We have recently redesigned this board to further strengthen it. We have made it thicker in several key places with a better coating system. The ends feel almost like a vinyl coating. We were working on an improvement to the coating and made a mistake and they wanted me to look at it and see what I thought. I said it doesn't match and look the same everywhere......the more I looked at it (after some Starbucks) and felt of it, the more I realized hey this isn't a mistake it's an improvement!! It's so thick as to almost seem like a plastic coating on the ends. So I said let's keep it. We don't want to use it on the main area of the board as it might be a bit too slippery. In fact it's pretty awesome it you are familiar with galvanized products. It's very shiny, slick, smooth, unlike the galvanized coatings say that a fence would have.
After redesigning the ribbing and the thickness in several key places including larger, thicker and more accurately cut hooks and better more uniform welding; we had it lab tested to see the results of our work and BAM!!!! We did it again. The uniform load test came in at an astonishingly high 5300 lbs before this board collapsed. That means the lab applied a full 5,300 lbs on this board before it finally deformed........not broke. That's means bent down here in the South. This equates to 478 lbs per square foot and at the normal 4 to 1 safety ratio would mean a published rating of 119 lbs/sq ft. We like to be a bit more conservative so we are going to rate it at 100 lbs/sq ft which is less of a margin than our 8 to 1 aluminum board rating but the reason is this board tends to bend not break at max load. So a board with a 100 lb/sq ft rating at a price you can't get anywhere else. Any board even remotely close in price will be rated at 75 lbs/sq ft. So it's a choice of a weaker board for more money or our board. The choice is obvious.
When you are comparing please keep in mind that no other company you are going to look at which sells as we do actually manufacturers and designs the items they carry on the internet with the exception of a couple of quality companies. Generally they don't sell direct. None at our pricing level. Period. To our knowledge we are the only company that takes the time, money and extra effort to do this. It means you get a product that's superior to anything available. It's how we define the words "High Quality". And as always at a price that's allows our products to sell themselves. Read the alum/ply write-up and become a certified Boardologist so you don't end up with a skunky AP-7 junk board. You can identify this cheap board by the two piece hook. We used to sell it. Now we refuse to carry it. Full story at alum/ply board page:

Aluminum/Plywood Page

 

 

Our Steel Board Includes:

 

All four hooks include a wind latch