Spray-in Versus Drop-in Bed Liners for Your Pickup Truck

So, you've bought yourself a shiny new pickup truck, and you're looking forward to hauling around all sorts of things with your new ride. The problem is how do you protect it? There are easily as many companies manufacturing various different forms of bed mats, bed liners and bed rugs out there as there are truck brands on the road. They're generally easy to install, but each has drawbacks that are better addressed by other types of bedliner.

Drop-in bedliners tend to protect better against impact damage than anything else. The bottom of the bedliner will in time scratch up the bed, which can leave your bed floor open to problems with rust. Still, these bedliners are good choices for work trucks which see a lot of use daily, and carry more weight than might be otherwise expected.

Bed mats are good choices for applications in which the desired result is that the load is not going to slide around. They are relatively inexpensive, do not mar the bed surface, as they are made of rubber, and are the easiest to install. They do not, however, provide any protection for the bed sides.

Spray-in bedliners are a permanent, rubberized coating sprayed into the bed, and can come in a variety of colors. They are excellent choices if your goal is resistance to scratches, protection of the bed sides, and if impact damage is less of a concern to you. They also help prevent the load from shifting, but are often maligned due to their potential for rust problems, as well as their relatively high cost compared to other forms of bed protection due in part to the necessity of professional installation.

The best choice for those who are primarily concerned with their bed's appearance, bed rugs are the most difficult to install, but offer very good scratch protection for both the bed's floor and sides, as well as offering a more upscale look in the bed of the truck, making them ideal for vehicles which don't often see heavy use, but for which there is a need for an attractive, sturdy solution. As for the installation it really isn't anything you can't do yourself with just a little patience.