King Starboard for Bed Drawers/Platform

I’ve been wanting to build or buy a drawer system for my 3rd Gen long bed since I purchased it, and now with the addition of my smart cap I really want to get the project moving.

I really like the Alu Cab system but at roughly $4,000 it’s beyond my remaining budget. I don’t want to use wood as I want to be able to still hose out the system for easy cleaning. I think the Decked system, while nice, makes poor use of space. I want to put a water tank and 100aH Lifpo 4 house battery at the front of the bed and the decked system wouldn’t allow for that.

All of this leaves me with the question... why haven’t I seen anyone build a platform/system out of King Starboard? It’s used for everything on boats from decking to drawers to cabinets to tables. If supports were made every 12” or so, With the ST version being 30% stiffer than the original it seems like 1/2” Starboard ST would be more than appropriate as a drawer system and platform material?

 

A boat guy who’s used a lot of it just guessing. Starboard is pricey and going up significantly right now. It’s much heavier than most everything compatible in strength. It doesn’t fasten together as easy as other materials, most of time it has to be through bolted.

 

Also if you wanted drawers, it might be a bit difficult with supports needed to be every 12" or so? Or a bunch of small ones might work? Or could use long PVC tubes or some other formed "container" for the long voids spaces?

 

I've also worked with Starboard a lot.
It's definitely not a good choice for anything structural.

 

I haven't built a deck system but I spent time with a buddy who was researching it. He ended up slapping a sleeping bag in the back and calling it good. But it got me thinking that trying to keep weight down I'd probably be using very thin plywood and paint it completely. Think about your stitch and glue kayaks where you hold the flimsy plywood and think "Ain't no way this will be strong enough" and then when it's all together it's light enough to remove and your payload budget for heavy toys has increased.
Maybe even coating the corners and edges with epoxy first. I agree that Starboard would be great, just heavy, expensive, and getting the edges to be smooth is a pain. We usually use a router bit to cut the finished edges.

 

I was a Finish Carpenter in the Yacht industry. Starboard was one junk commodity.
I built many things from it, to include very in-depth cabinet designs.
Structurally, it's not much stronger than Partical Board furniture.
It may have more rigidity if it was welded together at the seams, but I have my doubts.