Ramlin Trailer - R/Replace Carpet & Plywood

[nch20skier]

All-
It is time to remove/replace the carpeted plywood (what a poopy idea anyhow) on the trailer. I have considered using aluminum (chromed) diamond plate and a non skid plastic (http://www.sdplastics.com/starboardas.html) material. Both would work well, the diamond plate probably look better but more maintenance while the non skid would be easily cut, fit, routed etc and provide a clean look.
Any thoughts or other options that have been installed?

[AuMDLST]

The plastic you are looking at would be non skid if your boat was wearing a pair of shoes.

http://www.bunkaps.com/product.html

http://www.ultimatebunkboards.com/index.html

http://shop.easternmarine.com/index....categoryID=221

[nch20skier]

Thanks- these look more for the bunk's I am looking for the walk areas along the outer sides

[AuMDLST]

My misunderstanding - I see it now.

The AL diamond plate is something I have seen and it looks good

Unless you are looking for it to SHINE - you shouldnt have to do much
as for upkeep,

[AirTool]

What is the material from SD plastics? acrylic? ...if so, much cheaper than West Marine.

McMaster Carr has 4'x8' sheets of polycarbonate (a.k.a. Lexan) for $450 - ouch.

You could drill and tap the polycarb and cover it with carpet. I like the feel of carpet but could do without the rot.

How long did yours last?

[Toster]

I cut mine out of 3/4 plywood, and then covered it (both sides) with truck bed liner. I did 3 coats of the bed liner, and it looks great. On the slanted piece that fits inside the wheel well I covered it in carpet, after the truck bed liner. I didn't want black bed liner to rub on my bow if I had bad loading or unloading. The only problem I have ran in to is if I am not careful when filling the gas and some runs over. I wiped the gas off the boards, and had black rags. I don't know if that was because it was still fairly "new" and had not cured all the way or if that will always be the case.

Make sure you measure, re-measure, and measure it again. There are some tricky pieces (the triangle piece towards the front, it is NOT a right angle triangle). I also took a 1/4 round over router bit and ran around it all on the top side so I didn't have a square (sharp) corner. I used a 2-1/2 in hole saw, and drilled 2 holes, and then conected them with a jig saw for where the guide post come through the board.

Hope this helps, if you wait for about another 3 months I might be able to get some pictures.

[MikeC]

I have the chromed diamond plate on my trailer - easy to keep clean, non slip, fairly easy to replace if needed. But I do like the non-skid plastic idea for some other applications (if I had wood on my trailer it would probably be replaced with it). I did a search for the marine plastics like you found at SD Plastics for two reasons - A 54"x96" sheet of non slip polymer weighs nearly 140 pounds and would be extremely expensive to ship; it costs over $400 for a sheet, and they have a minumum order of $500 or they charge a $50 service fee. I found another supplier, this one in PA that sells different size sheets: http://thecuttingboardfactory.com/Me...egory_Code=4MB , plus I found a number of suppliers that will custom cut plastics for you. I don't know if this will help but the non-skid plastic looks like a good idea.

[CradGen2]

I'm going to use King starboard for mine this spring. I have a local source to purchase it.