Protecting your deck on your open deck trailer?

Conveyor Belts from Quarries might work, U have plenty of them up Ur way

 

I can take you to a few local coal mines. Got plenty of it sitting around. We can even fetch the new stuff being we are protecting a nice Mac trailer.

 

Cardboard companies used rubber anti skid mats just a few mm's thick that seem pretty durable. They place them under 6-7k paper rolls to keep them in place. The mats are very lightweight, probably 3 foot or so squares and could probably be easily doubled or tripled etc if need be.

You could store them rolled up in a box, because they are very flexible. I have one underneath a 5 ton ac unit that is slightly larger than the bottom of it to keep it from moving.

 

I bought a new Trailking folding tail in 04 with an apitong deck. I covered the deck with the cheap 1/2" OSB. A lot cheaper than repairing the Apitong.

 

bolted to a wide reel like a hose reel, up the front of the trailer for storage would be trick. If space allowed.

 

Make friends with a welder that’s a artist with aluminum?

we used carpet samples with a light spec aluminum walking floor under palletized loads. And it was a royal pia…….

 

I would keep an eye during loading , make sure no dirt or stone stuck to the bottom of the pallet ... I do it most of the time especially when pallets sit on the ground or dirt before loading.

 

Had to use the old ones once, as adhoc coil rubber for the coil rack wood...pain in the butt to cut to size and really didn't last past that one application. It might however work, but they are heavy....to lug and move.

 

Those are called anti friction pads, and they're available at places like Mytee.

 

I didn't see a pic of the deck, but I'll assume there is no wood nailing strips.

@truckdad suggestion would be perfect - OSB or Ply - stained, and screwed in to nailing strips.

@High Stepper suggestion if no nailing strips.

My question is drop protection - thin rubber will prevent the gravel scarring, but probably not heavy drop impact.

@ducnut - yeah, I know - but you gotta try. And if you know Roofless - he certainly likes to keep stuff looking good.