I am a newbie and am currently waiting on an 05 F-250 Super Duty that I ordered on Friday. I know that I will want some type of bed liner and don't have a clue as to what the differences are. The Ford salesman who was not pushy at all said that the Ford one is around $185 and is guaranteed for the life of the vehicle and the Rhino one is $300. Interested in any opinions as to which is better and if Rhino is it worth the price difference which is close to twice as much. Thanks.

 

bobdeeharley, I have the Ford drop in liner that also covers the top of the box. I am quite happy with it as I don't get any scratches when I throw on 50 bales of hay. However as the end of the liner is screwed in you can get get water between the liner and the frame and rust can develop.

Also, and I am guessing here, the drop in bed liner may be easier to clean out with its ribbed bottom as opposed to the rhino surface. Just my .02 tho.

 

Well, the worst thing you could put in the bed is a drop-in. The only advantage of a drop in over a spray-in is price.

Drop-ins can:
1. Trap water and debis.
2. Rattle.
3. Warp.
4. Since they move, they will rub the paint off in spots.
5. Can't be repaired.
6. They can fly out of the bed. Read Durakon's (largest manufacturer of drop ins) recall on their website.

With that out of the way, let's talk about spray-ins. You should consider LINE-X over Rhino. LINE-X and Rhino differ quite a bit. The biggest difference is that LINE-X contains polyurea and Rhino does not. Polyurea enhances the bedliner’s properties: 1. LINE-X's temperature tolerance is 250 degrees and Rhino's is 175. As the temperature of the bed approaches the temp tolerance, it loses its strength. 2. Polyurea keeps moisture out of the solution thus making a more dense and solid liner. Less moisture also means better adhesion. 3. Polyurea also makes for a harder liner. The tear strength of LINE-X is 304 pounds per linear inch (pli). Rhino is 145 pli. 4. Polyurea sets up very fast, that's one reason why LINE-X goes on with heat and high pressure. LINE-X dries in about 4 seconds, so you get an even application throughout the bed. Rhino takes a minute or so to even gel, an hour or so to dry. Before it gels, gravity can pull the liner from the top ridges in to the low valleys. Rhino’s Tuff Stuff goes on cold/low pressure and thus has that “cottage cheese” or “rain on the windshield” look. LINE-X’s high heat/high pressure system gives it a very nice finished and more consistently applied texture, it’s sort of like an orange peel. The dealer can vary the texture from smooth to very rough. 5. Polyurea makes the liner more chemical resistant, especially to organic oils and solvents.

LINE-X has a NATIONWIDE lifetime warranty. Rhino's warranty is with the dealer that sprayed it only.

 

Thanks, Truckdaddy. You obviously know your stuff. So where does one get Line-X installed and what kind of price are we looking at for an 8' bed??

 

I have an '05 F250 (Stone color also). I had drop in liners on two of my other trucks and ended up having rust problems on my last truck where the liner rubbed off the paint and primer under my bed and the trapped moisture did its thing. I did some research on spray on liners and went with the Line-X. In my area (So. Calif.) the Line-X was a bit more expensive than the Rhino, but I felt it was worth the difference. I called many Line-X retailers in my area and they all quoted me $410 for my 6-3/4' bed. The Line-X website has a $20 internet coupon that my retailer honored. Occasionally they are specials that may knock off another $20 or $40 bucks, but I didn't want to wait.

I am more than happy with my Line-X. It is aging (or actually not aging) much better than my buddy's Rhino.

 

Prices will vary among dealers. Go to www.goline-x.com and use the dealer search to find the dealers near you. Give them a call and get some quotes.

FormerRammer: To keep the liner looking really good, apply some Just Once on it a few times a year. www.justonce.com

 

I got an online price of $370 for a black Line-X under rail, and $430 with color matching for a Rhino. I think it's $90 to color match so they're pretty much similar in price. I've seen the Rhino on a just done job and it felt like wet paint and had that drywall popcorn texture to it. Even if it is more, I'll probably go with the Line-X myself.

 

I was going to get the sprayed in lining ,till I found out they grind all the paint off down to the bare metal... No thanks..

 

A Rhino color match? Your in for a big surprise. Most liners on the market just add pigment to the liner to get to the color. Liners with just pigment will fade, really bad. Red's turn to pink, tans turn green. None of the Rhino dealers in my area spray colors at all. Most LINE-X dealers take it a step further, they also use Dupont Nason paint. Nason paint is an automotive paint and it will NOT fade. Also, the Nason will better match the factory paint's metallic properties, unlike a pigmented liner. If you get a color match, get LINE-X and make sure they use Nason paint.

