Getting the most out of your trailer flooring is possible with products designed to reduce maintenance and add longetivity to its service life. Flooring manufacturer Prolam offers several new technologies that provide superior protection against moisture, for example.
In the simplest of terms, trailer floors consist of floorboards spread across the width of the trailer and secured lengthwise to crossmembers that run between the bottom rails. In truth, a trailer floor is much more complex. It is, in fact, a system of components designed to distribute loads effectively throughout the vehicle’s structure. The floor system in a trailer allows weight to be transferred to bottom rails and walls and eventually to tractor and trailer suspensions and to the ground.
The Truck Trailer Manufacturers Association (TTMA) Recommended Practice (TTMA RP No. 37-02) is the industry standard to rate trailer floor systems. This method includes dynamic testing by cycling a lift truck in andout of the trailer.
Technically, flooring is not given a load rating; only the floor system is rated. The intended use of the trailer can help determine which rating is most applicable depending on frequency of loading and other servicefactors.
Choices
Specifying the right type of flooring for each trailer application ensures load carrying capacity needs are met. The choice offlooring material is also one of the most important factors in trailer durability. Floorboards made of appropriate materials for the loads being hauled help minimize stress on components, eliminate failures and lead to longer trailer service life.
There are different types of trailer flooring available to fleets, including hardwoods such as laminated oak and maple, composite materials and aluminum. Oak, for its resistance to decay, is the most common flooring material, while fleets hauling heavy and water sensitive loads often use composites, and aluminum is used when floors need to be washed.
Fleet managers specifying hardwood trailer floors should consider several factors, including load rating, the decay resistance of the wood, nailing requirements, type of loads hauled, expected life, maintenance needs, lifetime cost and resale value.
Aluminum floors come in several varieties. Duct floors arespecified for return airflow when refrigerated cargo is loaded directly on thefloor while palletized loads can usually be handled on flat aluminum floors. Special designs are also offered to ensure traction and avoid slips and falls.
Composite flooring available in several thicknesses offers fatigue resistance and improved waterproofing and weight savings. Usually based on conventional hardwood, composite floors are protected by glass fiber reinforced epoxies or polymer substrates, which are often stronger and stiffer than the wood and therefore allow for the use of a thinner layer of wood to provide weight savings.
Enviro-friendly floors
Trailer manufacturers that are moving to adopt environmentally friendly trailer components are supporting the use of 100% SFI Certified trailer floors. SFI Certification, issued by the Sustainable ForestryInitiative program, is available to any land management company (usually with 10,000 acres or more), forest product manufacturer, paper producer or any other company that manages forest products.
SFI certification requirements include completing initial, annual surveillance and recertification audits every five years, posting of audit summary documents on the SFI Program website, and third party certification by audit firms that complete a special accreditation program. SFI certified hardwood suppliers ensure that trailer flooring is from environmentally acceptable sources and is handled properly.
Protecting Trailer Floors
Several factors affect the life of laminated hardwood trailer floors. Care should be taken to keep resistant hardwood flooring dry and flooring in trailers should be checked on a frequent basis. Potential locations for water entrapment and premature decay of non-resistant hardwood flooring include the underside of the threshold plate, at the lips of rails and channels, at the connection of boards to the coupler plate and at screw holes.
Generally, wood flooring can undergo fluctuations in moisture content without causing problems. However, when trailers are continuously operated in dry environments for prolonged periods of time, wood can rapidly lose a significant amount of moisture, especially during the summermonths. This can lead to cracking of floorboards.
If wood floors are washed or if a trailer floor is allowed to collect water, floorboards can absorb excessive amounts of moisture leading to swelling in thickness and width of the boards. Drying of wood will typically follow the wetting stage, leading to some degree of cracking. This phenomenon is usually found to occur at the door of trailers after several years of road service.
Once a trailer floor coating has been breached, water can migrate into the trailer, resulting in cargo damage, high repair costs and reduced service life. Traditionally, floor protection consists of varnishes and polyurethane topcoats, but these products are known to eventually break down due to forklift traffic and pallets being moved across the floor. Furthermore, oil-based floor protection products are liquid and therefore progressively disperse over time, losing their effectiveness.
To help address the need for longer term hardwood trailer floor protection, flooring manufacturer Prolam offers two products:
PuR (polyurethane reactive) is a hot-melt coating that resists moisture intrusion from underneath the trailer, especially in climates with extreme weather conditions. Specific areas, like trailer wheel locations,are more prone to degradation. PuR, according to Prolam, provides superior moisture resistance because it has a thickness of .010-in. compared to .0035in. for water-based coating. Its viscosity allows it to adhere perfectly to wood laminate, creating a solid bond and providing a single uniform sheet barrier against moisture under laminated hardwood floors. PuR can even “bridge” wood defects, knots and critical areas like butt-end joints, Prolam says.
WAXIN for trailer floor protection from Prolam is a process that heats the hardwood to expand its fibers and allow paraffin wax to penetrate the wood surface (0.060 to 0.120 in. deep). The wax then adheres to the wood fibers and when the mix cools, the paraffin hardens and coats the wood, creating what the manufacturer says is a virtually waterproof barrier of protection. It is generally applied to the area of the floor most exposed and vulnerable to inclement weather, specifically the rear most eight ft. of the trailer.
[source - fleetequipmentmag.com]
