I have told everyone how much I loved my trailer, until I pulled the mats and had huge holes in the floor! I do pull them and wash it out regularly. I also bed really deep and clean out after each use.

When I talked to Featherlite I was told that I should just overlay the floor. and it was not covered under warranty and I should have pulled the mats 6 or 7 times a year!

So, if you, like a friend of mine have bought one I am sorry. It will be a huge mistake!!!! Featherlite is not the company they used to be!

On the other hand  a 10 year old 4 star that had never had the mats pulled, had a pristine floor underneath!

Featherlite is building an inferior product and they know it!

NO brand bashing, just the facts!!! If you are pulling a Featherlite check the floor!!! I have pulled one brand or the other for the past  30 years and I have never seen anything like this!!!

I would be interested in the pictures as well.  I looked at F-lite and compared the thickness of the floor to the Merhow right next to it- Merhow was visably much, much thicker.  But in the end didn't care for the drilled holes in each which were what I felt- token drain holes.  Also didn't like the flat, cookie sheet feel they had.

I did end up with a vortex sprayed plank alum. floor that will drain- trust me, I've seen it with my horse that I swear saves the urinating for the trailer!  However, am still a little wary of alum. floors and like to know what to look for. 

Could the floor be replaced or 'covered' with Rumber?  The supports need to be stronger as that stuff is great, but heavy.

Hope all ends well for you! 

Made an album under mshal. It shows the first stall floor that never has a horse init, I use it as a mid tack. Unless urine runs uphill it has never been wet! Holes are big enough to stick my thumbs through and a large area is pitted and thin.

 I think Featherlite uses inferior Al. and they know it!!!!

national titles for hauling??????????????

I should mention this to my pal with a 1998 featherlite thats still on the road, looks great and gee great floors. Or the other friend with a 2 yr old featherlite that still has a solid floor or maybe that other friend.....well you get the picture....

No, I just meant that anyone that has won national titles has spent alot of time on the road! Didn't think I needed to spell it out!

I, too have owned other Featherlite trailers and loved them which is why I bought this one!! But this one has a real problem w/ the floor!

If you had paid what I did for this trailer and had this happen so soon, maybe you would be a little more tolerant of other folks point of view!

We bought a new Platinum once that already had corrosion under the mats when we got it.

You might say,well,didn't you see that? H no,I didn't man handle the mats at the dealership to look at the darned floor on a new trailer.

When anybody buys an expensive (and expensive is whatever is defined by THAT PERSON,not everybody else who isn't paying for it) trailer,there should be along with the paperwork and money exchanged a trust factor in the manufacturer of an item that live cargo will be hauled in,you know?From what I've read,she did her part in maintainence  for the trailer.

Mshal,as the kids say at school,"Man,I feel you."

"There was some discoloration the last time we washed it, but not really pits."

"Not really pits" and I think the discoloration would have been alarming, since you have so much trailer experience. Taking action when you saw the signs the last time you cleaned it would have saved you a lot of trouble.

Not the OP but having encountered a similar issue - and noticing faint (can pits be faint) pits...perhaps extremely shallow would be a better way to phrase it...to the point that they were more like scratches I was shocked (very shocked) at how quickly the small scratches became deep pits.  Seemingly within a couple of months.  I honestly didn't know how rapidly the aluminum would corrode - my Masters degree isn't in chemistry.

But, it doesn't mean that I haven't hauled lots or miles nor does it mean I haven't owned multiple trailers.  I have done both...but the other trailers didn't have an aluminum floor.  So admittedly, I was uneducated about the nature of aluminum flooring and the rate at which it corrodes - I've now learned a valuable lesson at a price steeper than any semester of college.

And once I saw the pits...I did take action.  I contacted the manufacturer for advice on how to prevent further pits from happening and arrest the corrosion process.  To date their advice has been less than helpful (actually they just ceased returning my calls/emails).

Sorry to hijack, OP, my trailer wasn't a Featherlite but I encountered the same problems...

Really, Dustynem, no need to be so dang catty!!!! If you would like to know anything I will be glad to tell you. I am being completely truthful about this situation and if that bothers you I am sorry!

Just for the record the Featherlite DEALER has an 01 that he has only pulled the mats once and his floor was in alot better shap than mine!

YEAH!!!

