Hauling Oxen

[Grassy Ridge Oxen]

I have been wondering and kind of worrying about the weight of my oxen and the strength of the flooring in my trailer. I replaced the floor a year agoe and added some more support straps onder the flooring but I am wondering how much weight per square inch can a 2×4 actualy hold. what have some of you all done with the flooring in your trailers? My boys weigh around 1900 lbs. each right now and are growing rapidly. we travell on an average of 1500 miles between April and November on weekend trips. I sure dont want any oxidents along the way. Oh I tie them in the trailer so its not like they can move around much. any thoughts or ideas would be great.:) GRO

[Rod]

It’s hard to know the configuration of your trailer floor, but if you think you might have a strength problem with the floor boards consider overlaying them with some 3/4 plywood. This will help distribute the point loads from the oxen hooves over a a wider area and more floor boards.
I recently have put a 5000 lb. Bobcat in my 16′ stock trailer with no floor reinforcment and no problems. That load would be around 1250 Lbs. per wheel on the 2×6 floor boards.
Hope this helps.

[Grassy Ridge Oxen]

Good idea Rod, Thanks for the suggestion. I will do that. I also have rubber mats I can put down to reduce the slipping possibilities.

[Roy]

What type of 2x did you use for the floor? I use 2×6 oak and it holds up well, strong too. The problem I have with plywood or matts is that the urine and manuer can’t drain out and I wind up with a huge mess in the trailer.

[Grassy Ridge Oxen]

I am poor so I used basic treated 2x’s and I also added metal suport straps. I am pretty picky about cleaning out the trailer after use any way so I am not realy worried about the mess. I took out the mats to clean under them before any way. Thanks for the input. 🙂

[Author]

Posts