Bed Liners?

[Bird]

One other consideration is the fact that many of the slide in bedliners, such as the one I currently have, cover the tie downs provided by the truck manufacturer. So you either ad others, which I did on the old F250 I had, or you cut holes in the liner, which I've done in the current one, to provide access to the tie down points.

 

[GaryE]

I stopped by the local Rhino dealer today and after about 30 seconds of discussion he told me to get a "drop in" liner. He agreed, if I needed to slide things in and out of the bed, the spray on Rhino was not the way to go.


Tomorrow I will try to find a local Line-X dealer... see what they have to offer. I will keep you posted.


Again, thanks for all the input!!!!


Gary

 

[RegL]

You can probably get a drop in for free if you look around. Many new trucks come with a drop in and most folks remove them and have the sprayed in installed. The line-x dealer I went to said he had stacks of drop-in liners and couldn't give them away. My brand new one went to the dump. I put it off to the side in case someone needed one.

 

[VA_Joe]

Gary,
I to have had both - the spray-in is by far the best (more durable; maintains access to tie-downs; no paint scuffing on the upper rails from shifting liner; no worry about mulch, dirt, and etc. getting underneath and clogging your drain holes; etc.).

If you do it - I would go over the rails and put a Trac Rack on top of the rails to finish it off (love that thing)

If being able to slide in heavy objects is a must - then throw down a piece of pressure treated plywood or cardboard and slide the object on that. Either should do the trick. If whatever your moving is too heavy for one of those to work then you would likely have problems pushing it in on the slide-in liner (or roll it in on a couple of steel or wood rods).

Anyways - my two cents.

VA_Joe

 

[LBrown59]

There are two styles of spray on bed liners. One is very thin and very hard and you cannot compress it at all with your hand or a tool in your hand. The other is much thicker and softer and if you press hard with a tool, you will see it deflect a little. The thicker syle is about 3 times thicker.

1*Both will prevent items from sliding, but the soft version would probably be even better at preventing sliding.
2*A one piece plastic drop in bed liner will let things slide around more than the spray in types.

1*Neither will work with a load handler.
2*A must if you want to use a load handler.

 

[LBrown59]

I have had Line-X in my pickup for three years. No problems at all with it.

Try iusing a load handler in it~!

 

[LarryRB]

I have never heard of anyone doing it themself with a $50 kit and being happy with the results. Spray in liners are something best done by a pro.
QUOTE]
I did my last one myself with a 100.00 kit and was real happy with it. The only down side to doing this yourself and the cans are well marked as such,, is water... The first 72 hours are critical that the bed does not get a drop of water in the mix. Other than this, the liner did 6 years of perfect service. I carried a cub rding garden tractor, snow plows and who remembers what else, Yes, I got many scratches, however, in the urethane and not the truck bed its self,..

 

[Ken_CT]

I posted earlier in this thread about having Rhino lining and using a Load Handler. When I first had the liner done, the installer had an old drop in liner that would fit my truck that he was going to discard. We cut the bottom of it out to lay in the bed of the truck when using the Load Handler to make it more slippery. It was cut around the wheel wells so it couldn't slide. This worked well, but I later tried using the Load Handler without the drop in "pad", and found it worked fine. I have used the Load Handler on the Rhino liner for full loads (3/4 ton) of both dirt & gravel and have had no trouble.

 

[LBrown59]

I have had two slide in liners in my last two trucks. Next truck will be a spray on.
1*Slide in allows anything in the bed to slide like it was on ice.
2*I've only heard good things about the spray on .

1*Which is exactly what you need when using a load handler.
2*The bad thing about them is a load handler won't work with them.

 

[LBrown59]

Gary, it looks like everyone is recommending the spray on liners as opposed to the slide in, but it seems to me they're overlooking your comment about wanting to "slide" things in. I've had one pickup (F150 Ford) with a sprayed on, pretty thick liner and I liked it, but things did not slide on it which was sometimes an advantage; sometimes a
1*disadvantage. As with most of the other guys, I have a slight preference for the sprayed on liners. However, I've had an F250 Ford with a drop in liner (forgot the brand) and now I have a Ford Ranger pickup with an Allstar drop in liner. I like it just fine, but as the others have said,
2*things really do slide around easily. So I just keep plenty of rope and bungee cords in the little truck.

1*To using a load handler
2*An advantage for using a load handler.

 

[LBrown59]

1*Slide in Liners they tear up the bed .
With a spray on You can still get to all your hooks and tie downs.

I'm a Line-X fan, but most of them are decent.

.

1*That's why I use a bed mat under them.
2*The fasteners become the tie down hooks when i install a slide in liner.

 

[LBrown59]

Gary, it looks like everyone is recommending the spray on liners as opposed to the slide in, but it seems to me they're overlooking your comment about wanting to "slide" things in. I've had one pickup (F150 Ford) with a sprayed on, pretty thick liner and I liked it, but things did not slide on it which was sometimes an advantage; sometimes a disadvantage. As with most of the other guys, I have a slight preference for the sprayed on liners. However, I've had an F250 Ford with a drop in liner (forgot the brand) and now I have a Ford Ranger pickup with an Allstar drop in liner. I like it just fine, but as the others have said, things really do slide around easily. So I just keep plenty of rope and bungee cords in the little truck.

