Brettski, another option would be to make your own brackets out of heavier steel and coat with an appropriate paint system. Weld a J bent piece of rebar to the bottom of welded bracket. You could probably find what you need at your local steel yard in their scap heap. All you would need is a reciprocating saw or angle grinder, welder, and drill. You could always make the pieces and let someone else weld them together. There are many paint systems available that will outlast the rest of your dock. Sherwin Williams has a system as follows: Zinc Clad 200 (organic zinc) primer protects the steel, HD Epoxy is tough and protects the primer, follow by a High Solids urethane tinted if you like, to protect the Epoxy from the sun. International paint has a similar two part system that has an Organic zinc primer(Interzinc 52) followed by a water based acrylic top coat. Ameron has a similar system. These are all used in extreme conditions such as oil rigs, ocean liners, and bridges where salt is used on roads. There seems to be a fear of steel on this site so I didn't bring it up before. I'm still not sure why steel isn't being used more often for main beams and posts.
