This is my horse trailer. It was purchased from it's original owner in 2010. It had everything I was looking for at the time: escape doors on both sides, tack area, bumper pull, 7' ceiling. I didn't mind that it had a ramp, and I like that the upper back doors are removable for those hotter summer months to allow for more air flow. It also didn't bother me that it looked like an Appaloosa with it's wild spotted paint job. A solid little trailer for the price, and I even got "the PNER discount" since I bought it from a fellow member. It has served me well these past couple of years.
The first thing we did when we bought it was to replace the floorboards, which came with it's own set of challenges (thank you to Matt, Gary, & Eric). Through the years it has started to wear out in places, namely the ramp and the driver's side manger/door is showing serious rust. There is other surface rust all over it but that is not really a major concern. A little sandblasting could take care of a lot of it.
Right now we are trying to figure out how best to replace the ramp wood, as it has taken a beating and is deteriorating. This is a photo of the wood, once the rubber mat (which is usually over it) was removed.
The tricky part is that the wood is completely surrounded by metal, which is welded in over the wood. It would be impossible to take out this wood and put a new piece in without cutting the metal on one side, sliding out the wood, sliding in a new piece and re-welding that side. That may be our only option, but we're going to talk to some other people about it first. You can really see the rust we are dealing with along the top of the above photo. Every time I use the trailer more little pieces of metal and wood come loose and fall out.
I was tempted to try and cut out just the top section that is deteriorating, but there is another section in the opposite corner falling apart so might as well just replace the whole thing, if we can figure out how!
Any advice?
1 comment:
Uh oh, looks like you have some pretty serious rust, better tackle it soon before it takes over :-0
The wood has to be secured and it looks like the way yours is set up you need the metal lip to do that, (bolts would go through the back of the ramp if you used them) seems like you could just slid a new piece in like you said... either way I feel for you, they are a big project. Still lots to do on mine since we got it back the way we did.
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