Bed Liner Reviews

I've owned many trucks and in turn I have also owned many truck bed liners. For many years I found myself with only two choices; drop ins and spray-ons. About a year back after I pulled my last one piece drop-in out of my bed and saw the extreme amount of scratching and wear, I decided that I would never go that route again. I paid right around $30,000 for that truck, and to see that type of damage to the factory paint, to be blunt, really pissed me off. That is when I started to do some research as to what my other options were.

I came across a new 5 piece bed liner called the DualLiner that looked like it could be a viable solution. The DualLiner consists of 4 UV treated hard plastic outer walls and a 3/8 of an inch thick zero skid rubber mat that interlocks and looked to be an easy installation. The price tag looked right at $369.00 delivered to my door so I decided to give it a whirl and ordered one up. I ordered it on a Friday morning, I live in Michigan and it was delivered to my door on the Wednesday of the next week.

It came in a long rectangular box, packaged nicely although the box was a little beat up (Thank You UPS - You Never Fail To Surprise Me) but all of the pieces where there and the install kit was in place so I was excited to get it installed. The installation was a breeze, the load guard snapped into place as did the side walls. I had to remove the bolt in tie downs and reinstall to hold them in place which was a snap! The rubber mat was cleated on the bottom to keep it from collecting water and simply lies in the bed with the edges fitting into the channels at the bottom of the sidewalls and the load guard. The tailgate protector was a breeze to install and is held in place by the existing factory hardware. I was done with the installation in about 15 minutes and have never looked back!

The DualLiner has been in my truck for just over a year at this point. I pull it out every once in a while to be sure there is no scratching taking place, (which there isn't) and I have to say I couldn't be happier. Now that I have a 5 piece bed liner, I will never go back to a one piece drop-in or a spray-on. The DualLiner was as great as promised and I would highly recommend this product to anyone looking for real truck bed protection!

I had a one piece drop in bed liner in my truck and after taking it off one day for a good cleaning was seriously surprised to see a whole hell of a lot of damage. It's funny really that once I noticed it I looked online just to find that this same type of complaint had been happening for years all surrounding these one piece drop-ins.

See it turns out that this industry has moved towards a one size fits all sort of mentality as a way to keep manufacturing costs down, at the detriment to us the consumers. The improper fit of these liners allows them to shift around and scratch the existing factory paint. Once I had pulled it out I really wondered whether I wouldn't of been better off just not having one.

You know the dent protection is there, and the cost is low at right around $200 but if this is the inevitable outcome I have to say that I could never recommend that anyone purposely put one of these in their pickup. I know I never will again!

I believe Linex to be the best of the spray on bed liners. The word on the street is they are, and believe me Linex is a household name. I've never personally been a fan of spray-ons, at least not on a brand new truck, but to each his own. The advantages to a spray-on or spray-in bedliner are really obvious. They adhere to the truck so they are of course form fitting, they allow for full access to the tie downs and in the beginning they are actually really great looking.

So what's the downfall? The cost for starters. They start out anywhere from $400 to $800 dollars installed. Which may not be that much considering that you are protecting a $30,000 truck. They are water tight so they do protect from rust if they don't scratch or chip. The dent protection is less than a drop-in but still better than nothing. The real problem besides the cargo sliding all over your bed is the sun fade in my opinion. These liners start out black but always seem to turn this really dull grey after exposure to the sun. If you consider that your truck's paint will still look nice in a couple of years, don't you want your liner to look good also?

I'm really not a big fan of these for one other reason also and that is resale. The last truck I sold, I had three different buyers come look and would not pull the trigger because they did not like spray on liners. That left a really sour taste in my mouth, the fact that once you put one of these in there is no turning back. Thanks, but no thanks!