2013 F250 6.7 w/ the 6.5' bed. Has the cheap Pendaliner bed liner which I might just throw away. Should I use it or chuck it? I thought about a spray-in liner and may do that in 1-2 years, but am looking for a reason to keep this crappy black thing.... Thoughts?

 

I would rip it out and put in a spray in liner, that junk drop in thing will just collect moisture and rot your bed out. I would put in Line-x and then get one of those thick rubber mats so you dont need to worry about denting your bed floor if you throw stuff in the back. I just use a sheet of plywood when firewood season rolls around.

 

x2 on a thick rubber mat, but I'd skip the spray in liner. Pull it out when you need a slippery painted bed floor (unloading wood chips, for instance) and put it back for slip resistance.

I would cut up your hard plastic bedliner, and use the pieces on your garage floor to collect the drips off your snow shovels. Or, park a snowblower on it. You can also make a dandy floor for a roof rack (basket style) out of a piece of bedliner.

 

I spent 13 years in Anchorage and would not recommend any bed liner that is "drop in". I have a GatorBack spray in liner in my '11 F350 and find it to be tough as nails ( and then some). It is definitely not slippery but I'm now hauling mostly Motorcycles now.

I like my "Gator"......

 

best thing ever made is a drop in bed liner,it saves the floor from getting all scratched up,and rusty.spray in liners are o.k.but a real pain if you ever need to remove the bed bolts.ive had a drop in liner now for 15 years and my bed still looks new,no scratches or rust at all.

 

get rid of that drop in liner and use either a rubber mat or a spray in. I get Line-X liners on all my trucks and they hold up great. Plus Line-x removes the bed bolts and the screws for the access panel of the tailgate so if you need to remove those parts down the road you can.

 

X2. Line-X and be done. You'll never have to worry about it again.

Spray in liners shouldn't affect your ability to remove bed bolts. If the place sprays over your bolts they are either lazy or the bolts were too rusted for them to remove. If they were too rusted in for the place to remove it doesn't matter if you spray over them because you're going to have to blow them out with a torch anyways if you need to remove the bed.

 

All,
Thanks for the great comments/advice. This is a great forum!

 

I cut to fit 2 stall mats available at tractor supply, it leaves the side walls exposed but at almost an inch thick offer a great, easily removable liner. I haul 1300 pound cement 2x2x2 blocks on them and am happy. great protection $37 each!

 

Thanks again; no TSC in Alaska. I think I'll rip out the old one and replace with the heavy rubber liner mat (think Lowe's carries those??) until I find $500 in couch change to have it sprayed...

 

I'm assuming you're using your bed for heavy work? I've never had any other liners than the plastic drop ins and currently a bed rug. Here's my thoughts on the plastic drop ins

-Highly durable and provide great dent protection
-easy to clean slick surface (I haul lots of loose materials)
-will scratch up certain parts of the bed over time

The current truck came with a bed rug, which I think are fantastic, but with hauling lots of loose materials I needed something else. I didn't have $500 for a spray in and didn't want to risk dents and I didn't want to pay another $100 for a rubber mat.

So I paid $50 for a used Ford bedliner and threw it on top of the bed rug. Worked fantastic. It's now back out and the leer cap back on with the bed rug. I hope to just pick up a used truck for hauling purposes.

Here's my thoughts. Spray ins seem to protect against topside bed corrosion better but offer little heavy impact resistance. I believe the do offer lifetime warranty repairs which is nice.

I've yet to see a truck with its bed rusted out due to a plastic liner that isn't 20+ years old that probably rusted from the bottom up. If you plan to keep the truck for many many years you have a few options. Keep the drop in and take it out once a year and make paint repairs. It easily comes out when left to bake in the sun. Or get the spray in and forgetaboutit.

If you trade every couple years it's a complete toss up and please don't anyone tell me it improves your resale. If you have a rusty truck with a spray in flawless bed and I have a very clean truck with a plastic drop in its not going to hurt resale.

Lastly with the bed rug it's ever so easy on the knees crawling in and out of the bed to get stuff. Remember I have a cap. You can clean it with a hose/power washer and it's not a carpet. It's a solid "plastic" type liner. I took it out once and the bed was flawless. That's a truck built in 07 and I did that in '13 so 6 years?


What's your bed usage like?
How long are you owning the truck?
What is your preference?

 

I didn't like the plastic drop in liner because things turned into missiles, there was ZERO grip between anything in the bed and the liner. When an 80# bag of QuickCrete goes sliding, it's not in your imagination anymore.

FWIW my LineX has been beat to death, I just use black RTV/windshield sealant to fill in any cracks or flakes and it keeps on trucking. I use metal rakes on it with no apparent effects, and don't see any big dents. It's biggest weakness is NAILS, especially in fence panels. They lift off flakes of the liner that I have to glue back down, to the point I only use a trailer for those now because that's one thing really started destroying my bed. When I drilled out the hole for my gooseneck the liner is 3-4mm thick on the bed floor, I don't know if that's normal for LineX or more/less, so YMMV with your local installer.

 

My old 03 with 60k when i had the liner installed was already rotting around the wheel wells...from the inside, and my buddy just took his out of his 05 with 130k and same thing...even worse though

 

For those with the rotted beds. Did you try and clean ot out yearly or repair any paint damage? If not isn't that neglect on your part? I'm or saying the liners don't damage paint, they do. But if at the end of the fall you took it out, patched up the scratches, and added some say fluid film would your bed be good?

Just like adding performance mods requires extra care and attention to the truck. And just like guys have posted. The spray ins are not bulletproof.

 

I like my Line-X!