Wood to re-deck a Stepdeck
 

Hey guys, I'm looking for wood to re-deck my step, but can't find anything that's economical. Apitong is rare down here and I will have to order it. $2400 for just the apitong wood is too much. Oak is even more expensive down here and I'd hate to use pine. What do you guys suggest? BTW, I'm located just south of Miami,FL.

Thanks in advance.

Do you think I can get a good year out of treated pine? I'd really hate to use pine, but between the price of 20K ramps and chains I really can't afford to order apitong right now.

I only ever used OAK. But i only ever drove RGNs. I dont think i would use pine. But thats just me.

Yea I never thought I would use pine either, but money is tight and I really need to have ramps on my trailer. If I can get a good 9-12 months out of the pine, I'll be happy.

Well if money is tight you got to do what you got to do lol.

Pine is soft. I would not want to use pine on a step deck if I planned on driving anything on it. You could use some 1" plywood. I have seen some drivers use that before and it seems to work for them. They just put it down on top of the old floor. If you just need the ramps you may be able to only get some of the apitong to do what you absolutely have to do for the time being. I am going to need to refloor my step deck this year and I really don't look forward to spending the money. I can get the 1 piece full length boards for about $2,200. I think the mixed length boards were about $1,400 or so. If you only want to do the ramp part of your deck, you could cut a 4' x 8' piece of plywood and nail it to the deck. Throw some paint on it and it may last until you can do something different. It would not be my first choice, but might get you by until money becomes more plentiful. I would need to find the quote on my trailer, but I believe the boards ran about $2.29/lf.

This is coming from a tree guy, if you can find somebody to saw you some ash wood it should be almost as good as oak and alot lighter. Where are you located? my uncle has a sawmill and we have some ash logs laying around.

Thanks for the input. I'm a little skeptical about using 1" plywood. I need to re-deck the entire trailer. There is absolutely no wood on there that can be saved. I will also be sandblasting and painting the trailer myself. I will be posting a few pictures on here soon, to show before and after I guess. Back to the flooring, I was thinking of using 1 1/2 -2 inch treated pine. I think my cross members are 12" apart, so hopefully the pine holds for about a year. I don't know what other wood to use that is in the price range on the treated pine.

Thanks for the help. I'm located just south of Miami,FL.

I know that people say not to drive anything on top of the pine, but do you really think that the pine will bust or crack if I drive up a rubber wheel loader or a medium to heavy duty truck(cab and chassis / dump trucks / military)? I know for a fact that anything on tracks will rip the pine apart, but I'm not sure what will happen with rubber wheels. And I'm pretty sure the pine will hold standard 47-48K pound stepdeck loads. Opinions are appreciated!