Cargo should be firmly secured no matter if you use a spray or drop in liner or even no liner at all.

 

[LBrown59]

I have a factory drop-in liner in my Ford Ranger, which is named "DumpRunner".

I have carried a lot of loads in that little truck, and after seven years the liner is still in pretty good shape. Gravel, broken concrete, old woodstoves, washer, drier, more loads of dirt than I care to think of, shingles from re-roofing, lots of appliances, etc.

I have had to repair some puncture holes in the liner, and every so often a heavy metal object with a sharp edge will shave a piece of plastic from the ribs in it. Things slide, but there are cutouts in the sides of the bedliner which are intended to take 2x lumber.

I cut two redwood 2 x 4s to the right length when I got the truck, and they cut down on a lot of the sliding.

There is no doubt that a a hunk of rope needs to live in the truck, but this is true for any liner.
All in all, I am satisfied witht the liner.

I keep about 6 or 8 pieces of small nylon rope in my truck that are 6 7 & 8 feet long with a loop on each end.

 

[LBrown59]

Ok!


Last night I was leaning towards a slide in..... You guys have me rethinking this! My last truck had a slide in, yes there was rust under it, but there was rust throughout the whole truck. So I never worried about it. What I did like about it was, things DID slide in and out without to much effort. Between the Rhino and Line-x which would be the "less sticky"?

*the winter I often will shovel a pile of sand in and out of the bed, never was an issue with the slide in. Any experiences with the spray on?


I was hoping you guys could ALL agree on this.



Thanks for all the input.


Gary

*I load the truck with my FEL and unload it with the load handler .
No shoveling for me.

Another idea: Don't just shovel the sand onto the floor of the bed.
Put it in 5 Gallon buckets.
Much quicker and easier to unload that way than shoveling it back off the truck.
If you have a fel you can just dump the buckets from the tail gate into the fel bucket.
No shoveling to unload the truck either way.

 

[LBrown59]

One other consideration is the fact that many of the slide in bedliners, such as the one I currently have, cover the tie downs provided by the truck manufacturer. So you either ad others, which I did on the old F250 I had, or you cut holes in the liner, which I've done in the current one, to provide access to the tie down points.

I simply combine tie downs with bolting in the liner.

 

[oliver28472]

My 2003 F150 came with a slide in liner. Already had holes cut for the tie downs. Have a rubber mat on it for no skid surface. Also have an ARE tonneau lid which I never remove. I have a 1981 for the rough stuff and it goes bareback.

 

[The Baron]

Hi Gary, I had a truck with a Penda drop in liner which I used for years- it was great for dirt etc. because it was easy to sweep out. The problem was the wear that was present underneath it. It wore through the paint right down to the bare metal which is why I now have a Rhino liner but like everyone has said you will not slide anything on it very easily. If you go with a drop in liner stop by your local carpet store and get some remnants or samples, they will make it easier on your knees when you end up crawling in the box for something.

 

[gemini5362]

Gary when I did research on truck bed liners I found out a couple of differences between rhino and line-x as far as spray on bed liners go.

1. Rhino material is sprayed on cold and the thickness on your bed is not as uniform especially when you do the sides as it can slide down a bit while drying Line-X material is sprayed on hot and dries faster it is supposed to give a more uniform thickness.

2. Here to me is the big difference. Both processes are guaranteed for as long as you own your vehicle. The difference is in who the warranty is through. Rhino warranty is through the dealer only. IF your dealer you bought it from goes out of buisness or you move etc. You are out of luck if you need warranty repairs. Line - X is through the company any warrany repairs you might need can be carried out at any Line-X dealer. I have line- X on my truck now and I had it on my last truck. When I had it sprayed on I had it put on over the bed rails that cost a bit more but it saves that area from getting scratched up.

 

[em14]

Gemini,
What did the Line-X cost you. I am looking at doing a 8ft bed in June with either Line-X or Ameraguard. and does anyone know anything about the Ameraguard?
Leo

 

[gemini5362]

Gemini,
What did the Line-X cost you. I am looking at doing a 8ft bed in June with either Line-X or Ameraguard. and does anyone know anything about the Ameraguard?
Leo

Leo I do not know anything about Ameraguard so I cant answer on that. I belive the line -x was around 500.00 give or take a few and that was on a 6ft bed. Of my last three trucks. The first was a ford ranger with the slide in bed cover. I had to cut holes in it to be able to get to the tie downs and to be honest I did not like it all that well. I also did not have anything covering the bed and the top had scratches all over it from slideing stuff in. My next truck was a 2500 HD silverado with Line-X I and I had the top of the bed sprayed also I loved that. When i traded that truck in for another silverado the first thing I did was to take it to the Line- X dealer to have it sprayed. Both are good products where I work out we have doors that kept getting scratched up from carts hitting them. We had them sprayed with Rhino lineing and they have held up well for a lot of years. They still look almost like they are brand new. Like I said in my earlier post I like the way the warranty is administered a lot better with Line - X