Dunnage Question

4x4 hardwood. As wide as your trailer. At least 10 of them. 6x6 are too heavy for me. If the loaders are tearing up your trailer it's time for some damage money!

 

You could always split the difference and get 4x6's so you get the extra height while being easier to handle than a 6x6.

 

Still to heavy. anything over 4 4by 4by4 is overkill. unless a load requires 6 inches.

 

Agreed!! I use 3x4 White Oak.....buy a lift of them at a time and dry them.....treat 'em with a 50/50 mix of raw linseed oil and turpentine and they LAST

 

Get rough cut dunage too. Give you that extra 1/2". You could use 12x12 dunage and some will still try to stick the forks through your bed. Unfortunately it comes with the business. Now I would get damage $$$ from those that consistently tear up your deck. The one offs, I tend to forget about as the cost of doing business. That is unless it is some serious damage.

 

Buying it right from a sawmill.........it is rough cut LOL I have never seen anyone using dressed lumber for dunnage.....but there's a first for everything I guess!

 

In 1999 I had dressed and dried cedar 4x4 for hauling lumber, and I still had most of it in 2004 when I stopped using that trailer regularly. The trailer was a Chaparral with a Keith walking floor, so it was heavy and keeping everything else light (even the dunnage) was a must. Of course, when you're loading lumber on a flatbed with a walking floor, the yellow painted cedar dunnage isn't the strangest thing in the equation. The floor didn't stand up to forks all that well, but I found that if I could get to the operators before they got started and explain to them what I had, most of them were a little extra careful. It only got hit twice that I can remember, and both times it was by a guy on a forklift, not by a real forklift operator.

 

Wow!! WHat else did you haul with that rig?? All the walking floors I have seen were in open top vans, for bark mulch, chips, etc.......

 

I see it all the time. Here we just use fir but you can use anything. the longevity versus the price difference for oak over fir does not do it for me. Especially when someone needs firewood and off goes your oak... LOL