I am about to take delivery on a new Toyota Tacoma. I had a clapped out old Ford work truck before w/o a liner. What is the best kind of bedliner? Spray in or plastic drop in “tub”? I live in Tucson and will use this for a run around, no heavy hauling.
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
The recipe for linoleum hasn't changed much in nearly 170 years, yet it's still one of the greenest floors money can buy.
Featured Video
Video: Build a Fireplace, Brick by BrickHighlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
I have the "tub". But I've hauled palettes of block and brick and was told that sliding those in and out woulda ripped up the spray on. If you don't have that need, then you don't have to worry about one of the advantages of the tub.
I have a spray in Line-X.
While it has mostly light action. I have carried a couple of 150 lb steel tanks which got drug out from the truck. And about 3 tons of rock (in several smaller trips). The rocks where where all loaded by hand and unloaded by draggin them to the back and throwing them off.
There are couple of scuff marks on the liner, but you have to look closly to see them.
I really like it and would do it again.
Definitely go with a spray-on. Or, a spray first, and then drop a tub over it. The tub alone, no matter what you do, will get some crud and grit between it and the painted metal bed. Driving and loading and unloading will move the tub relative to the bed, and grind away the paint. Then comes a little water, and you have rust under the tub. You don't see it, and it just gets worse.
With the spray-on, use some common sense and give it a little help when it needs it. If you're going to get a couple skip loader scoops of gravel dumped in there, first throw in a sheet of crummy old plywood.
-- J.S.
Pickup beds flex, there's no way around that. A tub liner will flex differently than the metal bed and this will cause the paint beneath to wear through and create an invisible potential for corrosion. Most spray on liners are guaranteed for the life of the truck. The only problem with them is that you do not have that extra layer of protection that you have with a tub liner. The spray on just protects the metal it wont stop dings and dents like a liner might. They both have their merits and their levels of required care. Steve - in Northern California
I put in a Ziebart spray on liner, then covered the floor with a rubber mat that I got from an auto parts store. The mat lets me slide things around without damaging the liner, and the liner protects the bed from dirt and potential rust. It's worked for several years.
Good Luck, Bob
Bob has the best idea . Things dont scoot on rubber . Have you seen the stuff slide on a bedliner ??????
Tim Mooney
If ya go with the spray on type......make sure it'll bond with the paint. If not...as with the first spray on types.......it just sits real close to the paint...and eventially seperate....allowing moisture in...with very litle air flow to permit drying...and that's when the worst rusting will happen.
The best situation is a pop in bedliner....and popping it out every now and then to hose out....wash...then heavy wax under. But very slim chance of that happening......especially after a cap is added!
Got all this advice from a good friend/bodyman.....afterwhich I went with a simple sheet of ext ply cut to fit the bed. Even ran a coupla 2x's across the back......one on edge...one flat...that held the tools kinda in place...and kept the plastic grocery bags from ending up at the cab. Jeff She's exotic ,but not foreign, like an old Cadillac......she's a knockout!
I've got a pendaliner plastic liner and as other here have sais stuff would slide around endlessly. this is not too good for prtable tools like SCMS's and the mostly plastic bases of portable tablesaws.
I put a thick rubber bed mat in the bed on the plastic liner and now nothing slides at all. Incidentally I find this much more comfortable to my knees than those hard plastic ridges in the bedliner alone.
Any good truck accessory shop should have them. the one I got is about a half inch thick and has reinforcing cord molded into it. I had to cut it to fit the slightly reduced bed size (from the liner) and I ended up using my tin snips because I couldn't cut it with a utility knife. still left my cutting hand sore for a day. says something about it's durability don't ya think?Steve
S.J.MERRETTE Carpentry & Construction • Robesonia, PA
Nothing is impossible...It just hasn't been done yet.
If I did it again. I would start with a rubber mat and in 2/3 years if the bed looked rough then get the spray on liner. I have had the spray on liner since new and now keep a sheet of 1/4" plywood over it. its flat and feels much better. The drop in liners are tough BUT if you kneel on most of them they kill the knees. My last truck had one included and I lasted two weeks before I gave it away. It really depends on what you will be hauling around.