Ok - there are wood specialties and such - look for hardwoods in the
phone book. Buy full sized - non-planed. So it is thicker, stronger
and has a bit of rough on the sides.

In LA there are wood scrap yards I bet - from building - but also Ships.
Yes the docs on cargo ships - those that are not container are braced and
crated in large beams and planks. You might find you can buy Teak cheap.
It would last forever and be strong. Teak is used on the decks of
battleships so the strength is there. We used to get it overseas when
they came to port.

One never knows it might be South American and a hard Si based rose wood.
Might be green, brown, red, purple.

Martin
Martin H. Eastburn
@ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
TSRA, Life; NRA LOH & Patron Member, Golden Eagle, Patriot's Medal.
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder
IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member.
http://lufkinced.com/


Bruce L. Bergman wrote:
On Tue, 01 Jan 2008 21:32:13 -0500, Pete Keillor
wrote:
On Tue, 1 Jan 2008 01:10:24 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:
"ATP*" wrote in message
...
snip

I think we have white oak on our trailer at work. It's been on there at
least ten years and is in good shape. It's also thick like scaffold
planks. I remember we replaced the oak on an equipment trailer with PT SYP
and it did not hold up well on the tail, but that trailer was used for a
small dozer and some other fairly heavy equipment. 2x PT has worked fine
for me moving milling machines, etc. on a light duty trailer.
Oak is tough wood, besides being strong. It will take a lot of abuse. Too
bad white oak is so damned expensive, at least around here. Red is
relatively cheap but it's only good for interior work.

BTW, all of the interior trim in my house is a close relative: chestnut.
It's now 84 years old. People go ga-ga when they hear it's chestnut. But
when it was milled, chestnut was just a cheap substitute for oak. It
actually looks like open-grained oak.
Live oak is available at local sawmills in Texas, don't know about CA.
The heartwood is so damn tough you'll have to drill it, can't drive a
nail. It holds up forever in cowpens. That is unless you get the
wrong bull in the pen.

I'm reading all these - problem is in Los Angeles there's no such
thing as a 'small town sawmill' for a whole lotta miles, and they
aren't going to ship in 'the cheaper grade' with wanes and
imperfections. You start talking White Oak at the lumberyards and
they think furniture grade, and visions of dollar signs will be
dancing in their heads.

And most of what we've got natively is California Live Oak and
that's bendy stuff. You'd be lucky to saw it up and get 6' straight
planks out of it, let alone 16'. And some cities you need a permit to
touch them - they were trying to fine a homeowner in Burbank or
Glendale $360,000 for having an arborist trim a few dead branches from
a live oak in their yard without a permit.

I'm going to build the side rails and sub structure (tubing on 12"
or 16" centers) for planking it with 2X6 or 2X8 or tread-plate or
mezzanine grating, and then worry about if or what wood to use...

Or just give up and get the common Pressure Treated D-Fir or SYPine
that they sell everywhere. All the heavy tire loads will be the two
outer full planks on each side (right over the frame rails) and they
can be replaced periodically.

-- Bruce --