Mike Up

I think it was Herculiner my friend used, and it peeled off like nothing, costing him a lot, protecting nothing, and looking aweful. I wouldn't use any store bought roll on liners.

Good luck.

GunnarzF150

That's curious to me. I would think if the preparation is done correctly, the DIY bed coatings would adhere well, even though they may not be as good overall or heavy duty as a commercial spray on. On these forums I've read many posts about how the DIY works great or how bad it is. I've also read about many commercial spray ons that are awesome or have to be redone as well. It boils down to the preparation/application. It's not precise like swapping an alternator or changing the oil. There's a little bit of art involved, and if done properly, a fair amount of grunge work. I'm pretty sure you get out of it what you put into it. There are other products besides Herculiner and Duplicolor that may be better.

I'll see what the truck bed looks like when I get the drop in bedliner out and make decisions then. I'm not inclined to spend $$$ on Line-X since it will be covered with the Bedtred, but it all depends on the paint wear I think I saw. I may not need to do anything if there is just minor paint rub marks. Maybe a good coat of wax! LOL

Do you guys with exposed truck beds wax the truck bed?

GunnarzF150

Look at this from the plastic bed liner, it's on all the raised 'ribs' in the truck bed. I wiped away the dust the area that looks red and you can see the paint rubbed through and other paint pitting damage:

murf

Line ex is your best option. Under my bedtred it's still perfect. I've hauled everything, but mostly firewood.

GunnarzF150

Your Bedtred protects the bed perfect, or do you have Line-X under your Bedtred? If you have Line-X under the Bedtred, was that by design? I understand whatever you have, it's in great shape under your Bedtred.

Just called Line-X and got these prices:
$560 Line-X
add $200 for PREMIUM
or
add $325 for XTRA

murf

Just the BedTred. I installed it about a month after I bought it. I have 5th wheel rails in my bed so I keep a shop carpet on top of them. Besides those two things my bed looks great. I'm not saying it'll stop a dent if I throw a concrete block. But I've tossed many loads of wood in the back and still looks great. You'll never get scratchs with the BedTred.




The creases on the wheel wells have since flattened through last summer.

GunnarzF150

Cool, thanks for the info and pics. I'm getting the used Bedtred, $200 is a pretty darn good deal...with the Bedtred I can lay my bicycle down in the truck bed and lock the Roll-N-Lock, which is pretty cool.

Not sure what I'll do about the paint damage from the plastic drop-in at this point, the plastic liner will continue to damage the bed. At the least maybe use touch up paint in the bare metal. Disappointed to see the paint damage from something the manufacturer installs, you'd think the damage would be covered under the warranty, lol.

murf

Your bed will be fine. Farm trucks don't even have paint left in the boxes and they don't rust. Specially if you have a tonneau you have nothing to worry about.

packplantpath

Down south, I can find tons of farm trucks with rusty beds after a few days of no use.

GunnarzF150

I finally picked up the Bedtred. It's thin with a very impressive and tough/durable surface...not even concerned about reliability.

I got the first generation Bedtred with the 5 independent sections...they don't zip together like the second generation does. I see the value of the sections zipping together...I guess it prevents sand and misc. from getting under the Bedtred. The Bedtred uses an industrial sewing machine to stitch the zippers on.

My question:
Does anyone have any ideas how I can effectively connect/seal/prevent misc. from getting through the seams of the Bedtred sections and getting under the bottom section? The only thought that has come to mind was to use Gorilla Tape on the backside when I install it. Then it could be cut with a razor if/when it needed to be removed.