drop in bedliner issues

so I just picked up a oem Toyota drop in bedliner today, got a great deal on it, just wondering if anyone has experience issues with damaging the bed like rust or paint damage or anything else, please let me know !

 

My truck had an OEM one in it when I bought it. It scratched the hell out of the paint in the rails/tailgate and underneath as well. I took it off and got it sprayed the week I bought it. However, you could not tell anything was scratched until you took it off and there appeared to be very minimal rust. And as far as I know, it was on since the PO bought it new in 2002.

 

Bed liners can potentially trap dirt/sand and water under it.

I suppose they could mar the paint too. Rust is going to depend a bit on your area I would think.

Having said all that though, if you don't have any liner the first time you haul that piece of furniture, those pavers from the home store, gravel or even a larger purchase from a store, you take the chance of damaging the paint.

Myself, I don't have a problem with a bed liner and I like the look of them when installed. Plus, the $50 I spent buying a used one on CL is a super deal compared to what I see it costs for the spray in alternatives. Just a personal preference, but I sort of like the look of the Toyota bed liner better too.

I would not worry about it myself. All I did before putting in the bed liner was to ensure the drains were clean and clear in the bed.

 

I had a bed liner in my Ram, years ago. What I would do once in a while is take it out and clean under there pretty good, and then I would throw on a heavy coat of wax, and leave it on, don't buff it off, just put it on and let it dry. Then I would put the liner back in. There was always spots that rubbed, but I never got any rust. I would do that maybe once a year. Worked out well.

 

I have had my bedliner in since the day I bought the truck 10 years ago, and I do not have any rust. The paint scuffs off a little bit where it touch the bed, but it would have been scuffed worse if I did not have the liner. There are pros and cons with drop-in liners and paint-on liners - I think drop-in liners protect better against dents if you are hard on your truck - throwing things in the bed.
The only thing I don't like about drop-in bedliners are the over-the-rail type, because they scuff the paint on the outside of the bed. Mine is a under-the-rail type.

 

yeah thats the part im hesitant about is that its over the rails, i dont want that paint messed up..the bed i really couldnt care because its already messed up and all scratched up

 

Could you cut the top part off and tuck it in under the bed rails like mine; making a under-the-rail type? (I will see if I can get a picture of mine)

 

im not sure, ill have to take a look at it, thats what i prefer under the rails but for $50 i couldnt pass it up

 

There was one in mine when I bought the truck. When I took it out, there was enough dirt, leaves, and other trash trapped under it to fill up a 5 gallon bucket. Plus it rubbed the bed all the way down to bare metal in a few spots along the top rails. I personally don't like the drop in liners because whatever you put in the bed is going to slide around worse than if it was on the bare bed. I intend on eventually doing a spray in liner.

 

x2 on all of this. Removing the plastic bed liner was the first thing I did after I bought the truck.

 

Mine had an OEM bedliner installed when I bought it. I assume it had been in there since the truck was new. It appeared as though one of the previous owners had a dog, because there was about 5 pounds of dog hair under the bedliner when I removed it.

There were several spots where the paint had been rubbed off because of the liner. I also found a couple of rust spots, but nothing terrible. I was fearing that it would be worse than it actually ended up being. Mine was an over-the-rail bedliner, so it did scratch up the top of the rails pretty bad. The worst area on mine was actually where the plastic cap sat on the top of the tailgate. The rust was starting to bubble up through the paint. The previous owner tried painting over it with touch up paint (looked terrible).

I got Line-X sprayed in and they took care of all of those issues. Now it looks great and no more worries about rust. FWIW, I put my bedliner on Craigslist for free and it sat in my yard for two weeks before I finally just cut it into pieces and put it out with the trash. I also noticed that the Line-X dealer had a whole pile of old bedliners stacked up next to the building.

 

This is what the bedliner did to my bed.

 

ouch thats bad.
i guess thats why im stalling putting on this bedliner. my bed rails are perfect not one chip, but the bottom of my bed is all scratched and chipped.. i just wish i could afford a spray in

 

i have a drop in and it gets dirty underneath but i haven't noticed any rust, but i've never removed the entire thing, i think i will and wash & wax later on

 

When i removed mine to put my topper on I had tons of decomposing dirt and wood chips. Theres no rust tho.

 

What about one of those rubber bed-mats that just sits on the bottom of the bed? I've seen those and they look functional.

like this http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/pu...l4bTKjA7tl8ztQNcO89s7ZDTDX3J5suPcwSKJP50MZWPQ

 

Rubber bed mat is a good idea. Stops stuff sliding around, can roll it up and remove to clean everything as well. Only issue is that it won't provide protection for the whole bed. Just depends what you are looking for OP. When I worked for the dealer we put many, many bed mats in for people.

I'd probably not be too thrilled with the over the bed rail type liner. CL typically has a wealth of liners on there. Maybe easier to just look for an inexpensive under the rail type. Maybe you could convert your existing liner. Don't know, as I have no experience with this, but would wonder if the contour is different enough that you may not get a good result trying to do this.

I'm with you, can't afford the spray in liners (even if I wanted one), but as a previous poster mentioned, the people who do the spray in liners may be a source for you to pick up a second hand under rail as well.