Truck Bed Mats

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Truck Bed Mats And Spray On Bed Liners

Truck bed mats cost so little yet offer features that compare with much more expensive spray on liners. In fact spray on liners come with several problems which you should know about.

Rubber truck bed mats actually work better in some ways than many of the other much more costly products.

Then too in combination with other liner options bed mats offer great value.

Read on for more ideas and tips...

Truck Bed Mats -- More Than Paint

Spray On Bed Liner Tricks

Spray on bed liners can't be beat for custom good looks and they offer great protection too. However cheap rubber Discover more tips about the underrated rubber bed mats add features that even the spray coatings can't match. Here are some weak points of spray liners and how mats offer more.

After all it's still paint.

Spray liners custom fit any pickup since the liner goes on just like a paint coating which is exactly what it is. Now granted, it's a specialized paint material. You get texture in the paint. You also get almost instant drying and curing. But with all that, it's still a thick coat of paint subject to damage and destruction. You pay a pile of money for a thick paint coat.

Spray Bed Liners And Dents

Dents Are To Be Avoided

Limited cushion may mean dents.

Since it is paint, the only cushioning to the coat is the texture within the paint. Up to 5 gallons of liquid goes into the build-up and that accounts for the cushion that the liner does have. But with that it's still limited protection from dents. In contrast, rubber mats 3/8 inches thick offer shock absorption just from the material then the added protection since any impacts are spread to a larger area by the stiff material itself.

What's A Spray On Bed Liner Worth?

Paint It Again Sam?

Ever thought about what happens to the paint?

With bed mats you do no damage to the original truck bed paint. Let's face it, much development has gone into perfecting the paint coatings on trucks. Do you know what happens to the bed paint if a bed liner is sprayed on over it? Easy... All the original bed paint is sanded with coarse abrasives and virtually destroyed. Then the liner paint goes over the surface. That's a serious step to take on a late model pickup.

Then there's the guarantee.

The spray liner becomes the permanent coat for the bed. There's no going back! And after all, there is that lifetime guarantee. But what that means isn't that the liner will remain like new. What it means rather is that the liner if damaged will be sprayed on again. That process may need to be repeated multiple times to keep a new looking liner coat.

Stay Put Truck Bed Mats

Slip Sliding Away?

Slip sliding away.

Then another feature of spray liners is a slippery surface. What you get is in no way slick like a plastic drop in liner. But because it is paint, the liner makes for a surface that does little to stop cargo from moving. In contrast, the lowly bed mat that costs only a fraction of what a spray liner costs makes for a no-skid layer. That means loading cargo may take a bit longer, but once it's there you can forget about it moving.

Truck bed mats easily protect bed paint and more. Bed liner spray coatings offer many advantages but they also come with several limitations as well. It's worth thinking about before you spend a small fortune on a spray liner.

Truck Bed Mats Aren't Perfect And An Answer

Truck bed mats, both rubber and carpet, offer high level protection from dents and damage to pickups but only cost just a little. As protection over spray on bed liners, mats offer insurance against damage to those liners as well. Tough and hard to hurt, mats do have limits.

Chief among the limits is lack of cover for the sides of the bed and the fender wells. Just covering the bottom of the bed means the rest of the box sits there vulnerable. There is one solution that still incorporates the toughness of rubber mats.

DualLiner bed liners combine custom plastic covers for all the sides along with a custom tough rubber mat on the floor. The sides and front just snap in place and lock together. The tailgate covers installs like all other covers. It gets bolted and snapped into place fast.

Not as cheap as simple truck bed mats, the DualLiner still costs far less than spray on liners and offers tough covering for the pickup box on all sides. In addition the liner ships easily and installs in a snap, literally.

Discover more tips about the underrated rubber truck bed mats at our site.

Also visit our blog about the truck bed mat.

What About Rubber Bed Liners?

Rubber truck bed mats beat anything else for stopping dents to pickup beds. And of course dents cost far more to fix than scratches ever do. That's why often simple mats make perfect sense even over more expensive liners. It's a cheap way to protect the bed and the high priced liners at the same time.

One obvious problem with using just bed mats is the sides aren't covered. That means sliding cargo and lots of other things can beat up every surface in the bed except the floor. That isn't good.

One possible solution that may not be exactly obvious is from DualLiner.

Here's the deal. The DualLiner bed liner consists of plastic molded pieces that cover all the sides including the tailgate. That produces a cover much like a typical plastic drop in bed liner but in separate pieces for a superior fit and less chance of water collecting under the liner.

Then the real key is the floor. The DualLiner floor is actually a thick rubber truck bed mat that just slides into place like any other mat and matches up with the plastic pieces to complete the liner.

You get the best of plastic drop in bed liners and rubber truck bed mats with few of the disadvantages. All at a price far less than many other liners.

It's worth a look.

Discover more tips about the underrated rubber truck bed mats.

The Protecta Bed Mat is easy to find and we tell you more at our site..

