When it comes to owning a truck, finding the right truck bed liner is of optimal performance. Without the right bed liner, your cargo can slide around and can cause damage to both your vehicle and the cargo itself. Additionally, your truck bed will be unprotected from the elements, causing unwanted corrosion and wear. Below, we’ll list the reasons why having a truck bed liner is important, and how to find the best bed liner for your truck.
Why Purchase a Truck Bed Liner?
As we stated above, truck bed liners are essential if you want to protect the inner-siding and bed of your truck. Without a truck bed liner, your truck bed is essentially naked to the elements, and unprotected from rocks and dings, debris, heavy cargo that is dropped on it, as well as water corrosion. Below, we’ll list a few more reasons why truck bed liners are an essential item to buy when you own a truck.
Truck bed liners ensure that your truck bed is skid resistant: Without a protective, durable liner, any cargo you throw into the bed of your truck is susceptible to being thrown around and skidding back and forth as you drive. A truck bed liner will be skid resistant and prevent any unwanted shifting and moving of your cargo.
Easier to clean out: When you have a truck bed liner you will no longer have to worry about water corrosion or rust on your vehicle. So now it will be much easier to hose the bed of your truck down and clean it out – it won’t cause any damage to your vehicle.
Protects your vehicle from chemicals: If you carry around chemicals in your truck, such as the chemicals you need to clean pools, then having a truck bed liner is essential to protect your truck. If these chemicals were to drop on unprotected metal, it could eat away at your truck. With a truck bed liner, you can simply hose your truck bed down at the end of the day, and there will be no lasting damage.
Different Types of Truck Bed Liners
There are two broad classifications of truck bed liners: drop-in and spray-on. Below, we’ll list how they work and the advantages of both.
- Drop-in Truck Bed Liners: a drop-in truck bed liner are essentially rigid structures that are formed to the contours of the vehicle. They are drilled in place on the bed of your truck and are usually made of a polyethylene composite. The advantages of this type of truck bed liner is that they require no major modifications of the truck aside from drilling some holes.
- Spray-On Truck Bed Liners: Spray-on truck bed liners are the most permanent liners, but require a little more work. Spray-on liners are essentially a painted protective coating that is applied directly to your truck bed. The paint can match your current vehicles paint and is skid-resistant and protects your bed from dings and wear. This kind of liner takes longer to install, we do think that the spray-on liner is the better option. More permanent and applied directly to the truck itself, it lasts longer and is easier to clean.
- Other types of truck bed liners: Other types of truck bed liners include bed rugs and bed mats. Bed rugs are great if you are looking for something that will be a little more gentle on things like furniture. A bed mat can be a good choice if you want something that’s easily removed. The only cons of these items would be that they’re not permanent, and especially the rug would be a little difficult to clean. In addition, you could simply add these on top of a spray-on or drop-in liner.
How to Determine Which is The Right Truck Bed Liner For You
When you’re trying to decide which is the right truck bed liner for you – it’s really up to your preference. There are a number of factors to think about of course: price, permanence, and durability. Below, we’ll give you our take on how each of these liners hold up to the criteria.
The Drop-In Truck Bed Liner is a good choice if you’re looking for something a little less expensive and doesn’t take a long time to install. If you’re looking for a quick, easy, and cheap method, this could be a good way to go. However, a negative of this bed liner is that debris like sand and rocks could get lodged in between the drop-in liner and the truck itself and also with the nature of the drop-in, provides a little less cargo room than you previously had.
The Spray-On Liner, in our opinion, is one of the best options. Since it is applied right to the truck bed itself, you don’t have to worry about debris getting lodged anywhere or having less cargo room. The spray-on truck bed liner is part of the truck itself and can look great since it will match the paint of your current truck’s paint job. In addition, it is also permanent, so you won’t have to worry about getting it redone or worry about any wear and tear. This type of application is a little more expensive and takes longer, but in our opinion, it’s worth the time and money since it will last as long as you have the truck. If you are interested in getting this type of liner applied, technicians at your local dealership utilize the highly popular Rhino Lining Applicator for a great and proficient job.
Finally, the rug and mat bed truck liners are probably our least favorite of the bunch. While they are cheap and easy to apply, they are not permanent and will require a lot of tedious cleaning. Rugs can get dirty really quickly, and you will not want to use them in the rain or snow. Mats are a slightly better option, but you’ll have to worry about how you will attach it to the bed, and the sides of the bed will most likely be unprotected.