The truck bed surface is scuffed up with a sander. The goal is not to sit there and purposely grind the paint off, but to rough up the surface to provide more surface area for the liner to grab onto. And, to be honest with you, the liner (a permanent water tight seal) is much better protection for the metal than just a few mils of paint.

 

In my area (central Ohio) we have both Line-x and Rhino installers, we also have Speedliner and Scorpion liner installers. Anybody with any experience with either of these. Speedliner has a good website with a lot of info about their product, they claim tensile strength to 4700 psi, tear strength at 865 lbs/in, elongation to 570%, and a Shore A hardness rating at 92, they compare these numbers to Rhino's data and and are as good as or significantly better in every measure. I've had a much harder time finding data on the Line-X product, they do claim tensile strenght from 1,500 up tp 6,600 psi depending upon the product, and a Shore hardness up to 75. Still I've never seen any on these liners in person, and I've seen very few posting about any of these products except for the line-X, which seems to get alot of high praise. The other thing about Speed liner is that they offer an unlimited number of colors which are stable and not suppose to fade (a little hard for me to believe) as well as graphic applications, and two-tone colors. Anybody out there with any experience with these guys.

 

Here is a bit of history: First on the scene were epoxy based products. They were not very durable, they cracked, peeled, etc. Then, ONE-part polyurethane products came along (also referred to as “solvent based”). One-part means that the polyurethane is suspended in a solvent. A catalyst is added which starts a chemical reaction that removes the solvent so that you have just polyurethane left. The catalyst can be a liquid chemical or even just air. One-part polys were a significant improvement over epoxy based products. Examples of today’s one-part polyurethanes include Herculiner, Duplicolor, Durabak, Superliner, and Speedliner. The newest technology is TWO-part polyurethanes. Two-part means that a resin (usually a polyol resin) is mixed with isocyanate (a hardener) which renders the polyurethane. Two-part polyurethanes are harder and much more durable than one-part polyurethanes. Two-part polys are used on today’s boats, airplanes, etc. Examples of today’s products that have two-part polyurethanes include LINE-X and Rhino.

Speedliner used different ASTM (American Standard for Testing and Materials) tests than LINE-X and Rhino. You are not comparing apples to apples. For example, LINE-X's tensile via ASTM D-2370 is 1,800 psi. Speedliner used test D-412 to show a tensile of 4,700. Speedliner used different tests on just about ALL of their tests. No solvent based poly is going to be as strong as a two-part poly.

Want more? LINE-X's tear strength via ASTM D-1004 is 304 lbs. Speedliner used ASTM D-624 to show a tear strength of 856 lbs. Again, it's not the same test. What's the difference? ASTM D-624: Test Method for Tear Strength of Conventional Vulcanized Rubber and Thermoplastic Elastomers. ASTM D-1004: Test Method for Initial Tear Resistance of Plastic Film and Sheeting.

Speedliner claims their liner won't fade because they use aliphatic vs. aromatic polyuethane. Aliphatic poly is more UV resistant but is not UV proof. Their liners WILL fade. The problem is that some of the other chemicals added render a UV unstable liner. Ask them if there is nationwide lifetime warranty on the color.

Unfortunately, different ASTM tests were used:

Scorpian:
Shore A 88 (soft)
Tensile 2,300 psi (ASTM D638)
Elongation 453% (ASTM D638)
Tear strengh 352 pli (ASTM 624)
Temp tolerance 180 degrees
Dry time 40 minutes (Too long!)
Aromatic with an aliphatic topcoat only.

LINE-X:
Shore D 45 (hard)
Tensile 1,800-6,000 psi (ASTM D2370)
Elongation 115%
Temp tolerance 250 degrees
Dry time 4 seconds (for a very uniform application of the liner)
Tear strength 304 pli (ASTM D1004)
UV topcoat available, called Ultrashield

Sorry for the long post!

 

A good pal of mine is a Line-X dealer and I was just talking to him about what the prep. before application is. It takes about 1 1/2 hrs. total for the job and that includes hand roughing the paint with 150 grit paper so that there is a physical bond. They don't remove all paint. Way too much work and even then they'd have a poor surface to bond to.
Pat