So…anyone have aluminum floor in your trailer? Love it,? Hate it? Hard to maintain?I’m looking at an all aluminum trailer that has it. Have you ever had one that corroded? My mechanic told me what to look for and I think the trailer I’m looking at might be ok, but still a little concerned.
Its a 12 year old all aluminum trailer… nice trailer but is def used. Concerned about how much of a pain it will be to maintain and what happens if the floor goes…I’m assuming it would be costly to replace?
My trailer has an aluminum floor and in fact so far I am assuming that the floor will last for a long long time… In fact I switched to that trailer several years ago because the trailer I had before had a wood floor and after 12 years I had to replace it… Iam really hoping that the aluminum floor will last longer and I don’t do any maintenance
Interesting… my mechanic said that the aluminum floor will corrode if not maintained, but hadn’t gotten into how much maintenance they actually needed. In looking at trailers, I’m finding a lot of people don’t use shavings which I think would help save floors? Thanks for your thoughts… hopefully that is the general consensus?
my floor has rubber on top. The rubber is glued on. I can use shavings or whatever as a bedding if I like… Usually I do nothing, because the rubber floor is very good. And I thought one advantage of aluminum is that it doesn’t corrode…
Apparently the corrosion is a common misconception from the mechanics point of view. He said if you lift the mats up and see white or pitting, its corroding. The trailer I’m looking at has thick mats but they are not solid mats across the whole trailer so moisture can get in underneath…how old is your trailer?
I’m on my second trailer with an aluminum floor. I have not added a spray in liner, there are rubber mats on the floors.
My first was heavily used for years, it was a 1996 Sooner and I sold it last year (on consignment) for 2500 less than I’d paid for it in 1999. The aluminum WILL corrode, but maintenance is really just washing out the corrosive urine and wet pine shavings. I did a couple of patches where there was some corrosion in my old one, all from my own lack of cleaning out, the new one, I’m much better. The corrosion is easily identified and once I realized what the problem was, I was much better at keeping it clean.
My new trailer is an all aluminum Eby. The mats are easier to move to clean, which is good. I’m still pondering whether I should do a liner, but would speak to the guys at the factory first.
My first trailer was a Rice, and it had teak floors. Those were still in fantastic shape after 10 years of use.
I currently have a 20+ year old Featherlite with the original aluminum floor. I’ve never even had to patch it, the trailer mechanic that sees it annually says it’s as good as new. I have regular mats and don’t do anything special. I always clean it out after every use and pull the mats and power wash the inside about once a month, but everyone should really be doing that with every trailer, I don’t consider that anything special or high maintenance. I haul several times each week.
I would not own a trailer with a wood floor.
its a 2006 model. So far I have no idea how the floor looks like because the rubber is like a coating… So I figure that not much get get to the aluminum floor anyhow… But of course I do keep it clean. I always remove any manure or wet stuff from the floor.
I have a 1999 and a 2003 and both have aluminum floors. They are no harder to maintain than wood. Cleaning the trailer out regularly is key. I use shavings, remove the poop every time I haul and power wash the floor after I remove the mats at least once a year. Manure and urine will corrode a floor if left in there, and that is any floor, not just aluminum. I have had 7 trailers over the last 20+ years, have hauled thousands of miles and never had an issue.
As I am getting older, I wouldn’t mind a Rumber or WERM floor, only because pulling mats gets tougher as I get older.
After I purchased my trailer with aluminum floor, I applied a paint-on rubber used to protect truck beds to seal the floor against urine. I think it was this one http://www.zoro.com/g/Truck%20Bed%20Coating/00040737/None
I do have rubber mats, and I do bed with shavings, but this protects the floor if any urine gets through the seams.
Thanks for the replies! I feel like I’m being super picky and cautious about this trailer search… trying to call my mechanic about this particular trailer and find a trailer shop in Baltimore area who could inspect the floors and look it over for me like a prepurchase exam. Thank you again!
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