I do want to stay away from treated lumber, but not necessarily because it has arsenic in it. I have built decks and ramps using treated, with no problems, but I want to go more original for my truck. I'm still not sure whether I want to use a marine finish or just paint it. One thing I was thinking about was the deck would be SLIPPERY when wet if it just had the varnish on it. Maybe I could add some sand to the finish? By the way, I'm painting my truck gloss black, so I think a black bed would look nice with it. From what I can tell, the original trucks were wood, much like I described, with 1/4" steel strips all the way around the bed, to protect the corners and to reinforce the stake holes. Where could I get something like that? Maybe I'll ask OlBlue (He lives here in town). I have heard that 2x6 tongue and groove is the best decking, so I'll do that. I was wondering though, to put 45s on the end of the 4x6 stringers it would cause problems when mounting the deck boards using carriage bolts. Any ideas? Or should I just go with 90s? Another question: are three U bolts enough to hold my ed on? It seems that it could slip or something. I was thinking 1/4" plates on each side of the beam/frame, and bolt them through. This would be more work, plus I don't want to drill any more holes in the frame if I don't have to. I was also wondering about lighting. Maybe I'll ask the electrical guys. Thanks for all your guys' help.
