subject: Low Cost Truck Bed Mats Protect For Nearly Nothing [print this page] The truck bed mats furnish numerous advantages not even matched by more expensive bed liners and liner choices. The small price makes it seem like the mats or liners offer little when that is not true at all. Here are some ways the lower priced mats may actually better the features of the much more costly liners, even spray in bed coatings for example.
1. Cushion of mats beats or at least equals other liner material.
let's face it, spray on bed liners and the similar coatings that get rolled on are after all just paint. Now granted the paint is special and quite tough and useful, but it is still paint. So what??? Though the liner coatings do include texture of some sort, though it varies by brand, it still is paint. The thickness of the paint coating makes for some of the durability of the surface but it has it's limits. On the other hand, put a thick rubber mat up against a spray on coating and you really are comparing two different things. It's just almost impossible to beat the thick mat for cushion.
2. The "No Installation" installation.
Installing bed mats means just rolling the mat into place. It really is as simple as that and nothing more is needed. In contrast, installation of spray liners is quite involved and means at the least your vehicle is down and out of use for a few days.
For rubber mats the hardest part of the installation, if you can call it that, is lifting the mat into the bed of the truck. That's so because a typical rubber bed mat for a full size pickup will weigh in the range of 70 pounds. It's not a lightweight.
3. Permanent might not always be so great.
If you value flexibility of use, a mat that slips in and out in just a minute has clear advantages. That makes for ease of replacement and that could come in handy if the mat is damaged or just needs cleaning. That means it is also simple to check for blockage of drain holes in the bed as well. That really is a plus to keep water moving and not pooling as a potential source of rust and corrosion.
On the other hand, spray liners are there for good. That means a damaged liner must be repaired or stay a mess. After all, the guarantee on spray in liners is not that the liner will not be damaged. The warranty means the liner will be repaired.
4. Spray liners and ruined paint.
For spray coatings to stick, the original pickup bed paint must be properly prepared to help the coating hold on and stay in place. That means the original paint gets sanded so it is basically destroyed. Now with an older truck that picture may have some appeal. But with a newer pickup, think of sanding to destruction that factory coating that was designed to stand up to weather and abuse for decades. That is an ugly picture to me.
Mats go over paint to protect and not to destroy.
5. Skid no more surface.
Cargo stays put over carpet liners and over rubber liners too. Moving loads can cause serious damage in a variety of ways. Let cargo shift and the sides of the bed often look different after impact. To say nothing of the potential for loads to exit the bed at the most awkward times and with who knows what sort of consequences. Keeping things where they should be makes for peace of mind and safe travel and not adventures in moving.
Truck bed mats provide several advantages for next to nothing. Keep the bed paint in your pickup and protect the cargo box as well as the load with a mat made to fit your truck and all at a cost that is nearly nothing literally.
Low Cost Truck Bed Mats Protect For Nearly Nothing
