Purpose of a bedliner?

[bigcountry78]

So I got to thinking the other day and I've been wondering, why do people invest in bedliners? Stay with me here, their purpose is to protect the truck bed, I get that. But everyone talks about how badly the drop in liners scratch the bed and cause rust. OK I've seen that first hand. So spray in liners are better, but they have to really scuff up the bed to apply them, and they still don't protect from dents, and even my rhino liner has rubbed off some places and allowed damage to the bed. So why do people even bother with bed liners? It seems like an unneccessary expense to me since the bed ends up scratched up and dinged anyway. Any and all views are welcome.

 

[burgundybeast04]

IMO bed liners also look better. They protect more for scratches rather than dents.

 

[Bonecollector]

I agree with the above, I love spray in bed liners, not much can stop dents, but it will stop a lot of damage from things you put in the bed, just leaving the paint sucks because over time it just looks terrible, bed liner is very durable, last a lot longer than paint, rubber mats or carpe, a full wooden liner would stop dents a bit though

 

[Nasty02Avalanche]

Its Monkey see, Monkey do!

oNE person does it, and it looks cool, so everyone else has to do it also.

What does the bedliner do? It allows you to move cargo in and out of the bed without causing damage to the painted surface.
Before bedliners, a service truck would not have any paint in the bed or would carry a piece of woolmanized plywood in the bed to protect the bed floor...

A 8 foot Chevy truck bed would literally fall apart in about 10 years.
The rails beneath the bed would rust away or fall apart and the wheel wells would separate and the quarter panels would rust off and the only thing that still worked was the taillights.

Then someone got the bright idea to mess with the taillights - so they could have total failure all at once.
Today, the tin is so thin, I have seen vehicles that have had machine parts set in the bed and the bed collapsed or were in accidents and the bed folded up like a cheap card table. Forget about putting one of those barrel cherry pickers on the bed rail, the bed will just fall right off of the truck!

 

[silverado13]

mine bed is rusted all the way through in a certain spot, if i had a bed liner, it wouldnt have ever happened

 

[2003tahoe]

Yea my dads 05 silverado doesnt have any rust in the bed (has bedliner) my friends 2013 already has rust from using the bed

 

[silverado13]

its not monkey see monkey do you twit, it protects the bed, if you like i can post pics of my 1997 with a bed liner and perfect looking bed and my 2000 with no bedliner and is rusted all the way through

 

[Erki]

I like the extra traction in wet condition the spray in liners offer

 

[silverado13]

not sure how much more traction you get, you claiming the extra weight?

 

[Bonecollector]

I believe he means the grip when you walk in the bed


Sent from the Sierra Club

 

[silverado13]

sorry, motor head.......completely thought you ment like spinning the tires, walking.......that makes alot more sense now

 

[Bonecollector]

All good man, I agree with him it Is very grippy


Sent from the Sierra Club

 

[Erki]

Yes walking in the bed is what I meant. Without box liner it can get slick in the rain or light snow.

 

[silverado13]

i feel you, except the snow part, we dont get that

 

[burgundybeast04]

I like my box liner because in the winter I can have my cement block on top of the axle without them moving because it's so grippy, if I had no box liner I would definitely need 2x4 to keep them from moving. FYI I use the 2x4 anyways just for good measure, I don't need no huge ass dents in my box haha. Whenever we use my dad's truck to haul something, it's a huge pain because you have to strap down almost anything cause it'll slide all over the place and scratch and dent with no liner, mine won't tho

 

[silverado13]

the rhino liner in my 1997, holds up soo well considering how old it is