subject: Preventing Truck Bed Destruction [print this page] Preventing Truck Bed Destruction Preventing Truck Bed Destruction
Truck beds get beat to pieces at times. Even just hauling groceries begins the process of scratching and damaging the bed paint. Even if you're careful, pickup beds are on a steady slide down from damage. Besides being careful, there's more you can do to keep the bed looking fine. This is a way to stop the damage... Think about a bed liner for the truck. Now the ultimate solution seems to be the professional spray on liner. It's a good solution, but maybe not the ultimate one. There's that price for one... This is the most expensive option and certainly looks too expensive for many old trucks. Spray coatings are still a painted on lining... And remember that the life-time warranty doesn't mean the liner can't be damaged. It means it can be repaired. That means a respray and the hassles associated with that. Can you continue to keep re coating damage for years? Who knows. Think of the installation of liner coatings. Original paint gets pretty much wiped out in the process of preparation for a spray liner. That's for sure... It's not possible to reverse a spray on bed liner. It's there to stay. Tougher coatings exist. The heavy plastic liners are all but impossible to destroy. And the thick plastic material takes most any kind of abuse that would tear off paint on the original bed. Plus, it's a shock absorber to absorb most any hit and prevent dents. Dents are real killers since they are much more difficult to repair than are a few little scratches. Plastic liners must custom fit each truck. That's not a problem if one is made for your truck. However in some cases there is no plastic liner available. Simple truck bed mats are another possible answer. This one's easy to overlook since it's so basic and cheap too. After all, pickup bed mats are just that. It's a rubber mat made of material about like a car tire. That makes for toughness just about equal to plastic liners and able to absorb shock and bypass scratches. Then it's easy to remove too so it's easy to clean and easy to store. Mats however only help the floor of the bed. They leave the sides unprotected. Consider a rubber bed mat over a spray on liner. Maybe that's the ultimate protection. Keep the paint protected and the high price liner mostly protected too. Another possible ultimate solution is plastic liners on the sides, front and tailgate. Then a rubber mat on the floor. That's available as the DualLiner for not much money.
