Truck Bed Liners --- A Must-have?

Truck bed liners seem like just a normal part of most trucks. Most newer trucks sport some type of bed lining. It's partly a styling issue, but it's partly about protection too. Without some added layer of protection, ant pickup truck that gets used for hauling ends up suffering scratches if not dents which will likely cost you in one way or another.

Spray on bed liners are really the thing to have it seems. It's easy to see why. The spray coatings from the major installers look like the real finishing touch for a custom looking truck. Plus the spray coat works for any truck unlike other types of liners which only work with the most popular vehicles.

You get that custom look and a coating guaranteed for life. Many new trucks get coated before they're delivered. The liner is like an original equipment option. Actually the dealer may just deliver the vehicle to the installer to get the job done. In any case, the liner comes right with the new truck.

Beware though. Professional spray linings are not damage-proof. After all, the coating is still just a coating. It's a paint product that's a two part paint that's tough and made to really stick. But, after all, it's still paint. It can be damaged.

See, the guarantee isn't that it can't be damaged. The guarantee is that it will be repaired. That means it gets sprayed again after some smoothing out of whatever damage is there. Until the repair, or respray, happens, you have yourself a damaged liner.

Here's another potential problem. Dents. Now, again, the spray coating is thick and full of rubbery texture. That gives it some shock absorption ability. But if you throw in the rough stuff, the shock absorbing can be overcome and you end up with dents tot he bed below the liner.

Scratched bed paint is easy to repair. At least it's easy to do a rough repair job. Fixing big dents is an entirely different matter. Removing dents in your truck is very difficult to do, expensive too.

Truck bed liners that are sprayed on look like the custom coating they are. The problem is the liners can be damaged and so can the underlying bed itself. Look out if you're doing really rough hauling with a spray on liners. It may be smart to add a second layer to the spray coating to stop harm to the liner as well as to the bed itself.