Lowboy Re Deck

[workshoprat92]

Well we hit that pinnacle point where it is just absolutely time to re-deck the ol trailer. Getting really old jumping through the holes while getting loaded or unloaded. I found a local sawmill who cut me oak wood for $1 a board foot. Cost us 300 for the wood and 40 for all the screws. other than all the labor not a bad price for a new deck.

 

[JDOFMEMI]

That is a decent price. I wish I could get good wood here for a decent price. I paid more than that for crappy Dug Fir that won't last. Good wood is hard to find out here.

 

[lantraxco]

Apitong is best, but they weight it out by the ounce....

 

[JDOFMEMI]

The last time I priced Apitong, it was $2,600 for the wood just for the outer two boards on each side.

They last about four years. I have been using Dug Fir at a little under $400, and it lasts about a year, maybe a little more if I am extra careful and put rubber down when hauling tracked iron.

 

[RonG]

Hard wood is plentiful here on the east coat.I have found that most often if you provide the raw material to the sawmill they will saw the boards five quarter and load them for a fair price.Then the fun starts)I like to use the same bolt holes in the crossmembers and it can be a pain because they have to be drilled from underneath to do it right.I think that too many holes can weaken those frame members.Ron G

 

[workshoprat92]

Finished the new deck yesterday. Here is the best way we found to drill holes. We use a mag base drill and clamp a piece of channel steel across the bed. you can just slide the drill along this steel and drill baby drill! sure takes alot of the back work out of it and hung up and broken bits.

4 years for that expensive wood dosent seem like very long. I got a good 9 years out of the first deck and it was oak. I expect to get much more out of this one as we put on much better wood than the factory and our install looks so much better than what I got from the factory.

 

[workshoprat92]

The last time I priced Apitong, it was $2,600 for the wood just for the outer two boards on each side.

They last about four years. I have been using Dug Fir at a little under $400, and it lasts about a year, maybe a little more if I am extra careful and put rubber down when hauling tracked iron.

Maybee it would be worth getting some good oak shipped out to you? I know the shipping is expensive but man if you can get 4x the time out of it look at all the downtime and labor you would be saving. An enterpising person would buy a whole trailer load and sell the rest for a profit.

 

[JBGASH]

Workshop rat, the floor looks great, that white oak is very tough. I have been putting 2 1/2" thick oak down and having very good results. I give it a couple coats of heavy linseed oil once it cures a few weeks, seems to last 5-8 yrs. I will use your magdrill idea the next time too.

 

[workshoprat92]

Workshop rat, the floor looks great, that white oak is very tough. I have been putting 2 1/2" thick oak down and having very good results. I give it a couple coats of heavy linseed oil once it cures a few weeks, seems to last 5-8 yrs. I will use your magdrill idea the next time too.

Wow where did you get screws for 2.5" wood. I had a hard time getting 2.5" screws for the 2" wood we put on. Of course I wanted the 5/16 screws and not the 1/4" ones. I got mine at AA wheel and truck supply here in Springfield. The trailer came with 1.5" boards. When I asked if the sawmill would cut me 1.5" they said you may as well get the 2 inch cause we are going to charge you just the same and your gona pay for 2 inch anyhow so you may as well get it. I am so glad we did as it is so much more stout than the 1.5".

 

[JBGASH]

Wow where did you get screws for 2.5" wood. I had a hard time getting 2.5" screws for the 2" wood we put on. Of course I wanted the 5/16 screws and not the 1/4" ones. I got mine at AA wheel and truck supply here in Springfield. The trailer came with 1.5" boards. When I asked if the sawmill would cut me 1.5" they said you may as well get the 2 inch cause we are going to charge you just the same and your gona pay for 2 inch anyhow so you may as well get it. I am so glad we did as it is so much more stout than the 1.5".

Workshop, I got the screws from Fastenal, they special ordered them. I tried several places before Fastenal with no luck, there is a Double AA in Kansas City but never thought of them.

