plastic decking as bunk boards? Thoughts? Ideas? Jokes?

[joetheis]

Was under my boat last night rolling on another coat of anti fouling.
My bunks are in good shape, the carpet WAS, (well until I thought the roller pad could fit between the bunk and the raised up boat, but alas I was 1/4" short, now the bunk carpet is anti fouled)!!
"Well, there is another "to- do" item before she goes to sleep for the winter. That paint will act as a piece of sand paper and scrap the boat anti foul RIGHT off"...........
Got to thinking as I was looking for bunk carpet on line......
"The plastic decking boards BACk side is smooth, slick, I wonder IF I double them up (for stiffness), how would they work for bunks"?
I see you can buy PVC bunks, that are plastic and slick, this might be the same for less $.
Or .....
2 X 6 P.T. bunk with the deck on top??
(that will raise the boat up 1" er so on the trailer, the eyelet on the bow may be too high now,
or,
A- 1" X 6" P.T, WOOD decking WITH a plastic decking on top of that, (that'll be 2" instead of 1 1/2" my 2" X 6" is now).
Thoughts?
Ideas?
Jokes?
Joe
Some times I think too much!
I "tweek" until I turn a perfectly good thing to sh**!

 

[Frank Acampora]

Why spend two to three times the price when you can easily get spruce or hardwood? If the hull is aluminum you certainly don't want pressure treated. Besides, PT tends to warp more than regular wood. as it dries.

You certainly don't need the bunks to outlast the hull or trailer.

 

[gm280]

Why not just replace what you are using now and happy boating? The plastic decking materials have been talked about many times on here and the conclusion was those type make-believe boards are not very structurally sound for such usage. So just carpet over some new wood and install and forget about it for years to come... :noidea:

 

[Scott Danforth]

plastic decking is HDPE, just a little denser than milk jugs. Zero structural support. As indicated, the topic has been beaten to death.

 

[smokeonthewater]

Actually not HDPE ..... HDPE is slick but not rigid so needs mounted over wood but PVC is neither slick or rigid and as such is totally worthless in trailer bunks.

 

[Maclin]

I used some for seat bottoms on some removable rear jump seats. While over all supportive as a platform, they would not take the "crush" as well when bolting all the way thru from the top. Also the connection areas as in screw and bolt entries/exits, did not fare well unless there was a LOT of meat around the holes, way different than real wood in my experience, just sayin'.

 

[bryanzzz]

What I did, my new 18ft aluminum boat was hard to load with carpeted bunkers. I removed the carpet and screwed down(counter sunk sst screws) 1/2 inch heavy duty plastic (called UHMW, ultra high molecular weight) scrape pieces from work very tuff and slick. Guess what, too slick, drive boat on trailer and cut power, it would slide back into the water. Fix was to glue 3 ft pieces of thin carpet on each bunker. Loads easily, whatever you do just be careful the first time you back in to unload boat, if bunkers are too slick you might unload on dry land!!!!!! the ramp.

 

[joetheis]

Hmmm!
That'd be when EVERYONE in the marina was milling @ the ramp!
I usually back the trailer down to "wet" the bunks all the way, (I had sprayed silcone on the carpet this summer, just cuz).
"Coast" the boat on, climb over the bow and winch the last ft or so, (watched a guy in a HOT bass boat come in, go to WOT and LEAP right over the trailer into the back of his truck! It was awesome!!!
Then he yelled at his wife??!!
So since that I crank her on, no problems, no worries, not U Tube moments!
Maybe the decking on the 2X6??
Joe

 

[smokeonthewater]

Noooo the decking is NOT your friend... it is the wrong kind of plastic... You polyethylene

 

[muskyfins]

Most plastic deck boards are made from HDPE.

To prove this, here is an easy test. There are only 4 types of plastic that float. PE (all grades HDPE, MDPE, UHMW, etc but they're all PE), polypropylene, PMP, and EVA.

