# Worst nightmare, hole in trailer floor!



## MicKey73 (Dec 26, 2010)

Wanted to share with you guys, because I know you'll understand how horrified I was yesterday. Total near miss for what could have been unspeakably bad!! 

My husband and I had driven to Tucson (2.5 hours away) with my horse in my 2 horse slant. The plan was to pick up a new purchase and leave my guy at an Equine Therapy facility to learn a new job. Unfortunately, the other horse had some issues in the PPE, so I took Mick and headed home. We stopped quick to pick something up I bought off of Craig's List, and I unloaded Mick to give him water and a break from being in the trailer (it was pretty hot). Before I put him back in, I went to get his hay net to refill and when I stepped back, the floor was squishy and I almost went through!

I pulled up the mats, and found this!

I just had the boards checked at a trailer place AND did an inspection about 2 weeks ago. The floor is matted, but this is where the mats meet, so there would have been NOTHING to prevent him from falling into the hole, which was easily big enough to swallow his whole leg. Still gives me chills to think about! :!::-x:!:


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## CCH (Jan 23, 2011)

Very scary. I would give whoever checked it a piece of my mind. When you go to replace the floor, you should consider Rumber composite plastic or Durock cement board. They will not rot from the moisture.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## equiniphile (Aug 16, 2009)

Hopefully this serves as a reminder for everyone to pull up their mats often and check the floorboards before trailering. I know I will be!


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## MicKey73 (Dec 26, 2010)

We were lucky enough to be about 20 minutes from Bishop's trailers and they were amazing. Fixed the wood and some welding for us to get us back on the road. At that point we were stuck 3+ hours from home. Not sure if you can see in the pics, but the boards weren't rotten. He's never pee'd in there, and I'm obsessive about keeping it clean. The boards just broke! Trust me, I'll be researching floor materials now!
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Adam (Feb 6, 2012)

CCH said:


> Very scary. I would give whoever checked it a piece of my mind. When you go to replace the floor, you should consider Rumber composite plastic or *Durock cement board*. They will not rot from the moisture.
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


CCH, can you site your source regarding using Durock cement products for horse trailer flooring? I've worked with durock in the past, and I would be hesitant to use it in a horse trailer environment, the floor boards in a trailer need to be able to flex to some extent, which I don't think Durock is designed to do. Also, when you have an 1100 pound horse standing on it a few good pot holes could cause the board to shatter. However, if they have a pdf out there somewhere saying its a great product to use, I'd love to see it because you are correct, it would be very resistant to moisture.


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## Darrin (Jul 11, 2011)

Reminds me of a trailer I bought, it was a 70's all steel trailer. I knew the floor was in rough shape so intended to replace it so didn't do a very good inspection of it. Got it home, pulled the floor mats out and found huge holes had rusted through. Since the trailer was still in use only floor mats were keeping horses inside in several spots. Just glad I did a complete check prior to putting my horses in it.


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## mildot (Oct 18, 2011)

I definitely see a good reason to replace wooden floor board with synthetic lumber made of HDPE (high density polytethylene). It will obviously never rot, it doesn't splinter, and its ductility is very similar to wood (it flexes somewhat the same).


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## Skyseternalangel (Jul 23, 2011)

I'm so glad both of you didn't fall through that thing, jeesh!

Some inspection.. pfft.


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## Hunter65 (Aug 19, 2009)

Thanks goodness my husband is anal about the floors. He had to replace the front floorboards last summer but he always takes up the rubber and thoroughly inspects it. Just so glad that you found it before anything happened


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## Cinnys Whinny (Apr 10, 2010)

Wow, that was so lucky that you stopped!! Definitely some guardian angels looking out for you and your horse!!


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## Cowgirl140ty (Jan 7, 2010)

mildot said:


> I definitely see a good reason to replace wooden floor board with synthetic lumber made of HDPE (high density polytethylene). It will obviously never rot, it doesn't splinter, and its ductility is very similar to wood (it flexes somewhat the same).


I have this in my trailer and love it. I dont even need mats on it. No places for holes to hide 
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

HDPE, hmmmm, will definitely look into that. Just bought a brand new trailer last year, but when the floor needs replacing, that sounds like a good product. Since I don't use my trailer in the winter, I store it in a garage. I pull the mats, and that is my floorboard check. There was really nothing to check as the trailer was only a few months old. But really, you should pull your mats every few months & check out the flooring.


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## 2muchcoffeeman (May 29, 2011)

For a second, I thought this thread might have been about this tragedy a couple hours from here: Horse euthanized after accident on Highway 12


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## Cacowgirl (Feb 19, 2011)

So glad you caught that. Duroc board won't work-too brittle, not designed to hold a horses flexing weight. I have a double wood floor in mine w/mats over it,but I check it every few trips, can't be too careful w/our furbabies. And I sweep it out after every trip.


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## Hunter65 (Aug 19, 2009)

2muchcoffeeman said:


> For a second, I thought this thread might have been about this tragedy a couple hours from here: Horse euthanized after accident on Highway 12



That just scares the crap outta me. I know hubby is anal about the floorboards but it still scares me. Especially when a friend and I go up to our property for a girls weekend. Its a 3 hour drive 99% highway.


