Saw Mill Wood for car hauler

[RedEyedRooster]

I have a 16ft car hauler that needs a new wood floor. Boards are 16'Long x 1.5" thick, 3 are 7 5/16" wide and 11 are 5 1/2" wide. Question is whats the best wood to ask for? Will a saw mill cut to size? and what do you think I'm looking at in cost? I live in Indiana, I'm just looking for an ideal ya know and I figured this was the best place to ask. I need your opinion because who else would know better.

 

[rarefish383]

Many years ago I put a new Oak bed on a 12 foot stakebody. They did cut to size. They actually cut the boards a couple feet longer than I asked for because of end checking. They also through in enough extra boards that I made new side boards and headboard. Not saying any other mill will do that. I was surprised that the Oak boards did not last as long as the original Pine boards. All I remember is that way back then, I was surprised at how cheap they were. No idea about cost today, Joe.

 

[mtngun]

I believe white oak is commonly used for this application.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

My first choice would be Black Locust. My second choice would be White Oak (Heartwood only).
I would choose pressure treated pine over White Oak Sapwood.
Yes, I think most small mills will cut to custom sizes. I know I do.
As far as price goes, I was selling Kiln Dried White Oak Heartwood for $2.00 / Bf and your trailer will need about 190 Bf of lumber.
Rick

 

[RedEyedRooster]

I'm smilin cause I got so many Black Locust on my property. Just got done buckin up a couple that the wind blew over earlier this spring, all split and put on the rack for firewood. Things grow like weeds if I don't mow every week. I've been thinking what I could do to preserve this floor once I decide on what to go with, ever heard of 50/50 mix of diesel fuel and used motor oil as a preservative, sounds like it will be a sticky mess. I'm always learning something new from this sight. I guess that's why I am so interested just to sit and read your'alls experiences and advise.

 

[mikeb1079]

i've just done a bit of research on this topic b/c a fella that hooked me up with some logs requested some trailer decking for heavy equipment trailers. white oak has been the industry standard for a while, though now there's a lot of sites trying to sell exotics for this purpose. harder and more rot resistant but big $$$. if you have black locust i'd certainly try to have some of that milled and use it for your decking. way harder and more rot resistant than white oak. depending on where you're at, you can probably find a mobile band sawyer come to your place and saw for not too much coin. plus, what could be cooler than using your own timber?
let us know how it goes...

 

[RedEyedRooster]

Well I've decided to go with the Black Locust. I took a look around to find a portable saw mill operator and found a guy I like about 30 mile from the house. Problem is I don't have enough big Black Locust to get the 16 footers I need. He has 2 logs now at his mill and is looking for couple more. He says that sometimes its hard to find a log that you can get good boards from that size, it seems they tend to have bad places in them. Anyway agreed on a price of 1.75 ft for rough cut. Think that's about right? and I'm looking at about 190 ft right? Looking to get them about the end of August he says he is pretty busy.

 

[mikeb1079]

i'm not surprised to hear about locust being tough to find for your application. seems like most of the black locust around here doesn't grow straight and has a fair amount of defect to it....
so there's no cross member on the trailer where you could break the decking boards on? then you wouldn't have to have 16 footers...

 

[RedEyedRooster]

Yes there are cross members throughout the deck but I think I want to wait for the full length boards. I have a question figuring the board feet. It has been said I'll need about 190 bf but I figured with it would be 164.88 bf. I need 16ft boards 1 1/2" thick. 11 will be 5 1/2" wide and 3 will be 7 5/16 wide. So am I off or just how much am I looking at.

 

[mikeb1079]

you should be spot on. looks like your trailer is just under 7' wide so just multiply 16x7x1.5 is 168bf. @ 1.75 a bf is right around 300 bucks. is that the price for you supplying the logs?

 

[jimdad07]

Hemlock is popular up here for trailers, even ones hauling heavy equipment.

 

[RedEyedRooster]

I never looked at Hemlock it must be good if used up north with heavy equipment. I did look at some Brazilian Apitong which is used on big rig's but its super expensive. The Black Locust at $1.75 bf is the mills logs. I just don't have enough large ones to have the portable mill come out and setup. If I did, setup would be $40.00 and .30 cents a bf. $280 to $300 is a little over twice the amount of pressure treated lumber here but I'm hoping Black Locust will be stronger and out last the pressure treated lumber. The trailer has about 200 torx screws holding the boards and the metal angle iron at the end has to be cut then re-welded in after replacing the boards. I don't want to replace this wood floor again for a good while if I can help. Pressure treated lumber probably would be fine but surely Black Locust is more dense. I just don't like the fact that the treatment is corrosive to metal. I could go on the hunt for CCA pressure treated which is a less corrosive but I don't want to worry that I screwd a bunch of boards down that could potentially start the trailer to rust prematurely.