Success Story : Camp Prime Time

By Chad Koehnen, 05/04/20

The Background

Recently Ralph Berthon, the founder of Camp Prime Time in Yakima WA called one of our salespeople to discuss how they could redo their tilt bed trailer.

This trailer was an important part of Camp Prime Time’s day-to-day operations because it was used to maintain the property, haul heavy equipment, remove fallen trees and carry out other heavy haul duties around the campground.

After speaking to Ralph and learning more about Camp Prime Time’s mission which seeks to enrich the lives of families with children who are seriously ill or developmentally disabled by providing an outdoor wilderness experience where families can enjoy themselves in a supportive atmosphere without financial burden, TrailerDecking.com decided to help.

We were moved by how Board Members, Staff and Volunteers bring light and joy to people who are less fortunate by letting them experience nature at its best, and teaching them about the outdoors in the beauty of northern Washington State.

Because TrailerDecking.com cares deeply about our community, and firmly believes in helping out whenever possible, our hearts opened up to the notion of helping this worthy cause.

We decided to donate all of the Apitong wood, deck screws, and Apitong Oil stain required to completely rehabilitate an old and otherwise unusable trailer that was needed to keep the camp ready for their guests.

In the end Camp Prime Time’s project needed 200 square feet of Genuine Apitong 2x8 Full Sawn Rough Heavy Duty Trailer Deck Boards, 250 3-inch deck screws and enough Apitong Oil to coat the deck and ensure that Camp Prime Time’s trailer endures season after season of hard use out in the middle of the Wenatchee National Forest of beautiful Washington State.

Ralph Berthon, Camp Prime founder put it best: “I was stunned when they offered to help free of charge. Subsequently, I was able to leverage this support into the donation of everything else we needed to rebuild the trailer.”

The Project

“It took the aid of three volunteers to totally reconstruct the trailer over a three-month period,” Berthon said. “This ranged from all the sheet metal work to the rebuild of the trailer’s flatbed with the materials generously donated by Nova USA.”

After the 1,200-pound, 200-square-foot tilt-bed trailer had the tires replaced and axle, fenders, and frame refurbished, the Apitong was installed and the trailer was all set to be put back into service!

In the interview with Ralph he discussed the quality of our products: “The lumber was beautiful and in great shape. The lumber was not difficult to cut using a ten inch carbide chop saw. I must admit, that for a couple of old guys it was surprising how heavy those 16 and 20 foot board are. That extra 4 foot added to the 16 footers reminded us how old we are! We chamfered the ends on the ramp end and leading edge of the landing to mitigate a chance of snagging equipment on the decking. As is often the case when using 16 foot boards, you see some bowing. It was easy work for our porta power to correct the few 2x8 boards that had bows in them. Before we started attaching any boards we laid them out on the trailer and fit them using any bow to our advantage and making sure our tolerances were ok. For rough cut lumber it is amazing how close the boards held to a true full 2"x 8" tolerance.”

"The truth is, I never worked with wood like this before. It was just so heavy and durable and exactly what we needed to ensure years of heavy-duty hauling and lifting. The Apitong Oil also covered beautifully and was so easy to apply using only a roller. The color’s amazing. Quite frankly, anyone who saw the trailer before we began can’t believe the transformation. It looks just that good."

The Results

We hope Ralph and all of the volunteers at Camp Prime Time make great use of their better than new trailer for the long haul. If you would like to help out Camp Prime Time, or want to go camping there please contact Ralph and his staff at: families@campprimetime.org. If you have any projects involving our products that you are proud of, and would like to share, or have a trailer, truck or flatbed that you want better than new we would love to hear from you.

By Chad Koehnen, 05/04/20

"Nice looking trailer"

By john on 05/15/23

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