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Bedliners?


rusty ol ranger

2.9 Mafia-Don
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Sep 22, 2007
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Michigan
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1987
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2.9 V6
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Manual
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A legend to the old man, a hero to the child...
I want a bedliner for my superduty.

Im was planning on rhino lining cause i read its better....BUT...then i read plastic is way more impact resistant and thats what im after (i put 2 small dings/pinholes in the bed floor already by tossing a bag of stones in it...not super impressed with aluminum...but thats another story)

Ive have no experience with spray ins, but ive had numerous plastic with no issues.

Price is pretty similar (550 for a ford drop in installed, 600 for a rhino installed).

Input?
 
Spray in with a rubber bed mat. That's what I have in my Super Duty... really like it.

I like plastic ones though but see if you can find a used one. A LOT of people take them out & throw them away in favor of spray in. You can probably pick one up for free somewhere - find a place that does spray in bedliners and have them set one aside for you! There was a place next to my office that threw them in the trash all the time.

My only beef with them is some of them warp in the heat and the bottom won't sit flat, and they build up static electricity like crazy.
 
Spray in. Trucks that have beds that actually get used.. they get beat up. Rubber mat over the top is a good idea too.. keep some shit from sliding around so much.

In my short amount of time with the '21 I had.. more than a couple of the bed 'ridges' got completely flatted out lol. Must've been a 2'x2' section of bed floor that was flat as a pancake.. no idea how I managed that 🤷🏻‍♀️
 
Spray in with a rubber bed mat. That's what I have in my Super Duty... really like it.

I like plastic ones though but see if you can find a used one. A LOT of people take them out & throw them away in favor of spray in. You can probably pick one up for free somewhere - find a place that does spray in bedliners and have them set one aside for you! There was a place next to my office that threw them in the trash all the time.

My only beef with them is some of them warp in the heat and the bottom won't sit flat, and they build up static electricity like crazy.
Spray in. Trucks that have beds that actually get used.. they get beat up. Rubber mat over the top is a good idea too.. keep some shit from sliding around so much.

In my short amount of time with the '21 I had.. more than a couple of the bed 'ridges' got completely flatted out lol. Must've been a 2'x2' section of bed floor that was flat as a pancake.. no idea how I managed that 🤷🏻‍♀️
Most of the plastic ones ive had ive gotten that way...lol.

I just wanna be able to use the bed without mangleing it. The rhino lineing does look good...i just was questioning its actual protection.

One other question how much of a bitch is a rhino lined one to clean out?
 
Most of the plastic ones ive had ive gotten that way...lol.

I just wanna be able to use the bed without mangleing it. The rhino lineing does look good...i just was questioning its actual protection.

One other question how much of a bitch is a rhino lined one to clean out?

It's real good against scuffs and scratches and stuff.. but properly cleaning it out will be more difficult thanks to the texture. Hose/pressure washer usually cleans them up 98% enough though.
 
the plastic are way better at protecting your truck and if you get all the pins and stuff that keeps it in place, it doesn't warp. i have had lots of plastic drop ins that didn;t warp here in south texas. i have had three with spray in and i learned really fast that spray in comes off if you slide heavy stuff across it, like a fridge or if you have to use a shocel to pick up gravel. i would take a plastic bed liner all day long for a real working truck.

but yes, try to get it for free from one of those bed line shops when someone trades to a spray in.

my son is getting a plastic for his 24 because he was present when we had the spray in ones get messed up. he told me yesterday he didn;t want to deal with it getting torn up like the 04 ranger spray in liner did. he said he remembers how well the drop in from my 01 frontier worked so he wants one of those. and i found a ford 2024 drop in for 100 bucks on marketplace the other day and am going to pick it up saturday for his truck
 
I did my spray in (Upol Raptor 2k) back in the fall, and so far I am 110% happy with it - only thing is remember it is just like painting the exterior - do the right prep, not just a quicky wand wave wash job - prep it like you were painting the body. Otherwise it will peel and you will blame the product when it is really the application.

