About 3 million pickups are sold each year in North America,
and an estimated 40% of them don't have any type of
bedliner. That explains why there are so many companies
wanting to put something in your pickup's bed. For years
that usually meant a fully formed, drop-in plastic liner
built to fit your truck.
Those liners certainly offered protection, but they didn't
always keep grit, moisture and rust from taking a toll
underneath the liner. In the past 15 years the spray-on
bedliners, which adhere directly to the truck's bed to
provide a seal against damage, have become popular.
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The cost of these bedliners range from
do-it-yourself
products (about $90) to those done by dealers (anywhere from
$300 to $500-plus). Now the lining material (usually a type
of polyurethane) is being used for everything from shop and
mudroom floors to workbenches and
wheelbarrows.
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New Uses
Most all bedliners are a type of polyurethane or polyurea
that will seal to a cleaned and slightly scuffed pickup bed.
Bedliners are now being adapted to numerous uses.
1. Do-it-yourself material such as Herculiner's can be
rolled onto the truck bed. Urethane needs a couple of days
to dry and cure.
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2. This tractor's fenders and exhaust
stack are coated with
Superliner.
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3. Another common use is on the horse
trailer ramp or on the
floor of the trailer
itself.