There are several different options available in truck bedliners. Two of the most important things to consider when you buy a bedliner are: how it protects your truck, and how it protects you. Load safety is very important, as anyone who has hauled a high-dollar item will tell you. However, of more importance is safety to your physical self. In this article we will discuss the different options that are available to you.

Bedrugs have been around for ages, and had been the only option before the wide-spread use of drop-in and spray-in liners. A bedrug is basically a material of some sort, anything from outdoor carpet to matting, that is pre-cut to the shape of the bed of your truck. They provide for a moderate level of protection against slippage, but they will fail when real speed is applied, and can even slip out of the bed entirely. There have also been incidences of loads coming through the cab of the truck using these systems. All in all, if you’re going to be hauling loads frequently, this is not the choice for you. Dirt and sand get trapped easily between the bed and the bedrug, and it’s also a magnet for moisture, which will produce rust very quickly on an unfinished surface. This will harm the resale value of your truck greatly. These types of bedliners are also shippable, which means no installation fee.

Another option you may consider is a drop-in bedliner. Drop-in bedliners are usually made of a ridgid plastic material, and molded to loosely conform to the shape of the bed of your truck. One very prevalent issue with drop-in bedliners is fading and cracking. If you do have one installed, and you live in an area that gets any type of sun in the summer, look forward to heavy cracking and fading. As with all ridgid plastic materials, after a year or so of constant exposure to the elements it will begin to become brittle. When loading heavy loads with a drop-in take great care as they can crack extremely easily and do damage to the bed of your truck. They do provide decent drainage, until they are cracked or broken. Then, the moisture collects very heavily and will stagnate under the liner, producing rust and dangerous microbial growth. These bedliners also can not be shipped without extremely exorbitant fees, so you will have to pay someone to install it.

The third, and probably the most damaging to the bed of your truck, is the spray-in bedliner. The major hang-up with these bedliners is that they will void the paint warranty on your truck. In order to install one, you have to remove the factory paint to the metal from all areas where it will be applied. Take a look at this video:

As you can see, installation of one of these bedliners causes nearly irreparable damage to the bed of your truck. This wouldn’t be that big of an issue, if it weren’t for the fact that they also crack and produce a bubbling with prolonged use. Once there is a crack or bubble, you are now exposing bare metal to water and the elements, which produces an astonishing amount of rust fairly quickly. There have been instances where a shotty spray-in bedliner install can reduce the value of a vehicle by as much as $4000. There is also absolutely no way to ship this bedliner to your door, it requires expensive equipment and tools to install, so you will need to hire someone to install it for you at an authorized retailer. Be aware that although some spray-in bedliner companies offer a sort of warranty, coverage of that warranty can prove hard to obtain and can often make the condition of your truck bed worse than before the patch job. While these liners do provide a certain amount of no-slip, when speeds or stopping is excessive and on certain loads they can fail miserably.

The fourth product I would like to talk about is called the DualLiner. The DualLiner is the best of all the worlds. The bottom is composed of a 3/8″ thick rubber floor, that’s channeled to conform to the factory channeling of your truck. This means water drains exactly as it would with no bedliner installed at all. The sides, tailgate, and front pieces are composed of a composite material that is tooled to fit your specific model of truck exactly. The 3/8″ thick floor locks into the molded panels, insuring a perfect fit every time. This also makes it very easy to remove the rubber floor and clean your truck bed. With a DualLiner, you can get the maximum resale value for your truck, even after years of tough truck bed usage. One of the best things about these bedliners, is that they ship directly to your door. Everything comes in one nice box via UPS right to your door. DualLiner also incorporates their Zero-Skid technology into their product, making it almost impossible to experience any type of load slippage. Watch this comparison video:

The material that they’ve used for the DualLiner will not crack or fade, and if it does, they back it with the only real lifetime warranty in the industry. They stand behind their product 100%, and their customer service is a delight to deal with. Weighing all the options, for maximum load security and resale value of your truck, the DualLiner is the only way to go.

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