Truck Bed Mats May Not Work

Custom Fit Means Not For Everybody

Truck bed mats that custom fit pickup beds may not fit your truck. That's because the less popular your truck the less likely there is a mat to fit it.

Certainly the best selling trucks have a model that fits. But less popular trucks, especially those made for just a few years, may have no mats for them.

That goes for the simplest rubber bed mats as well as the multi-piece mats like the DualLiner and the new BedTred truck bed liner by BedRug.

The alternative to a custom fit bed mat is one that you trim to fit. That means you give up the molded to fit look but you still get the best dent protection.

Lack of custom fit mats or plastic bed liners drives many pickup owners to either a roll on bed liner or a more expensive spray on liner. In either case you get a custom fit but it will cost you, especially for a professional spray liner.

if you have an American pickup, even an older one, you likely can get just the mat you need. For other trucks it's less likely.

Discover more tips about the underrated rubber truck bed mats at our website.

Truck Bed Mats -- The One Downside

Truck bed mats offer nearly perfect protection. The rubber material stands up to just about any abuse you could imagine and then can be easily replace if the mat is worn or damaged.

Warding off dents may be the best advantage of the rubber mats. It's one thing to prevent scratches, which most liners can. It's quite another thing to stop dents. That's the really expensive sort of hits that cost a lot to fix. Dent up a truck bed and you reduce the value of the truck quickly.

But the problem with mats is the lack of protection for the sides, tailgate and front of the bed. Protecting the tailgate presents no particular problem since most liners can be had with a matching tailgate cover.

But leaving the sides and front of the bed unprotected just asks for trouble.

Of course if the mat goes over a spray on liner, the spray liner takes care of the problem. At least it does to some extent.

Another approach though was devised by DualLiner. They combine 5 pieces for a complete bed liner. The front and sides are interlocking plastic pieces that cover the wheel wells and every other part of the bed sides and front. The tailgate gets it's own cover too that snaps and bolts into place. Finally the bet floor gets the last part.

For that part DualLiner picked a rubber mat to fit right on just like most other mats except this one perfectly meshes with the sides, front and tailgate covers.

So that is one solution to truck bed mats that leave the pickup bed partly unprotected. DualLiner covers the entire bed while still using a rubber bed mat for the most vulnerable part of the box.

Discover more tips about the underrated rubber truck bed mats.

The rubber bed mat is easy to find and we tell you more at our site..

Truck Bed Liner Protection

New Pickup Trucks

New pickups cost a lot, it really makes good sense to protect your vehicle and help to make it last. One method in which numerous pickups continue to display age quickly is within the bed. Especially if a truck hauls much of anything, deterioration quickly soon add up to potential destruction inside the bed. Truck bed liners are often added in among the initial components to either prevent deterioration within brand new trucks or to attempt to stop further issues within older pickup trucks. Various designs as well as varieties of liners offer various benefits.

The original, stock pickup box mainly appears like something was left off and it was not quite carried out. The right bed liner can also add a custom made appearance as well as finish the truck look in a way which is personalized for you. Now that spray in bed liners come in a lot of colors an opportunity can there be to help make the bed match the feel of the rest of the pickup truck. Then again, choosing from the other liners just like plastic drop in liners as well as carpet liners as well makes for many choices to be constructed even after you understand you want a liner for the vehicle.

Looks are not the only basis for liners, or maybe even the best reason. If significant protection is necessary and you do some actual work several liners excel at hard use. The right plastic bed liners particularly work well for rough and also abrasive loads, such as concrete blocks or scrap. Dent protection in those circumstances tend to be as essential as scratch safety. Acquiring the right liner could make a real distinction within the long-term lifetime of a truck. Both plastic liners and the right spray in liners operate in some truly rugged use.

However frequently liners cost you a lot and perhaps your older pickup truck could compliment something with a more affordable entry price. That simply leaves out a few options and leaves you with a few other high quality ones. The roll on bed liner with truck bed paint supplies the look of the more expensive spray in liner and really makes older trucks look much better however for far less cash than the professional version. It makes for a bargain liner. An additional usually ignored selection comes in the truck bed pads. Simple to miss, mats perform some things much better than any kind of other bed safety option however cost practically nothing at all.

Picking from almost all the options in truck bed liners can end up being quite the puzzle. The majority of choices provide some extent of safety however, many obviously tend to be outstanding for hard use. More resilient liners sometimes cost a lot though, however at least one selection offers actual impact and scratch elimination for very little cash. Then if you wish to carry out some work on your own, it may be able to produce a look for your own vehicle that appears a lot more expensive than it actually is. Choices for bed liners have the ability to obtain great looks as well as safety for not much expense.

Best Bed Mats On Amazon

One thing about bed mats for trucks... They are cheap. That means cheap as in not much money...

But if you get a rubber bed mat you may be amazed at how tough these things are.

Mine is in a 1976 Chevy C10 and it looks great and fits great and seems to be unfazed by most any kind of thing dragged over it...
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PickupTrucksFan

I like pickups of all kinds. Maybe because I spent years as an automotive engineer. Or maybe it's just from lots of time using trucks on the farm and... more »

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