Sled deck plywood/protectant?

Deck Restore etc type surface coatings. There are multiple types to choose from but Deck Restore is carried by Home Depot and their display samples look impressive

I read some guys mix sand with paint or apply paint then sprinkle sand on the paint before I dries.

Having said that, Maybe apply a normal coat of exterior paint and let it dry. Then apply a second coat with sand added or sprinkle the sand on before it dries.

I painted my deck plywood with Sikkens Cetol SRD last year black. Old plywood, little beat up. It looked great. Sold it this spring so can't say how long it would last, but with ski slides on it, the runners didn't tear it up and it looked as good after the season as when I put it on. No peeling.

braapin said:

What about rhino lining on new plywood?

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I'm a rhino applicator. we are applying two different materials to a 2 place outdoor trailer. You should know that rhino linings is a brand name and not the material. Rhino linings has about 20 different blends of materials. We are applying two different materials on a 2 place trailer to test how they will hold up to sleds. One is an ultra hard coating. Our top material has a shore d hardness of 70. Actually works out to be harder than the shell on a bowling ball. Our other material has a about the hardness of a stiff shoe heal. Or shore d 40. The materials are both wildly strong as 3500psi tensile strength and about 400psi puncture strength. Granted the thicker we apply it the higher both the strengths get. Our train of thought with going on both ends of the hardness scale is to see if we could do away with runner guides all together. I'm hoping to allow the skag to defore the material far enough that it can push of it and either guide the sled or help it turn when pulling off. We also want to see what the track will do on each type. Either way once coated the deck could last a long longer than anything else out there. One note on that is that we have to seal the entire piece of wood, top, bottom and sides. With out it moisture will pop the coating off the wood. But on the plus side... It will never rot! I'll post the results after we coat and after a few rides

braapin said:

Ok sounds good. I am planning on running super-glides anyways. I'm just looking for something for the rest of the deck that's exposed. Would you still have to use a sealer/weatherproofer if you were gonna use a Herculiner or rhino lining type material? What about spending the extra $ for marine grade type plywood?

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We always get the best/dryest substrate to start with. On our two test trailers we are starting with new plywood anyways.

What ever you do don't use herculiner! its a polyurethane product. you would have better luck peeing on the wood than using that junk! 30% of my bedliner jobs are spending hours ripping out herculiner and applying polyurea (rhino liner)

One of the other reasons I didn't mention for wanting to wrap the substate 100% is it leave no leading edges. while the material may be amazing its weakest link is leading edges.

I seen 2 different decks with bed liner coating on them. Don't know what brand was applied but both were in terrible condition. One was a brand new, never used deck that was aprox 1 year old and had been sitting outside that whole time. The coating was peeling everywhere. The other one had been applied to a new deck and used one winter. It was in better condition but still needed to be fixed.
I think its the wood itself that's the problem and doesnt allow for good adhesion. Also if you have an expandable deck your going to have unprotected edges that are going to start peeling first. Eric

I was in the same situation with my deck so I replaced the ratty plywood with pressure treated plywood then gave it 2 coats of Cloverdale Shark Skin deck coating. I used the same stuff on my 20' equipment trailer and it seems to stand up to my rubber tracked excavator going back and forth so it wont see that kind of abuse on sled deck. I did the top in black and the underside in white latex just so its not so dark under there.

Floor coatings

I used a double coat of Linex over new plywood in an enclosed trailer. Seven years later, with countless in and outs, no carbide or traction damage whatsoever. I'm sold on Linex. No peeling or lifting of coating.