ggdad1951

keep up the good work buddy! Also know the dust from Ipe can stain concrete....don't ask me how I know...

Ipe (aka ironwood) won't move much with moisture nor will it crush much. The stuff is so dense it has the same fire rating as concrete.

so about 975 pounds wet and 905 pounds dry for the 6bt....I was high on my initial weight

there is the process where you wet the wood with salt?water and then hook a battery charger up to it and let it burn "lighting" streaks in it. kinda cool looking, You might have to Utube it.

The bed tying into the bed sides is part of the stability of the bed. The angle strips help tie it all together....you need something along the edge. You could put the angle UNDER the bed boards, but then you are hanging the bed sides off the edge board to some degree...instead of resting on them which then rest on the cross members. Food for thought.

you even draw the wood grain...LOL Just bear in mind the Ipe is TOUGH...it chews up saw blades, drill bits and the like. Carbide is the way to go, knowing it likely will be trash after it's done. Be careful the Ipe splinters you will find are SMALL, but feel like a iron splinter. Where did you get your strips from?

same here! Freeze cycles and even heat here (yes we can top 100°F) mean BIG swings in humidity and temp. This poses a lot of challenges that other parts of the country don't see. While it may be HOT in some places, it might never get cold. We can have over a 120°F temp swing in a year. That is HARD on natural products left in the elements.

I built an Ipe deck at my old house...used the Penofin..and LOVED it. I have also built other decks in the area for friends that used it and they loved it as well. Even after a year it looked good, I reapplied it ever 2 years. my old deck:

"rivet nuts"?

at least on my B3, most of the bolts in the floor go into "J" style nuts something like these: or these for the ACME style

there should be some really coarse threaded bolts on the floor (almost like square ACME threads). Are those the ones you are asking about?

12V 6bt runs about 1100 pounds w/o trans...I likely could look up to the tenth of a pound of I got the itch to do so...

try having a gear set that starts with a 4...

my 1 ton runs at 35 psi...

there is a place in Cali, near 48Dodger (Tim) that has a ton of humpys....maybe ping 48Dodger and see if he can hook you up with Dave the guy in charge of the humpys.