i am sure most of you are familar with the material used to spray in the bed of trucks.  i have never seen a werm floor and was wondering what the difference is between the two?

i am guessing the werm material is tougher, maybe thicker than what is put in the truck bed?

last week, while trying to drag heavy mats out of the trailer to clean the floor...again...and hurting my back...again, i started wondering about werm flooring and how nice that would be.  well, seems like the closest place to me is somewhere in oklahoma. so...i wondered if the spray in bedliner would work UNDER the mats.

and yes, i know i would have to still pull out the mats to really do a through cleaning job, but maybe only once a year, in hopes that the bed liner material would keep the urine from contacting the floor.

thoughts, opinions?

but if it was sprayed on the trailer floor, then mats put  back on top, shouldn't that keep the urine from coming in contact with the aluminum floor?  that is all i want, something to keep urine from getting on the floor so that i don't have to haul mats out of the trailer after every use.  the spray on stuff wouldn't have to be thick like the werm....it would be protected by the mats....

We did the same with our two trailers and have been very pleased with the results.

The various bed liner materials including Rhino will not offer the same cushioning affect that werm does. You will still need to use rubber mats over the liner material. The bed liner does reduce our mat pulling to once at the end of the season. The werm cost about $1k+ for a three horse, the do itself bed liner and acid is about $100.

Gard

Once a season is all I pull my mats in my aluminum trailer anyway.I use shavings to absorb urine plus I rinse in areas that have much evidence of urine after a trip,then,we empty the trailer at the end of the season of shavings and pull the mats,wash the floor,and put the mats back in after it has dried.

Just teach your horse not to pee in the trailer.

Just kidding, of course.  My gelding doesn't pee in the trailer but it's not b/c I taught him.  In fact I really wish he WOULD.  As it is, I have to stop along the way and walk him in the Dog Walk area at highway rest stops.  I get funny looks from people....................

thanks for the information classygirl and gard.  i knew i couldn't be the first person to wonder if this would work.  with my first aluminum trailer, no one told me i needed to wash it out...i was under the impression it was a "care free" floor.  needless to say, after 10 years (of light use) it has tiny pits, some as large as a pencil eraser. since then, i have been very good about washing out my trailers, but hauling out those dang mats gets to be a major chore and tough on old backs.

will be going by my local wal-mart today to check out the lining materials.

thanks again!

to sharon:  i have noticed that my geldings will pee in my 7'6" wide trailer (no mangers and extra wide stalls) whereas they don't pee in the other, narrower, trailer.  i don't know if it is because they can 'stretch' out more in the wider trailer and so, feel more comfortable peeing??? 

i keep saying i am going to try putting shavings back there, then drive around with my husband in the trailer to see how much the shavings fly around but he doesn't seem inclined to go along with that idea.  i know other people have said the shavings don't fly around, but we usually have all the windows down (on both sides), plus roof vents open to get maximum air flow during the hot months.  seems like all that air flow would be enough to make the shavings fly around. 

That's probably the case in THIS trailer, at least when the divider is shut and he's limited to just that stall.  However, he used to ride loose in the box stall of a stock trailer... 8' x 6'... so you'd think he'd have felt that was enough room.  He's only a little guy, just 14.2 and shortbacked.

I never find shavings stuck to my horse, and I drive with everything open, too.  If I remember, I do put a fly mask on him just in case.

Get a pair of these to help you get hold of the rubber mats. Makes the job a LOT easier...

A suggestion given by another member of this forum, was to drill a small hole in the corners of the floor mat. Slip in the tip of a hay hook, and you have a perfect "T" handle of which to pull the mat. This idea has made my life a bit easier.

Gard

  I miss the old trailer floor mats made of strips of old tire, all 'woven together' w/ wire(though I suppose the wire eventually rusted through)-but they WERE heavy!

  Am really posting just to say that you can use a 'standard' pair of vice grips to move mats, also....I have 4'X 6' X 1/2" rubber stall mats, and for a short, hefty, old lady, those suckers are HEAVY...but, w/ a pair of vice grips, I can 'hook on' and drag one when I need to! (my trailer mats are 'new-fangled' solid rubber, not all that thick, and unwieldy, but not all THAT heavy(14' x 5' stock combo trailer, so mats are 36" X 11'; I had to drill a hole through each outside back corner of each mat AND the trailer floor for a LARGE nail w/ washer to be pushed through, after the day I was pulling it, empty, back from Santa Fe and just HAPPENED to look in the rear view to see one of the mats "exit" under the rear trailer gate! Had to find a place to do a U-ey on that narrow little highway to go back and get it-- and it was a DARN lucky thing the road (NM 41) was at the time, VERY lightly-traveled--I don't think another driver would have appreciated that thing draping itself over his hood or windshield!!!!) One of those 'live and learn' moments!!

  Anyway--just use the regulare vice grips(med. to lg.)that you may already own!

  Cheers,

  Margo in New Mexico(aka olehossgal) 

I'm not Mr trailer, but they are available in most hardware stores, big box stores etc. Harbor freight's cost is about one half that of Vice Grip prices. The handles take a lot more grip strength to hold onto than the "T" handle of a hay hook I described above.

Gard

hey gard,  i may just have to look into that hay thing you are talking about. don't have one but surely my local feedstore would...maybe.  the closest thing i can think of would be the things my girls use to pull on their tall (english) riding boots.  we do keep a pair of those in the trailer.

seriously, the hay thing may be better as my hands/wrists don't have the grip strenghth they used to have and i can see that may be a problem with the vise grips.    thanks!

Your riding boot pulls are similar in concept to the hay hooks. However, I'm afraid you would ruin them trying to pull mats. The hay hooks have pointed ends which easily slip into a 1/4" predrilled hole. I have little strength on one side, and the hook has enabled me to pull the mats back into the trailer by myself; something I was unable to do before trying this solution.

BOL  Gard