Composite Tiles on a Sled Deck or Open Trailer

[boondocker97]

Trying to work out the plans for my 3-place sled deck that will sit on top of the new flatbed that is going on my truck. Going to use an 8'-4" wide by 11'-4" long aluminum open trailer, take the tongue and axle off, and weld some attachment points that will integrate with the stake pockets on the bed to hold it on. It's a sled trailer, but it was used to haul a rubber river raft its whole life so it's a blank canvas as far as laying out tie downs and ski glides. The flatbed uses L-track in a few places for tiedown points so I'm going to stick with a couple strips of that for superclamp and tie down anchor points.

What I'm trying to decide is what to use for ski glides. With this deck being setup for 3 sleds it would need at least (4) full runs and (2) 3/4 runs of glides. Plus, I have some vintage sleds kicking around with narrow ski stances and someone is probably going to have a 32" stance Doo at some point. So that means I better have the really wide glides. At that point I'm going to have 75% of the deck covered with those things.

I have DeckTred tiles in both my enclosed trailers and love them in there, so I contemplated using them again on this since I was going to have to cover most of the area anyway. However, my one gripe with them is you have almost no steering on them. For that reason I still used Caliber low pro glides on the rear door of one of the trailers. Seems like it could get a little sketchy loading that third sled or when backing sleds off without solid direction for the skis. Caliber has a tile option that looks like a person could steer on, but at $5.50 a square foot they are proud of it!

So...has anyone gone the tile route on a deck or open trailer before, and would you do it again?

 

[PSI 800]

My Full Lotus deck came with composite decking from new, you can buy it in 4x8 sheets. stuff is great, its is showing a little bit of wear but it is 15yrs old

 

[volcano buster]

How slick would it be to stand on with a small amount of snow, ice or otherwise?

 

[boondocker97]

How slick would it be to stand on with a small amount of snow, ice or otherwise?

The DeckTred tiles aren't slick at all to walk on when wet or snowy. If melted water gets on them it drains through so it can't really freeze on the surface.

 

[boondocker97]

My Full Lotus deck came with composite decking from new, you can buy it in 4x8 sheets. stuff is great, its is showing a little bit of wear but it is 15yrs old

I tried to look them up to see what material they were using, but seems they are out of business. Can you steer on it? Slippery? Is it similar material to what is marketed for boat decks? If that's the stuff they are definitely proud of it too at $8.50/sq ft for 4x8 sheet of 1/2".

Marine Board HDPE Sheeting 4 ft x 8 ft (48 in x 96 in) – Plastic Lumber Yard

plasticlumberyard.com

 

[Dr.Jimy]

Trying to work out the plans for my 3-place sled deck that will sit on top of the new flatbed that is going on my truck. Going to use an 8'-4" wide by 11'-4" long aluminum open trailer, take the tongue and axle off, and weld some attachment points that will integrate with the stake pockets on the bed to hold it on. It's a sled trailer, but it was used to haul a rubber river raft its whole life so it's a blank canvas as far as laying out tie downs and ski glides. The flatbed uses L-track in a few places for tiedown points so I'm going to stick with a couple strips of that for superclamp and tie down anchor points.

What I'm trying to decide is what to use for ski glides. With this deck being setup for 3 sleds it would need at least (4) full runs and (2) 3/4 runs of glides. Plus, I have some vintage sleds kicking around with narrow ski stances and someone is probably going to have a 32" stance Doo at some point. So that means I better have the really wide glides. At that point I'm going to have 75% of the deck covered with those things.

I have DeckTred tiles in both my enclosed trailers and love them in there, so I contemplated using them again on this since I was going to have to cover most of the area anyway. However, my one gripe with them is you have almost no steering on them. For that reason I still used Caliber low pro glides on the rear door of one of the trailers. Seems like it could get a little sketchy loading that third sled or when backing sleds off without solid direction for the skis. Caliber has a tile option that looks like a person could steer on, but at $5.50 a square foot they are proud of it!

So...has anyone gone the tile route on a deck or open trailer before, and would you do it again?

Just an idea, you could use trex decking turned upside down it has deep grooves and then use a circular saw set a proper depth to make cross cuts to help with the sick factor.

 

[MTNTKperformance]

I have a Charmac trailer that has some sort of plastic/rubberish flooring in it. It is not very slippery, even on the ramps you can walk up it when it is -10F with no problems. It has a diamond plate style pattern on it. What surprises me is the carbides don't damage it very much, but the ski's will steer on it to some degree. I have had the trailer 4 years and very little wear/damage considering the amount of use it has received. It seems like the carbides will cut slightly into the "diamonds" but never really get down to the base surface. I wondered if it was some sort of horse trailer floor, but maybe you could research what it is. I like it so much I would seriously consider a Charmac trailer in the future. Here are some pictures. - Shawn

 

[PSI 800]

How slick would it be to stand on with a small amount of snow, ice or otherwise?

not that bad actually

 

[MTNTKperformance]

You think it looks like it will be slick, but ends up not and I can walk up the ramp with no problem. Many times I have left the door down all day while testing and it collects 6" of snow on it and really no problems with it being slick.

 

[boondocker97]

I have a Charmac trailer that has some sort of plastic/rubberish flooring in it. It is not very slippery, even on the ramps you can walk up it when it is -10F with no problems. It has a diamond plate style pattern on it. What surprises me is the carbides don't damage it very much, but the ski's will steer on it to some degree. I have had the trailer 4 years and very little wear/damage considering the amount of use it has received. It seems like the carbides will cut slightly into the "diamonds" but never really get down to the base surface. I wondered if it was some sort of horse trailer floor, but maybe you could research what it is. I like it so much I would seriously consider a Charmac trailer in the future. Here are some pictures. - Shawn

Looks like nice stuff! My concern with that on top of a regular plywood floor after the fact is it could trap water and rot it out faster. In my case I'm going to have quite a few open edges working around the L-track. So even with a lot of glue I think it would be hard to keep the water out. Some of the trailers I've seen in the last few years have "waterproof" wood flooring that basically looks like a form of OSB with a TON of glue in it that seals it off. I wouldn't have a problem putting it over that stuff.

 

[Super 8]

I went with the Vevor vented version, Caliber on the ramps on my 7.5X29 enclosed, around $300 total for the tiles inside.

 

[IDspud]

The plywood will still breathe through.

 

[volcano buster]

I went with the Vevor vented version, Caliber on the ramps on my 7.5X29 enclosed, around $300 total for the tiles inside.

The leading edges of my plywood floor in the enclosed has been chewed on by the carbides. Will your tiles withstand that abuse?

 

[boondocker97]

The leading edges of my plywood floor in the enclosed has been chewed on by the carbides. Will your tiles withstand that abuse?

In my experience exiting off of the tiles isn't much of an issue, but driving from the ramp up onto the tile it can hook and start tearing them up. That's why they recommend a transition strip at the edge and/or do like I did and put the caliber transitions in that fold up.

 

[Super 8]

The leading edges of my plywood floor in the enclosed has been chewed on by the carbides. Will your tiles withstand that abuse?

I do not have pics after I was finished but capped the edges with aluminum angle but learned it was too soft for carbides so exchanged to 1.25" galvanized punched angle which has a nice rounded corner.

 

[Super 8]

Here is a pic of my first attempt aluminum to cap the floor, too soft and the carbides would catch.
I do run studs and you can see dome carnage starting but not bad.
Some guys run a pvc pipe in the hinge area to lift the ski's at you enter.