I have designed my deck as shown below
Attachment 12318
With a center beam taking most of the load, and posts supporting the front rim/header (I left out the joists for clarity).
I tried to indicate that I have chosen to make the front rim/header joist from 12' stock, two 11' pieces and a 6' piece, with each splice centered at a post. Am I making a big mistake? Should I try to make it 2 pieces, one 17' and one 11'?

My posts are about 5'-7" apart, and I was trying to make do with 12 stock.

(I suppose if I attached joists to the posts as the splice sites, each portion would be as strong as a separate deck.. )

Thank you!

I don't think you have any choice. I don't think you are going to find a 17" joist.

Depending on how you plan to build your steps, I think I would do 2 twelve footers and a 4 footer, splice on a 6 footer behind as shown. Then cover the joints with the step riser. This would be for appearance only. Bolt splice.

Sorry but I have exceed my allowed pic space, looking for how to deleted some. The two 12 footers and the 4 footer would be between the two step post and be covered by the step riser.

thanks, Harold,

I might find a 20' 2x, which would reduce me to one splice junction, so part of my query was whether it is worth the trouble.

Assuming I stick with shorter stock, here is my interpretation of your suggestion:
Attachment 12323

This seems like a pretty strong connection, better than my original idea. Good enough?

You got it. Another thought might be to cover joints with post for step hand rail. Or moving post to support deck and serve as post for hand rail (unless you are going to have 5'4' wide step).

Great!

The posts are already in, so I am working around them. The steps will span the outer edges of the posts, 5'-7" (O.C.) + 3-1/2" = approx 5"-10-1/2".