Took advantage of year-end sales deals to pick up a 2024 Ram 1500 today.
With my last truck I had the bed lined with Rhino Lining and I wasn't super impressed. Looked good for the 3 years I had the truck, but it scuffed and gouged easier than I had expected. Is Line-X a better choice?
What about drop-in liners like WeatherTech? At $240, it's a about a quarter of the price and a lot less hassle than taking the truck in for a spray-on lining.
LineX seems to be the best. Have a pro spray it on, don't go for the DIY. Have them mask off the bed bolts or pull them prior to spraying in case you ever need to pull the beds. Drop in liners are the worst. Slippery, damage paint, don't sit right, etc. Since it is brandy-brand new, ask the dealer to get it sprayed before you take delivery. Shouldn't cost much more than taking it in yourself and you will typically keep 100% full warranty if they do it before delivery.
Congrats on the new truck.
Line-X ... I prefer the rough, more porous, flat (not shiny) blend for better grip. The job on my old Ranger felt like fresh asphalt. Downside is it's harder to keep clean. You'll soon forget the hassle of getting it done, but the regerts from a lesser option will stay with you as long as you keep the truck.
On other trucks I've also had or used the hard/shiny drop-in bedliners, a heavy rubber mat, and one had been Rhino Lined. I buy used, so all of these, including the Line-X, were bought by a P.O. Line-X is the only one I'd pay for, I think.
Line-X. I've had drop-in liners, painted bed with a rubber mat, and DIY bedliner. Line-X is worth every penny, but my second-favorite approach is not caring about the bed and using a rubber mat.
I was looking into the WeatherTech "TechLiner." Seems a bit better than the thin plastic drop-in liners of old.
I did my jeep bed with Durabak. It's some gnarly stuff to apply and a major pain, but I am very happy with it's coverage and grip.
Use cases vary, but I'll never own another truck without a BedRug. My current F-250 has the Impact model, it's perfect.
Drop in liners suck. It's what you put in right before selling a truck with a beat up bed.
I think you would be very disappointed in a Weathertech bed liner.
Ever use Weathertech floor mats? Pisses you off when they curl and don't sit right, right? Guess what their bedliners do. Not to mention they don't cover the wheelwells.
In reply to LanEvo :
What is your intended usage? General bed protection, looks or hauling construction debris? That will help you narrow it down. I've had drop-ins, Bed Rug and spray in liners. All of them have pro and cons.
I prefer my drop in. Had one in several trucks over the last 20 years, they wear well and can be removed when really dirty which to me is easier.
stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) said:In reply to LanEvo :
What is your intended usage? General bed protection, looks or hauling construction debris? That will help you narrow it down. I've had drop-ins, Bed Rug and spray in liners. All of them have pro and cons.
That's a great question. The truck will be a racecar support vehicle and winter beater. The bed will be used for hauling wheels/tires, engines, tools, spares, and stuff. Nothing crazy.
3 of my 4 trucks that I have owned over the last 12 years have had drop in plastic type bed liners. Never had a problem with them. This is in CA. Fairly easy to clean when I've had the occasional oil spill or paint spill.
My current truck has some sort of spray on stuff. It looks thick and tough. Flat black color. Haven't spilled anything yet but I suspect it will be harder to clean up an oil spill because of the rough texture.
Id favor whatever method is cheaper given we are in CA and rust is not a concern
No one has mentioned why they prefer one over the other yet. Would be nice to understand pros and cons of each
Drop in liners do suck. Imagine it to be one massive piece of sandpaper on the underside doing a number on the bed, while the top side is like greased ice cubes allowing every piece of cargo to slide like it's on snot.
Rubber cargo mats can be useful at protecting things and not sliding, but they don't protect the sides, and they catch every oil pan of every engine or transmission you try to slide in.
Line-X for the win. Not indestructible, but very good. You have to remember that Rhino was the first in the game, and they haven't changed much. Many of the other spray-ins have improved things over Rhino
eedavis said:Line-X ... I prefer the rough, more porous, flat (not shiny) blend for better grip. The job on my old Ranger felt like fresh asphalt. Downside is it's harder to keep clean. You'll soon forget the hassle of getting it done, but the regerts from a lesser option will stay with you as long as you keep the truck.
On other trucks I've also had or used the hard/shiny drop-in bedliners, a heavy rubber mat, and one had been Rhino Lined. I buy used, so all of these, including the Line-X, were bought by a P.O. Line-X is the only one I'd pay for, I think.
I went with that finish as well and I found that a pressure washer was about the only thing that would handle it.
