Maya Angelou once said, “When we know better, we do better”. That’s true of everything in life even when building horse trailers. Our industry is constantly evolving to provide our customers and their horses with the safest, most comfortable and secure ride possible.
One of the industry’s greatest advancements and one we are proud of at Kingston Trailers is the current aluminum structures we now build. The aluminum frames and siding have lightened up our trailers overall weight while providing more strength and stability on the road.
The horse trailer industry did have an important learning curve however and that was to NOT use aluminum in the construction of the flooring. Kingston Trailers never employed aluminum in our flooring and for good reason, it is unsafe. The acidity in horse urine will overtime eat into and corrode the aluminum causing it to weaken and eventually could allow a horse to actually fall through. It was also found that aluminum transfers heat and raises the temperature within the horse trailer. The heat from the asphalt on the roadways was being conducted into the horse stalls.
Kingston Trailer’s has always used pressure treated wood as the flooring base. The wooden floors do not conduct heat from the road, keeping the heat build up in the trailer to a minimum while providing for better drainage. Water and Urine can easily drain through the spaces between the floor boards preventing rotting from occurring. The softness of the wood flooring is better for the horse’s feet and legs allowing for a more stable, quieter and softer ride.
The wooden flooring absorbs the vibration of the trailers movements much better than aluminum and can also insulate the floor from the cold more efficiently.
Considering all of the pluses of pressure treated wood flooring versus all of the negatives that an aluminum floor has to offer; you can see why Kingston Trailers has always opted for the wooden floor and you should too!