I have a 7' bed and since they haven't been made in 25 years there is zero aftermarket support - can't find anything for it. So I ran the bed liner up over the edge and onto the top railing. It is very textured but not sharp or gravelly, and it keeps stuff from sliding around. Mom's '07 has a Ford plastic liner and that is worse than steel everything slides like it is on wet glass.

Upol doesn't cover as well as I had hoped and I used 3 of the 4 one-liter cans in the kit - I ran out of hardener cause the instructions are so teeny I was squinting like hell to read em. Get yourself a 4 oz dixie cup or the like to measure out the hardener cause each can has a lot of extra room at the top - enough for coloring and hardener. If I had the hardener I would go back and shoot the corners again with the 4th can.

IMG20241221162254.jpg
 
So…

The roll or spray in bed liners require good surface prep. Done right, they are near indestructible. Done wrong, they peel.

I have shoveled limestone (2B or #57) off of one done right and after a few ton, hosing it out was good. Nobody knew we did it.

I have had plastic bed liners. They do protect the bed against dents better. But stuff slides like oiled glass.
 
I prefer the plastic liners. Do a better job of protecting the bed in my opinion from dents and dings but things do slide around. I have seen plastic bed liners really protect a bed from rust or destroy a bed. Depends on how good it keeps water from getting in between bed liner and floor. I am soon prepping my bed for bed liner as find a plastic liner is almost impossible from a quick search I have done. It's not like I will really use my truck for really abusive work anyways but it will hide some of the minor imperfections that I am after.
 
Man this is like asking what kind of oil to buy lol.

I might stick with plastic. The sliding doesnt bother me (honestly i throw a strap around about everything anyways if its bed bound), plus being able to slide stuff is nice if its a stove or something. i had a plastic liner in rusty #1 since basically new and under the liner the box floor/sides is the only good part on the whole truck.

I figured prep work was everything for the rhino. The place ill have do it does nothing but rhinoliners and undercoatings....so im pretty sure they know what they are doing.

The spray ins look so good though lol. I guess it probably doesnt really matter and like most things im overthinking.
 
I have a drop in Ford Liner in my 7' 93 bed. I've seen many spray in liners worn down to bare metal in trucks that actually got used.
 
I don't like the plastic bed liners myself. They do protect the bed from dents and such but so does a rubber bed mat. If you are looking to protect the bed from rust, a spray in liner is better then throw in a bed mat for the dent protection. Plus, the rubber mat will help keep stuff from sliding around. Spray in or plastic just lets stuff fly around worse than a bare bed. And, as mentioned, plastic bed liners trap a lot of garbage and are hard to clean out unless you break out a shop vac.
 
I've been told, and noticed myself, that plastic liners eventually scuff away the paint and trap moisture, eventually causing premature bed rust. Plus they're slippery. Those that use their beds to haul bikes hate em, for the lack of traction makes loading and securing more difficult. Some guys do the rubber mat on top of the plastic, which helps.

Although the slippery surface might actually be helpful for tasks like unloading gravel.

I vote plastic drop in liner if its for free. Spray in liner if paying for it.

I would do spray in w rubber mat on my rig.
 
I had actually thought about cutting the plastic bottom out of a plastic bedliner and doing the spray-in bedliner in the truck, then just throwing that plastic “pan” in when I’d haul gravel to have a slick surface to shovel on. Never actually did it. I hated the plastic liner for gravel though because all the small stuff gets stuck in the plastic ribs. The best option if you plan on shoveling stuff frequently is a dump truck or a flat bed with side boards or something.

I’m thinking when I rebuild my F-150 I’m scrapping my ideas of a pickup bed and spray in bedliner. I’m just going to build a custom utility bed/flat bed. It would be more useful to me that way.
 
I haul 1-2 tons of gravel at a time and pickup loads of wood, concrete, rock, etc and it's usually loaded with a loader or skid steer. I never have a problem with it damaging the box floor with my rubber bed mat in place and I just push it off to the side and sweep under it occasionally.

YoUr bEd wIlL rUsT oUt fAsTeR wItH a pLaStIc bEdLiNeR.....

.... No it won't. I have yet to see this happen from the top down. People blame these all the time and it's true that stuff does get trapped there but almost all of the time, they look way better than the same truck that lived with no bedliner at all.
 

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