trailer bunks

[Lou452]

Looking for the best way to pad the trailer bunks? I did not see a thread on this. What kind of carpet should I use ? How should I to Glue? Nail? Screw? stapel? the carpet to the wood? The trailer is for an FJ weight 230 lbs I have cut the metal mounts spread them, welded new ears on. This let me replace the rotting 2x4 with treated 4x4 Now I have bare treated wood. Do I paint the new wood or give it a clear coat The old wood was not treated. It had carpet. Under the wet carpet is Where it got the rot. My guess is it lasted ten years. What ever I do for this trailer I will do to my Catalina-22 trailer. in a few years. If it works out pretty good. I have seen some Catalina-22 trailers with white teflon blocks. This is not an option for the FJ but a few coments on the best thing to use for the larger boat would be great. PS I have never put or laid carpet down. I would like to do it myself. Thanks for the help ,Lou

[denverd0n]

Did a major rebuild of my trailer about a year ago. Used this for the bunk boards...
Bunk Carpet (12" x 12ft) #11247-1

I used 3M Super 77 spray adhesive, wrapped the carpet around the boards, and used a heavy duty staple gun to attach it on the underside of the boards. I used treated 2x4s and did not paint or otherwise do anything to them.

So far it's holding together extremely well.

[tschmidty]

Any outdoor carpet will work fine and you don't need to treat pressure treated wood.I have just gotten two feet of carpet from lowes, had them cut it for me into 1 foot x 12 foot strips and nailed it with short roofing nails on the bottom of the bunk. Staples just don't seem to hold well. You can use carpet adhesive or you can try 3m as well which should work fine.

[danr620]

Lou,

The above is good advice on the carpet, but you don't want staples or nails as they will rust and fall apart. When I redid mine that was what I saw and I was in fresh water. Looked around and got brass carpet or furniture nails and tied the carpet down, they went into the wood farther and hopefully will be on there a long time.

good luck

Dan

[tschmidty]

I used galvanized roofing nails and haven't had a problem, but yes brass will last forever.

[Lou452]

Thank you all !! The 3m stuff is water-proof I take it? Did you ruff up or sand the wood with 80 grit? I ask this because I used some liquid nails on a non boat project wood panel to older wood panel. I did not sand. The instuctions said sand but it was to late. I am not sure it would have made a better outcome. I was not pleased so I added screws also. The carpet may get brass screws or ss with washers. I like the idea of the roofing nails because of the large head. I am going to use screws. Nails on my wood back deck tend to push back out. I think the wood swells in the high heat an humidity here in Ky. The screws stay in. Thanks once more, Lou

[kenr74]

The 3M spray adhesive is definately waterproof. It is used to glue jet-ski mats to the fiberglass trays, and I have never seen a failure. I don't think sanding would do much good due to the way it bonds, but I could be wrong on that.