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## Corporal (Jul 29, 2010)

CCH said:


> When you go to replace the floor, you should consider Rubber composite plastic or Durock cement board. They will not rot from the moisture.
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


SO GLAD you mentioned these options. Don't know WHY I didn't think of them--my father was in the plastics industry and tried to push plastic coated wood, but the industry wasn't ready for it back in the 1980's.
A friend helped us to replace the floor of my previous trailer.
This is just a GREAT example of the worth of removing or at least, rolling up your mats when you are not trailering. My trailer lives in my back yard and I remove the mats when not in use. I line the aisle of my 3 stall barn with them, so I don't have to look for them when it's time to trailer again.


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## candandy49 (Jan 16, 2011)

When we bought our first trailer in 1995 it was an older 80's something model and paid $800 for it. We took along a slot screwdriver to check the condition of the floors. Just tapping the screwdriver at the floors will tell if there is a rotting condition going on. My DH put an all new wood floor in that trailer and we bought new mats to put down in it.

When we upgraded to a used previously owned 3 horse slant even though it was only a year old my DH went ahead and replaced the entire floor. 

As a word of FYI when installing a new trailer floor make certain the screws/fasteners are the correct length and type needed for the purpose of the installation. I do know of one instance where a new floor was installed in a trailer and because of the flexing the boards the misbegotten screws worked their way out of the frame of the floor.

A farrier friend of our's once told us about an incident he was called up on to bring a firearm to put an injured horse out of it's suffering. The horse's hind legs had broken through the floor and before the driver knew of it the horse's hind legs had been ground off to stumps just above the hind fetlocks. I feel sick just with the recollection of the telling.


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## churumbeque (Dec 20, 2009)

The trailer very well could have been fine when inspected. It doesn't look like rot it looks more like damage or maybe there was a knot or defect and a horse stepped on it and the wood fell out. 

I know of a guy that the horse foot fell through and a car stopped it because sparks were coming from the bottom of the trailer at night. That was the shoe and needless to say it wore off the foot and the horse had to be destroyed.


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## Rascaholic (Oct 4, 2010)

My biggest fear about trailering.


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## MicKey73 (Dec 26, 2010)

churumbeque said:


> The trailer very well could have been fine when inspected. It doesn't look like rot it looks more like damage or maybe there was a knot or defect and a horse stepped on it and the wood fell out.


That's exactly what happened. Mick is easy to trailer, but he always lets me hear it by stomping or pawing once after a turn, stop or start and he has regained his balance. It's this 'thump' that probably cracked the wood. He is a pretty strong guy, and has shoes all the way around. The broken wood is right underneath his right rear leg. It had just been checked, but he had been in the trailer about 3.5 hours prior to this stop, so at some point during the ride, he kicked it just right. I am so thankful we found the hole before there was any catastrophe!!!


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## Rancher6 (May 9, 2012)

...aluminum sheeting over the planks might be a solution.


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## BoldComic (Feb 26, 2012)

My dad drives for UPS and saw a truck and trailer stopped and the woman was frantic. Dad stopped and her horse had gone through the floor with all 4 feet and she had driven miles without knowing. Dad called the local sheriff to come out and she shot the horse right then and there. It was the only thing to do for that poor horse. I'm so glad you caught this in time. My father in law said that is why he never buys horse/livestock trailers with wood floors.


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## Wallee (Mar 7, 2012)

I think trailering accidents occur more than any of us would like to think. Thank god you didnt have your horse go through as it can be a terrible thing to happen. I had a trailering accident a while back in which I was carrying a horse who liked to paw everytime we stopped and he kicked pretty bad. Well wood floors cant hold up to some of the extremes a horse can put it through for to awful long. I dont want to go into alot of detail as it truly hurt my soul for it to happen but we had to have it put down and I will never ever ever ever leave wood floors in my trailers for more than a year without completely replacing and doubling the wood flooring and reinforcing with premium grade hardwood plywood. For everyone out there who hauls horses on the regular dont let it happen to you and your horse, check and check again every single time before you put your friend on that trailer :-(.


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

The floor in mine is 2x6 planks, crosswise. Those boards appear too light and of the wrong wood. Spruce lumber will do that moreso than pine.


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

I just showed my husband those pictures of your floor boards. He has worked in the lumber manufactoring industry for 30 years. He said that is reject lumber used, notice the knots, not to be used for structure or support, maybe for a fence or to build planter or something. Also he said that is not structure grade floor lumber, should be 4 X 8's ideally & custom cut from there.


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## MicKey73 (Dec 26, 2010)

They are 2x8's and just to reiterate, we had the whole trailer checked out after I bought it at a trailer place. We also bought a new emergency brake battery and checked all the wire. There's no way I wouldn't have checked out the floor before ever putting my horse in there, and even did so that morning because I knew it was a longer trip. I meant the post as a warning to never take your flooring for granted. It was total luck that I found the hole midway through the drive, and only because I took my horse out for a break from the heat. Soooooo check your floors people!!
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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