New Trailer Steps

This is of no help in answering your questions but we are working on my brothers trailer right now and are going back with steel treadplate.  The carpet idea was nice looking and comfy while being a great promoter of rot and rust.  Good luck with whatever route you end up going.

1/2 inch HDPE 24 X 48 cut to size. I did that when I rebuilt the 1994 SN trailer.  Comes in black and white typically.   

I did cpes on exterior grade ply and then bedliner (herculiner) on my last go around a few years ago. Looked great initially but the wood cracked up a bit- my best guess is that I didn’t give enough cure time following cpes. I’d also go 3 coats on the bedliner despite it looking good after 2. Cousin Donald has bedlinered steps on his sport Nautique that looked fantastic and I assume have held up well.

Black pvc sanded and then bed linered would be the ultimate, imo- won’t rot and if the liner wears thin, it’s still black underneath. Would be slick if left uncoated. Not a cheap solution, though.

Carpet looks good but holds water and rots everything it touches. Most of the diamond plate looks cheap- though Ramlin did do some in the mid-late 00’s that was steel and painted that looked good.

Another challenge on the ramlins as I recall is that you need a 10’ long piece of material if you don’t want to 2-piece. Luckily the 89 cc trailers can be made to work with a single 8’.

I’ll let y’all decide if these will be worthy when complete.

I also clicked on the link referenced above....I miss the back and forth banter between Ken and Pete!!  

I wish my boat had the steps like the trailer shown, when we go camping we load the boat to the gills with all our gear.   It would be really helpful to have those steps front and rear.   As little as we are able to use the boat these days I don’t think I will commit the time to get it done.   It is tempting though.

Any pics of the hdpe steps installed?

Give Tim the new owner’s contact information. He’ll be happy to relentlessly hound him for pictures.

Thanks for all the input guys.  I definitely considered some sort of PVC or HDPE at first (based on thinking our kitchen cutting boards would be an excellent material) but at $100 - $150 per 2 x 4 sheet, it ran the cost up quicker than I had hoped.  Chances are, after reading all this, I will go with the PT Plywood.  After that...carpet?  Herculiner?  Painted (like I have now)?  Not sure.  At the home builder I work for, I was told there is a hunk (16'?) of Ipe over in the "boneyard" I was told I could have. Thought about that.  Cut it into strips and do a wooden cat walk sort of thing.  But I dont think that one hunk would do the job.  Note to Tim on that, and needing a 10 foot sheet of plywood, remember, I got the "short version" so 8 feet will be oh so close to doing it.  My current wood is in 3 pieces.  I measured each piece to determine need.  Only recently did I add up the length of the 3 pieces.  97 inches. Ugh, 1 inch over 8 feet, but I bet with a little strategic spacing around the  braces at each end of the fender, I could make it work.   We will see.  Now that spring has sprung and all the boat prep is done and it is in the water (including the 4 new pieces of interior) the trailer is freed up for the attention it needs.  Final thought, as far as carpet and holding water, the trailer might get dunked four times a year, so maybe not that big a deal, but on the other hand, it does get rained on a whole lot more than that, so, still need to give that some thought.