[GB SISSON]

Coming on 52 years as a professional woodworker with many repair/restoration projects involving older wood structures, I would definately seal or saturate any hardwood under a vehicle. Red oak, maple, birch and many other hardwoods are quite prone to rot and bug infestation. Bed wood was almost always a softwood. Not soft like white pine, cedar or redwood, but forms of hard southern pine (pitch pine, yellow pine, loblolly), various species of fir etc. White oak and locust would be good choices for new structural under cab members. In old New England quarried granite fence posts were not uncommon. It was said that if one were to set a granite post and a locust post alongside each other, the granite one would outlast the locust one by a year.