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Posted by D. Sherman on Sunday, May 04, 2008 at 11:13:51 :
In Reply to: looking for bed wood for my 49 posted by Rick Bowman on Saturday, May 03, 2008 at 00:58:30 :
I agree with everybody who says white oak is the best. I can';t get it out here, but I sure wish I could because I have a couple trucks that need side boards & troop seats. White oak is tough, strong, and as rot-proof as any wood can be. Unfortunately we have nothing in the way of hardwoods here, and the only stuff you can buy in the lumber yards is expensive furniture-grade lumber. Even then, all they sell as oak is red oak, which looks fine but it doesn't have any rot resistance at all. The only white oak I get is from pallets and crates, which I save for small things. If I had to pick a local wood for a truck bed, I'd try to find some of the densest clear tamarack/larch I could get, but it still wouldn't be as good as white oak. All the government-issue side boards appear to be white oak, until they went to fiberglass.
I always remember visiting a friend in Delaware some years ago and they were helping the neighbors build a fence. I was shocked that they were using white oak for fence boards and asked them why they didn't just use cedar. They were about as astonished that I suggested cedar, saying it was insanely expensive whereas they could just go down the road to the local mill to get the oak. It seems like lumber is one of the few things where regional differences still matter. You can get watermelons or raspberries in January anywhere in the country, but you can't get white oak in Idaho or cedar in Delaware.
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