Wooden flat bed

I thought about this when I re-did the bed in my '66 Chevy C10 Looooongbed. I ended up going with White Oak for strength and the White oak is more pleasing to the eye. It also depends on the type of wood you use. If you use White or less expensive Red Oak you had better upgrade the suspension due to the weight. If you use a more soft wood like Pine or Fir... it's probably 1/3 of the weight. The real clincher is what you plan to load in the back. Pine and Fir are going to dent like a piece of cardboard while the oak is like... oak. Hope this helps!

KurtVH said:

We use 3" thick fir deck boards on oil field supply vessel cargo decks. While it is softer than most oak species and other hardwoods, it doesn't dent like cardboard. In fact, many of those decks last 20 years. And it's about 3/4 the density of red or white oak, not 1/3.

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I stand corrected... well, I'm sitting... but you get the point::grin::