2002 Honda CBR

2002 Honda CBR

Bed Liners For Trucks

By Al Bullington

Bed liners of several kinds have become almost must-haves for pickups. Without some kind of protection, pickup beds soon turn to rust buckets. Simply using a pickup for casual hauling is bound to cause scratches, if not dents, and lead to corrosion in time. Spray on bed liners have several advantages over other options. Now these are offered as options even on new trucks. Usually for a new truck the application will be done by a local franchise of one of the big name liner companies.

Spray liners are after all really a paint application over the existing bed paint. But it is special paint. Partly it is special because it dries and cures very rapidly. The paint usually is a two part product mixed right at the spray gun. Engineered to cure fast, that means the time to get the project done is very short. Usually that means the truck only has to be at the applicator just a day or so.

Another major feature of the coating is thickness. Up to one-fourth inch thick, the lining durability relates partly to the large volume of material applied. The thickness of the coat means much paint can be torn or scratched away and the metal of the bed still is not touched. It isn't that the liner is so hard to damage, it's that there is just so much of it there.

The guarantee that comes with liners is not that the liner won't be harmed, it is that it will be repaired. Repair just means a respray, that's all. Another basic feature of liners professionally installed is proper preparation. Like for any paint coating, proper surface prep really is key to a coating that sticks. Scrimp on surface prep and the coating likely will be gone with the wind.

That guarantee you get means the surface prep will get done and it will be done right. Spray on bed liners work so well for a number of reasons. It's partly because of the material itself used in the coating. But it is partly just the careful application too. The guarantee you receive means the application must be done properly or the dealer will be forced to do it over again.

Al Bullington writes about his pickup truck projects. Check out his newest website about the underrated option for protecting pickup beds, truck bed mats.

What I Don't Like About Tilting Truck Covers

By Al Bullington

Tilting truck covers, often referred to as fiberglass lids, are not my favorite truck covers. Here are reasons why these are not my favorite tonneaus.

Well, there's the matter of tall cargo. Haul virtually anything that's taller than the bed sides and you can't close the lid. How cool is that? You can't even carry a lawn mower without leaving the lid up. You can't even carry a garbage can. There's more.

If in fact the cover is made of fiberglass, there's the weight issue. See fiberglass is just by nature heavy. It is after all resin in glass fibers. That means it's heavy to install, heavy to lift and heavy to haul. Heavy in tonneau covers is not very good.

Then there is the look issue. Tilting lids can result in one of the slickest looking truck covers going. But the thickness of the material adds up to a covers that protrude far above the bed. It's noticeable to the point of being distracting. Looks are subjective, but I don't like the look.

Now there is a better solution if you want a tilting tonneau. Undercover covers aren't fiberglass at all and that makes all the difference. With Undercover you get modern polymer construction which results in a total weight of the cover of only 58 pounds for the whole cover.

Lightweight means it is easier to haul, but also easy to take off and put back on. That means the clearance issue is much less of an issue. With tall cargo, it's easy to just pull off the cover. It isn't a monument you see.

Tilting truck covers don't rate very high on my list, unless you pick the lightweight version. Then some of the issues really aren't issues anymore.

Get the scoop on the Undercover Tonneau Covers at our website.