Trailer bed -- cheap practical alternatives to bedliner

railroad track

bubbling had

I suspect that my experience differs as in most cases my anode has been significantly bigger than the object being de-rusted

AWEM

Home Depot sells pressure treated plywood. I recently re-did my trailer bed with the stuff. It should be far better than applying something like Cuprinal because the preservative penetrates better. The only downside is that the stuff is dense and therefore heavy.

If you are fastening to angle iron, consider something called a sidewalk bolt. It is a stainless 1/4 - 20 bolt with a wide, thin, head. Many may not be familiar with it because they are normally used for storm shutters, but I am finding more and more applications. You can see a picture of them on this page (this store calls them "sidewalk screws")

While I was at it, I built new rails from plastic decking "lumber". Again, that stuff is heavy, but it should last forever.

Vaughn

Try POR-15. Good stuff.

Steve Walker

Biggest downside is it is the crappiest plywood ever, and usually so wet a skil saw throws a roostertail when cutting. PTF plywood is a bit better than some (pressure treated foundation)

Seems very impressive.

How would it survive hauling cargo in the bed?

i

I agree 100% that the plywood I need to buy ought to be treated.

I am sorry if I appear to be "waffling on this issue". My latest thinking is that with all those coatings, they will get damaged after not so long and then my problems will reappear, only they will be harder to treat. (that would not apply to the outside, where POR-15 or cold galvanizing would possibly be ideal).

So, it is easier to use a solution that simply requires periodic maintenance. Which is cleaning the bed, applying oily rust preventative like LPS, CorrosionX etc, and using plywood on top. I would periodically reapply rust preventative on dry days, and this would last forever at a minimal cost.

i

You can buy DIY bedliner kits for as little as $50 if you shop a bit.

Your plan is going to get pretty close to that.

With the DIY coatings, it is very easy to repair any gouges in the coating (just clean and apply some fresh coating to the damaged area) and all the coatings are a lot more durable than you might think. Sliding something with a protruding sharp metal edge could gouge through the coating, but normal wood palettes and flat machine bases won't hurt the coatings.

Pete C.

I don't believe it would. I believe it's intended to treat rust before applying a more durable coating, basically a rust converting primer.

Pete C.

There is a second downside. The preservative is highly corrosive. I expect the same is true of cuprinol. It may be better to paint, or apply fiberglass resin to the plywood and repaint/replace it as needed.

It would be a lot of nasty work to fiberglass the bed, but some people are good at that sort of thing.

Owatrol - good for stabilising timber *AND* rust. Get as much off as you can mechanically, then use a chemical rust remover, get it clean dry and warm and coat it with a 50/50 mix of aluminium flake or high zinc primer and Owatrol (or mix your own using owatrol as the base). If its likely to get scraped, I'd leave it be, its easy to touch up any scratches with Owatrol on a dry day, doesn't even matter if they've rusted a bit.

Did the boat anchor with Owatrol a year ago, its looking a *little* rough again but is still not making any rusty stains on the deck. This year, it isnt even going to get wirebrushed by hand, just another coat of Owatrol. There is no point in trying to keep paint on an anchor, 90% of it will scrape off he first time you use it. . .

On Feb 8, 2:33 pm, snipped-for-privacy@spamcop.net wrote: " There is a second downside. The preservative is highly corrosive. I "expect the same is true of cuprinol."

Which brings up another good point. The plywood should not actually be in contact with the metal, not only because of chemicals in the plywood, but also so water does not get trapped between them. Tar might be a cheap solution, but I used that thick roof repair tape over my frame before I applied the plywood.

Granite is not resilient and able to flex / compress out of the way of the nail. I don't have a spray on or roll on bed coating, but I do have a rubber bed mat and in some 9 years of use it still has no cuts or gouges and I've loaded many sharp, heavy and otherwise hazardous cargos.

Pete C.