 

[workshoprat92]

I don't know what Fastenal gets for screws but AA wheel was .14 cents apiece. I thought that to be quite reasonable. Of course 2.5" is as long as they have so I don't know that helps you.

 

[old-iron-habit]

Last decking job I helped with we used 1/4" carriage bolts. Other than crawling underneath to put the nuts on it wasn't really much more work when one has to pre drill anyway. Deck looks good and the bolts have held up well. We should have used the mag drill idea though. I stored that idea in my head as I am redoing the deck on mine next year.

 

[RonG]

I always used carriage bolts.Is that what you are calling screws?I don't think that getting carriage bolts that length should be a problem.You do nice work in any case.Wow.old-iron-habit hit post one minute before I did.lol RonG

 

[workshoprat92]

I am using the self tapping screws made for trailer decks. They have the head that takes a torks bit to drive them. We use a 1/2" drive air impact wrench to drive them and sink em just a little below the top of the wood so they dont get hung on loader buckets and such.

The mag drill really does work well. It really takes all the work out of it and we did the whole job with one drill bit!

 

[dd13]

Well we hit that pinnacle point where it is just absolutely time to re-deck the ol trailer. Getting really old jumping through the holes while getting loaded or unloaded. I found a local sawmill who cut me oak wood for $1 a board foot. Cost us 300 for the wood and 40 for all the screws. other than all the labor not a bad price for a new deck.

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how much did labor cost you

 

[Delmer]

I'd guess he paid full price for the labor...

 

[workshoprat92]

how much did labor cost you

Well I think I spent about $20 for beer to drink while me and my buddies did the job on a weekend.

 

[Nige]

Wow where did you get screws for 2.5" wood. I had a hard time getting 2.5" screws for the 2" wood we put on. Of course I wanted the 5/16 screws and not the 1/4" ones. I got mine at AA wheel and truck supply here in Springfield. The trailer came with 1.5" boards. When I asked if the sawmill would cut me 1.5" they said you may as well get the 2 inch cause we are going to charge you just the same and your gona pay for 2 inch anyhow so you may as well get it. I am so glad we did as it is so much more stout than the 1.5".

With thick timber like 2.5"+ you could also contemplate countersinking the screw head maybe 1" deep into the timber. I realise it means drilling twice, once for the screw hole then 1" deep with a larger diameter bit to produce the countersink for the head but it would enable you to either use thicker timber or shorter screws, whichever works best in your specific circumstances.

 

[renovator]

I recently spent a couple of years working at real, old-fashioned, locally-owned lumber yard. The kept heavy, nasty, rough 2" x 12" x 20' red oak in stock. The only people that bought it were folks looking to re-deck lowboys. They also sold screws called "tech reamers w/ wings." They are a counter sunk self-drilling screw that has wings that cut the countersink hole and then break off while the self-drilling tip drills through the wood and then into the metal cross members. We sold a fair amount of those screws and didn't hear any complaints. I guess the moral of this story is to find a real lumber yard, if you can. They can find almost anything--for a price--and have sources for milling the lumber, etc. The guys I worked for even located some tongue and groove apitong for a government project.

 

[old-iron-habit]

I recently spent a couple of years working at real, old-fashioned, locally-owned lumber yard. The kept heavy, nasty, rough 2" x 12" x 20' red oak in stock. The only people that bought it were folks looking to re-deck lowboys. They also sold screws called "tech reamers w/ wings." They are a counter sunk self-drilling screw that has wings that cut the countersink hole and then break off while the self-drilling tip drills through the wood and then into the metal cross members. We sold a fair amount of those screws and didn't hear any complaints. I guess the moral of this story is to find a real lumber yard, if you can. They can find almost anything--for a price--and have sources for milling the lumber, etc. The guys I worked for even located some tongue and groove apitong for a government project.

We uses winged screws like that but they cut a thread sized hole all the way thru the wood for the screw but broke of when they hit the metal. Fastenall has them in all sizes and lengths. We used the ones with a recessed square drive to head to torque them in.