I really don't understand why some people have such a problem with others when they have anything negative to say (in this case) about there trailer.Seems to me that there's not anyone here other than the op that truly knows one way or the other as to the validity of there story. Also seems to me that folks should consider that in reading the op's post and take it for what they think it's worth. Seen plenty of times that the salesman was bending over backwards @ sale time, then wouldn't give you the time of day after the sale. Also seen many a time that the customer would do just about everything wrong with a product that could be done and expect the manufacturer to suck it up and fix there(the customers)mess. I can't count the times in the last several years that someone has "vented" on this forum and described there being totally ignored by the manufacturer or the dealership only to have a representative of one or the other come along and deny that there has been any contact at all between the two.Seems like any prudent person posting on this forum would understand both sides if they have ever done very much business at all. I said all that to say this........Believe what seems the most believable, take ALL of it with a few grains of salt, hope that you're not in there shoes someday, and try to post in a way that helps someone else!!!!!!!!!!!                                , Ardly

Ardley,

I wish someone had warned me before I bought this trailer. If it was just a three horse w/o a full LQ then I would not have been so upset!!! I have owned Featherlite trailers before and had been happy with them or I would not have bought another one!!! But I did find out that what once was good may not be good now!!! So, next time I will look to this and other boards to see what people are currently saying about my prospective trailer before buying!!!

I have thick enough skin that someone just being mean and petty won't faze me, if I think it is someone who has something to teach me, then I pay attention! The rest I just write off !

Sorry for your unexpected surprise, mshal. That just plain sucks. I wouldn't let up on Featherlite, though. I am one of those people that writes letters, makes phone calls, and generally becomes a pest until something is done. At least split the cost of the repair with you. Keep at them!

Now for my question. I don't own an alum trailer, I have a steel (galvaneal) with a pressure-treated wood floor that  appears to have been lightly sprayed with the same paint as the trailer. I pull my mats up (at the butt end) and hose out after every trip. It's a big PITA but I do it because, like another poster, my mares reserve urinating until they are in the privacy of their trailer (modest horses?)

Is this overkill? Am I creating extra work for myself? Is it just harder to pull mats out of a larger trailer? Mine is a 2-horse BP slant load. The mats are cut into odd shapes and take a little work to get them back in place. That's why I usually only roll them back at the butt end, assuming the front end isn't getting soaked with urine.

Thanks, and good luck mshal.

This was a 3horse slant, so there were three different mats. Could not roll them up, all had to be pulled out! We did do this several times a year but I think F'lite thinks you should do this after each use!!!

 As far as writing letters ect., F'lite knows they have a problem but refuse to fix it. So I have decided that I (or anyone I know if I can help it!) will NEVER buy another one. They have NO customer service and think that once they get your money they are done!!! May be it is just me but if I pay over $50,000 for a trailer I think it ought to last over 4 years!!!!

They are the only brand of trailer that I am aware of that only covers the floor for 12 months!!!!

Same thing happened to us when we bought a new trailer in '05.The dealer bugged the daylights out of us,calling me at work at least twice a day that following week after we'd looked at the trailer,ect.Because they knew we were also considering a KieferBuilt,the dealer had one coming in with mangers,ect.that we wanted.We went ahead and bought the trailer.There was nothing wrong with the trailer itself,no structural flaws,ect.Problem was we could not get the keys to the LQ out of them! They'd "lost" them when we picked it up.Hindsight: never accept a LQ trailer without the keys.You are right.They disappeared after the sale.THey could have cared less.I tell anybody who asks who this dealer is after that incident.

Hello!

Can you post a picture please?

If you want to vent- then fine, set up a blog and vent all you want. The problem is whenever someone has a bad expereince we get A- only one side of the story. We have no idea what is really going on, just what we are being told by the "victim" and B- the immediate assumption that the manufacture is " is building an inferior product and they know it"...no we don't know it and neither do you. You have provided no evidence of an "inferior product" nor have you proved that " they know it". You said you "pull them and wash it out regularly. I also bed really deep and clean out after each use.".. yet the holes are "huge"...how did they get so huge so fast? Could it be a really bad floor or maybe you're not being totally truthful? We don't know. I would be concerned too but I get tired of the same old knee jerk reaction based soley on your incident ALONE. You compare your floor to an older 4-star trailer- this proves nothing at all but you use that ONE OTHER trailer floor as proof of what????? You haven't provided any facts as to a "inferior product"...just a bad experience.

I have to admit . . . Farmbabe makes a good point in that you can't take down the whole company for one trailer.  Bringing up a problem on this board is a good thing. 

Using the board to take down a trailer company based upon your most recent trailer experience is drawing conclusions based upon your emotions.  No problem there either.  You've aired your complaint on our board about this trailer and spoke highly of other trailers from this company you've owned in the past.  Now the thread is degenerating into differences of opinion and perspective. 

The thread is not being deleted.  Just frozen.