PMP is very expensive and used mostly in the medical field. Odds are you won't get your hands on it.

EVA is used as thin films so it has no value as plastic lumber.

PE and PP are so closely related, only someone in plastics could easily tell them apart. But I don't believe there is any PP plastic lumber being produced.

So, if your plastic lumber floats it is PE.

PVC (and every other type of plastic) sink.

PS-EON decking is made from PS (polystyrene). It will sink. It would also make a terrible bunk because it has much coefficient of friction on the surface than PE. It is also very expensive. I believe the debate has been regarding the cheaper plastic decking.

Now whether it's strong enough? That's a different debate.

 

[smokeonthewater]

You have forgotten that foamed plastic floats.
Thus floating proves nothing...

That said, I have long understood plastic lumber to be other than pe....

If I am wrong it would make my day.... HDPE is quite expensive... If it is available at Home Depot for cheap that would be WONDERFUL.

EDIT:

Ok a quick search shows me that yes I was wrong... Hate saying that but excited at possibilities.... Will have to research cost and size/shape.

Looks like most are 50% HDPE and 50% wood fiber some are foam PVC along with others but a few are listed as only HDPE.

http://www.deckspecialists.com/composite_deckmaterials.htm

 

[ondarvr]

Many of the deck boards are made from recycled PE, they advertise it as a green product because of this. There are companies that make trialers and use the deck boards on the bunks, of course this is over a supporting structure of wood or steel, it's lasts a long time and has just about the right amount of slip for an aluminum hull. I use UHMWPE on my bunks, again, it's not overly slippery on the aluminum. The deck boards on my house are PVC.

 

[muskyfins]

You have forgotten that foamed plastic floats.
Thus floating proves nothing...

That said, I have long understood plastic lumber to be other than pe....

If I am wrong it would make my day.... HDPE is quite expensive... If it is available at Home Depot for cheap that would be WONDERFUL.

EDIT:

Ok a quick search shows me that yes I was wrong... Hate saying that but excited at possibilities.... Will have to research cost and size/shape.

Looks like most are 50% HDPE and 50% wood fiber some are foam PVC along with others but a few are listed as only HDPE.

http://www.deckspecialists.com/compo...kmaterials.htm

I don't ever want to be that guy, but I'm usually not an expert in anything relating to this forum. I take a little(information) and give a little. But I'm heavily involved in plastics. My nickname at one time was Dr. Plastic. HDPE is a commodity plastic. It is among the least expensive grades available. 2nd or 3rd from the bottom in industrial plastics. Much less than PVC. This is one of the reasons so much is made from it-milk jugs, garbage cans, kayaks, pier floats, (basically everything made by Rubbermaid), etc.

I'm asked at least once per week to identify a particular grade of plastic. The first thing I do is float a small piece in a bucket or sink. IF it floats I can easily eliminate 99% of the possibilities.

Foaming only creates a floating plastic part if enough air is in the material to lower its specific gravity below 1.0. Hard to do with PVC and have it keep its strength at all. You can buy foamed PVC at arts and craft places that will float, but even 1/2" thick boards snap easily, so obviously use as a bunk board would be out. PVC in general is a problem on many levels. It actually makes great fencing. And mediocre siding. And excellent piping. Other than that there are superior materials for most consumer or even many industrial applications.

The type of boards the OP is talking about don't have enough strength. The 50/50 stuff does depending on support spacing. But I wouldn't use it. No cushioning against his hull. Carpet and wood work just fine and are cheap.

All the above not withstanding, I'd like to commend you Smoke for admitting you were incorrect. Thumbs up.:encouragement:

Did you know HDPE can be welded? I might get some of the HDPE lumber and see what we can do with it.......

 

[smokeonthewater]

Yeah I should have said HDPE is expensive for me to source in sheets suitable for making bunk slicks.... I'm not familiar on plastic board pricing but I would guess it would be cheaper than what I've seen for the smooth white sheets.