93gsxturbo said:LineX seems to be the best. Have a pro spray it on, don't go for the DIY. Have them mask off the bed bolts or pull them prior to spraying in case you ever need to pull the beds. Drop in liners are the worst. Slippery, damage paint, don't sit right, etc. Since it is brandy-brand new, ask the dealer to get it sprayed before you take delivery. Shouldn't cost much more than taking it in yourself and you will typically keep 100% full warranty if they do it before delivery.
Congrats on the new truck.
Also, some truck beds don't have adequate drainage in the front, and some don't have any at all. Figure that out first. If you don't have drains in the front, add them first so the Line-X covers anything you exposed. If you have small drains, stuff something in them (or remind the spray-person to) so they don't give it a heavy enough coat to seal them up.
I have Rhino liner in my truck and I haven't noticed any scuffing issues. It is color matched to the truck, I don't know if that makes a difference.
I've always had rubber mats. No, they don't protect the sides, but eh, it's a truck. I also always had tonneau covers, so you couldn't see it anyway. And the rubber mats are super easy to remove and clean.
Having said all that, if I ever spend the insane money it would cost to buy a new truck again, I'll probably get a factory spray-in liner to protect my investment. I might still use a rubber mat, too.
Drop-in liner pros:
- Easy to clean
- cheap
- protect the bed from denting, gouging and scraping from loads
- add a rubber mat and ... not a bad combination if the price is right
- theoretically removable
Cons:
- As Curtis said, they prevent the bed from being scraped/dented/gouged, but they don't protect all the paint underneath. This is probably more of an issue here int teh rain forest than in the desert southwest. Possible rust vector if it gets wet underneath
- Slippery. nothing stays put, have to block or strap loads every time
- Material can be gouged/abraded by dragging loads in/out
- Static electricity - an empty plastic gas can sliding around on a plastic bedliner will occasionally generate enough SE to feel. Easy to work around (put the can on the ground next to the pump when filling), but it also seems like something one might forget.
Line-X pros:
- bonded to the bed, no water between liner and bed metal
- I've never seen a bad/botched application
- can be color-matched (I think)
- can be blended to order (hard & slicker, flexible and rougher)
- stays adhered to bed even if the metal beneath is bent (up to a point, I reckon)
- the flexible/rough blend I like keeps loads where you put them, pretty much. Tie down the expensive/heavy stuff to be safe, but nothing really moves around in normal driving
- doesn't bunch up like a mat when you load/unload
- website says can now be applied to trucks with plastic inner bed panels (Tacoma, Ridgeline, ????)
Cons:
- cost/time to have applied
- not as resistant to denting as a drop-in
- the flexy/rough blend I like is porous enough for dirt/oil/AF/whatever to dig in and leave a signature. Pressure washer mostly takes care of this, otherwise ... "it's a truck?"
Rhinoliner - similar to Line-X, but not every install looks entirely pro. Seems to be less grippy, too, but I haven't seen that many
Rubber mat pros:
- protects the floor of the bed from denting pretty well
- keeps things from sliding around pretty well
- cheaper than spray-in liner
- can be removed easily for whatever reason. ie if you sell the truck, keep the mat for the next one
Cons:
- tendency to bunch up/fold if you try to slide something over it
- doesn't protect wheelwells/bed sides at all
- water can get under and takes a long time to dry
- the nice ones are cut to fit, and thus not so portable
Bareback/raw dogg - always an option, especially if it's dry where you live.
Pro: cheap
Con: damage, and probably slippy/slidy too
TL;DR:
If I had a new truck I wanted to keep really nice --> Line-X, QED
Used truck that came with with drop-in/Rhino/mat --> I'm not paying up to switch
Used truck with no liner --> probably a mat, unless it's really nice, then Line-X
Advantages of Bedrug:
- Protects the stuff you put in the bed. This is the big one for me. Spray-in liners are super abrasive and don't take impact well. Plastic liners and painted metal are very slippery, and your stuff flies around everywhere. Plastic liner also wear away the underlying paint, leading to corrosion. Put a tonneau cover over the Bedrug and you basically have a big car trunk
- Cheap and easy to self-install and replace if necessary.
- much tougher than you think. No problem hauling gravel, mulch, firewood, etc.
- Easy to clean. Just sweep it out with a broom, or if it's really dirty use a hose or pressure washer. The BedRug Impact I have (padded rubber bottom) has had gas and oil spilled all over it and you'd never know. I just take it to the self-serve car wash and spray it out, good as new
- Impervious to the elements. Water just passes right through it and evaporates when it's sunny. I had my last one for over 8 years and observed no sun damage.
I replaced my truck last summer, it took me about 3 hours to install the BedRug and Truxedo tonneau. Really happy with both of them.
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