Mc Grath trailer.

Great job, looks better than my lounge room floor. [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

Bigcam, the 20'presses were one beside the other to reach the 40+' length.
Always amazed me that they did such a good job considering the heavy manhandling required.
Camber in fabricated beams is usually built in at the plating-up stage by packing the jig.
The cross member welding causes shrinkage in the top area too, so that has to be allowed for.
Cross members never welded all round, just the verticals.

I understood that McGrath imported their beams pressed in England, but that may have been before of after the Brisbane set-up. STBC

Beautiful looking trailer... a real credit;)

Just one thing I have to ask... the tounge and groove hardwood floor, has it been spaced with a match to allow the water to pour through?

I have seen a diabolical mess made out of an (over)restored truck tray. Firstly they should have oiled the surface because any sort of load not riding on a blanket would damage the high gloss(!) poly finish.

More importantly though, the bloke fitted all the boards tight as a drum. When it got wet there was nowhere for the boards to expand... so they ripped the screws out on the way up.

I was shown by an old carpenter the correct way to use simple lap jointed timber flooring on the trays he used to build from the twenties on. Unlike a house floor which stops draughts with tounge and groove, trays have to leak water, maybe sand too, but not grain;)

Thank you for the comments, she's coming up a treat. Will get some better pictures when we take it out in the sun.

Invested Energy - Thanks mate. We didn't use tounge and groove, we just used Iron Bark (I think it's called) Hard wood, 86mm wide boards and used a 3mm gap. We also just used natural oil to bring the original colour up. Hope that answered your question.

Thanks,
Mitch

gday mitch how did u get the last couple of timbers under comb rail?

when I did my tray I did them first and had the odd sized board in the middle. it looks deliberate and even that way

John Whale, the very last board was in half and was drilled in under neigth. I will get some pictures when I'm at the trailer.

Mitch