Composite wood and polymer forklift pallet assembly and method

A pallet assembly comprising:

• a plurality of side-by-side, spaced apart rail assemblies extending from a front to a rear of said pallet assembly;
• a wooden deck secured to an upwardly facing side of said rail assemblies and extending transversely across said rail assemblies to provide an upwardly facing, wooden, load support surface;
• said rail assemblies having a height sufficient to enable the tines of a lifting device to pass under said wooden deck from a front and from a rear of said pallet assembly for lifting of said pallet assembly;
• impact-resistant polymer deck boards secured to said rail assemblies and extending transversely there across at both said front and said rear of said pallet assembly longitudinally along said rail assemblies outwardly of said wooden deck to shield said wooden deck from impact by said lifting device during lifting of said pallet assembly;
• a plurality of transverse wooden boards secured to a downwardly facing side of said rail assemblies and extending across said rail assemblies in vertically spaced relation to said wooden deck for receipt of said forklift tines between said wooden deck and said wooden boards;
• and
• impact-resistant polymer deck boards secured to said rail assemblies on said downwardly facing side thereof longitudinally outwardly of said transverse wooden boards proximate said front and proximate said rear of said pallet assembly.

A pallet assembly comprising:

• a plurality of side-by-side, spaced apart rail assemblies extending from a front to a rear of said pallet assembly;
• a wooden deck secured to an upwardly facing side of said rail assemblies and extending transversely across said rail assemblies to provide an upwardly facing, wooden, load support surface;
• said rail assemblies having a height sufficient to enable the tines of a lifting device to pass under said wooden deck from said front and said rear of said pallet assembly for lifting of said pallet assembly;
• and
• impact-resistant polymer deck boards secured to said rail assemblies at both said front and said rear of said pallet assembly longitudinally along said rail assemblies outwardly of said wooden deck to shield said wooden deck from impact by said lifting device during lifting of said pallet assembly, said polymer deck boards each have a height dimension less than a height dimension of said wooden deck.