My current truck has a cap and a bed rug. Both of which I enjoy. I do use my truck for landscaping work in the summer and would like to be able to use the bed more even though I have a 14ft dump trailer attached to it all the time. You can never have enough hauling capability. I don't want to use the bed rug as a liner to dump mulch, soil, stone, etc... on. That suckers hard enough to clean. What I'm thinking is trying to find a plastic bed liner but instead of removing the bed rug just toss the liner in over the bed rug and under the rails. Reasoning is that the bed shows zero signs of rust, scrapes, dings, and scratches (to my knowledge) due to the bed rug. If I pull it out to put the plastic in that plastic job with undoubtedly tear up my bed. Sound ridiculous?

 

This is why you linex the bed..like you I carry all kinds of crap and mulch and it is easier to just seal it up..plus you can clean it and is durable and keeps things w/o sliding all over place like my plastic liner did..i wouldn't add plastic water and other crap will get under neath and stain the crap out of your rug..

 

Why not just line-x it? I did that the first week I had my truck and the bed looks great...my truck came with the plastic liner and I didn't like it.

 

I've talked with a few of my landscape friends and they say the spray on is not the way to go. Chips, cracks, peeling, etc., from shoveling and such... But again maybe theirs are old. Honestly my old truck had the plastic liner and it was great. Easy to clean and easy to shovel out. Minus the fact it ruins the bed.

Remember I still want my bed rug, great product, for when I'm not using the truck for biz purposes. Also ripping all that nice paint off just doesn't appeal to me. I guess I'm that oddball in the masses that prefer the spray on liners. What I really need is a dump truck but I'm not ready to unload my truck and can't afford a decent running dump at the moment.

The original plan was to modify my trailer for side loading capability (to carry spoils and finish materials) but a side door was priced out at $2500. I could buy a dump insert at that price.

 

i got my Rhino Liner April of 05', bought my truck new in December of 2004. When i got my Rhino they asked if i want the older low pressure style or the new high pressure spray that looks like Line-x, i said the new style. Now i load my truck with fire wood a lot during the summer, ive got topsoil mulch dumped in the bed but when i load and shovel stuff out i don't beat my truck all up. I CAREFULLY shovel stuff out and when im done i sweep it out instead of using a shovel or rake to dig at my bed liner. My liner still looks new and i have one small nick in the floor where my grill propane bottle flipped over and dug into the floor

 

Unfortunately I don't have the time to "Carefully" shovel anything out. And people working with you seldom care about how careful they need to be. Like I said, I have the trailer to take the brunt of the work. But I do get jobs where it could easily be completed with just the truck. The signs just point to the future of needing a dedicated dump. That liner interchange would just be, well, ridiculous....

 

plus drop ins do nothing but jiggle and they scratch the crap out of the paint..... then rust starts and you have new problems... LOL

 

This is my concern. If my bed will be used I'm not telling the loader to take 10 minutes slowly dropping stone in, nor will they do that. I don't have time to carefully shovel so I don't ruin the liner. I shouldn't have to worry about that. Plastic liners are horrible for a truck but it lasted and took abuse. Sure I peeled the surface with a shovel but it wasn't permanently connected to the bed. And you get enough nicks, water/salt penetrates to that stripped metal surface and bam.. Again I think the spray on liners are really nice. I just need a different truck.

 

Remember the start of this thread. I would place the plastic liner OVER the bed rug....

 

when i had my first truck it was a 8' bed and my dad wanted a couple loads of mulch. So we went to the local mulch yard, the guy in front of us had a brand new dodge the loader came up and started dumping the mulch. For some reason the loader operator shook the controls i guess to get the mulch out and the bucket went right above the cab roof one loud POP a good half yard of mulch went right on his roof caved it in like a tuna can. After that ive got loaded in my bed three times since 2002.... And the three times i did i told the operator to slowly dump it dont shake the bucket and stay away from my roof!

 

Nice. Truly any loose materials loaded at a yard will be in the dump trailer. I'm talking about when you edge beds and put the soil and sod in the truck, bush trimmings, clean up materials, etc..... I won't let one of those fools load my truck, so my example above wouldn't happen.

 

Rhino liner and a dump bed......

 

I know it might be more cost but why not do both, go to auto store buy some roll on protector linex stuff and do it yourself. then put the plastic liner over it,, this way your bed is protected from the liner and you keep your bed rug clean, this way you can remove your plastic liner when you want to install bed rug. This way your truck bed stays scratch/rust free.
I agree the plastic liner is more durable and easy to clean.. I had one on my 02 SD.. I never took it out so I cant say how bad it looked (didn't want to know either)..

 

I think your idea is fine - you might need to trim it a bit (edges) to fit around the bed rug. If you look around, you might be able to find a free old plastic bedliner that no one wants. You have little to lose by experimenting with this.

I use a rubber mat in my truck bed to keep stuff from sliding, and I remove the mat when hauling firewood or mulch and I want it to slide out. The paint on my bed floor is already half trashed from an earlier plastic liner, so 'pretty' isn't where I'm at.

 

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