reminded me about the story on the news of a horse’s foot dragging under the trailer when it broke through the floor. The horse died.

[beowulf]

I can’t give you a pricing estimate but can say any trailer mechanic would be able to do this very easily, and I can’t imagine there would be a big charge besides time/labor - takes about a minute to do if you’re only screwing the one… I prefer to see both ends of boards screwed down, FYI.

I would caution you always check this, and not haul until it’s fixed. I was hauling my horse home from a very fun XC meet when I felt a big bump behind. Weird, because we were only going 25mph on a quiet road and my gelding is a very good traveler. I decided to pull over and I am SO glad I did. Somehow, and I don’t know how, a board had come loose and while all the top ends of the boards were screwed, the bottom (ones close to the ramp) were not - one board had slipped over another and moved all of them to the side… and my horse was literally straddling the outside boards as they were the only stable ones :eek:

Did not help my dislike of trailering one bit! Horse was fine and happy to much grass while we fixed it :lol:

[SonnysMom]

I would have a good trailer mechanic look at it. My concern is that the cross member has rusted at the top under the board and out of sight and that is why there is no screw as there is nothing left to grab.