steel or aluminum?

lazyj, sorry for taking so long to get back to you. The type of trailer I was thinking of is not made for a semi but still worth looking at to get some ideas.
They are called "Pride of the Prairie" hay trailers. The person I know in the hay business loves them since you pull one pin and the trailer is empty. His holds 20 round bales.

His advice was to just get a flatbed and stack em and strap em down. Aluminum probably best in his opinion.

 

Aluminum has its advantages, corrosion resistance among them. But, aluminum is also an easily punctured material compared against aluminum. With hauling hay, I wouldn't worry much about this, but, if you ever planned on putting equipment on that deck, you might want to consider something that won't get punctured as easily as aluminum (and I can show you aluminum flats with punctures in the deck, cheaper to replace the wood deck on a steel flat/ step). As with all things, it depends on what you're going to do with the trailer.

 

Re: punctures in aluminum

Just weld them up.

 

I was thinking the same thing. It's a lot cheaper to weld puncture holes in a Alumnium deck than it is to replace a wood deck. Every tried to replace a board?? Make sure you got plenty of drill bits cuz your gonna need them for the broken screws

 

I spent 3 years in a trailer shop.
Wood:

We would gouge out the heads of the screws as deep as we could, pry out the board, grind off the remainder of the screw, cut out a new board, drill new holes, run new screws with an impact.

Aluminum:
Just wire (stainless) brush the aluminum and weld it up.

 

Agree Alum is the way to go period better corrosion resistance than a combo or a steel lighter weight = more hauling compacity. easier to repair. combos love to rust up and corrude around the hangers than crack from the metal being weak.....

 

You use a lot of drill bits too. Been down that road before. It was no fun.

 

I am going to look at a 1998 Fontaine Combo 48 x 102 on the 3rd It has aluminum deck with steel frame. From reading this thread, and others, it sounds like I need to inspect the area's where aluminum meets steel, yes? Any other advice?

Thanks

 

I replaced my entire 48 by 96 deck. by myself. I still have nightmares about it. and it does not last. done about 5 years ago. still good, but wearing out fast. though I load a lot of skidded stuff, where the loader/unloader scrapes the deck & with a lot of rear load & the weight of the steel plus the forklift. it has taken a toll. my next trailer is going to be reitinour all alluminum big bubba.