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I'm surprised how many people love the spray in liner. Sure they look good, until you really start to use your bed. For me, a drop in is a must. I cut 20 truckloads a year of heavy oak firewood and don't have time to gently load the truck. They get tossed in. My buddy does the same and he has Rhinocoat. After 1 year his bed looks like it's been through a hail storm with softball size hail. As far as the drop ins being more slippery, that's another plus for me. Logs push in and slide out much easier. So does mulch and everything else. Some of these chunks of oak are over 50 pounds. Nice to be able to slide them in. I guess it all depends what you use it for. My last truck had a drop in liner in it since 1996, still looks good, no dents.
Thanks everybody for the help! The Pendaliner arrived yesterday on an 18-wheeler. A little help from my dad and a few beers later and she looks like a new truck.
My only complaint: I don't understand why at the rear you remove the tie downs to install the liner and at the front they just make those big holes with caps, which will allow debris in while using the front tie downs. Wish the front was like the rear but oh well.
Installed Bull Rings on all 4 stake pockets so that will be nice as well.
Slightly bowed where the liner meets the tailgate but I'm sure that will settle over time, or I can put some weight on it, or double sided tape.
I love drop in plastic liners..I have a plastic cover on my tailgate but a heavy sheet of galv sheet steel in the bottom of my bed. My other trucks I always got a Duraliner.
Get a lineX liner and try loading and unloading a bottle of welding gas. Then head to the back doctor or go get your hernia repaired after. You can't move nothing on it. It sucks. I want easy in and easy out.
Enjoy Sonic.
In a previous life, I sold AllStar and Duraliner drop in liners. THOUSANDS of them. I have never seen a drop in liner cause a rust issue. I have seen nearly rusted out beds made useful again by the addition of a drop in liner. Spray in liners can look nicer but quite frankly nobody looks, but if the owner is happy.... Spray in liners simply aren't capable of protecting like a drop in. You can hit an installed drop in with a sledge hammer and the bed will suffer no damage. Try that with a Linex.
OP, gently scuff the loose paint and clear if you want but if I remember correctly those metal surfaces are galvanized?
I'd simply clean the bed lightly and put the liner in.
You'll have no issues.
This is one of those "problems" that's not a problem.
It seems the myth of bed liners causing rust and damage to a bed has been debunked in the last 5-7 yrs thanks to the internet but Line-X is better at protecting a bed than a liner would. I'm not sure about other spray-in liners. The military uses Line-X to coat buildings and structures from bomb blasts.
It seems the myth of bed liners causing rust and damage to a bed has been debunked in the last 5-7 yrs thanks to the internet but Line-X is better at protecting a bed than a liner would. I'm not sure about other spray-in liners. The military uses Line-X to coat buildings and structures from bomb blasts.
I'm not worried about bomb blasts, I'm concerned about dropping 40lb logs in my bed, shoveling out dirt, and carrying large rocks. I've had a factory spray in liner in the past, and it doesn't protect the metal underneath from denting like a drop in plastic liner does. I can't imagine Line-X is any different, because it's designed to be flexible and "give" some when a force is applied evenly across the entire surface. That's why it works well for shelters like that, because it's able to give and spring back.
But when you have a very concentrated load, like the classic corner of a toolbox that GM used for their commercials, a spray-in liner will still allow the bed to permanently dent while a drop in liner would completely protect the metal underneath.
Cons Ugly. Can't be repaired. Slippery.
Takes up valuable space. (Does not fit tight against the truck.)
Rubs paint off, can cause rust in some trucks.
Black only.
Can interfere with some bed covers.
Can warp over time.
I do not like plastic bed liners for 2 reasons. The first is if you try to stand in a wet bed it's like standing on oily ice and very dangerous. The second reason is if you haul anything in it you better tie it down very good so it doesn't slide out the back. I have seen pallets of heavy equipment scattered across the freeway from this.
08-29-2017, 12:24 PM
