Truck Bed Mats and Drop In Plastic Bed Liners

Pickup beds without some sort of liner suffer from scratches and even worse, from dents. Scratches can be touched up but dents are often forever. Both truck bed mats and plastic liners work exceptionally well to stop dents before they happen. In that way each of these liner options are alike, but in several ways they differ. Here are comparisons of these two bed protection options.

1. Installation Ease

Bed mats come as rubber mats or carpet. Then the more premium mat from DualLiner offers a mat combined with plastic side, front and tailgate parts. In each case the installation is a snap. Rubber mats roll out just as easy as can be. Installation takes nearly nothing.

Installing plastic liners means first getting the liner, which is easier said than done because of the size of the one piece liner. Once it's at your truck, it must be fastened in to keep it in place. That means a simple installation but certainly more involved than just rolling out a mat for sure.

2. Watch For Rising Water

Once a plastic drop is in it won't be often taken out. That suggests one potential pitfall with plastic liners. It's hidden water. If for some reason the drain holes become plugged, the resulting water pools makes for the perfect spot for rust and corrosion. With rubber or carpet mats on the other hand, you can easily see if water collects and solving the plugged drain means just slipping the mat back and clearing the problem. Pooling water under drop in bed liners means big trouble that's hidden from view until serious trouble.

3. Whistling And Wind

There's more. Drop in liners must fit nearly perfectly or wind gets behind the material. When that happens the plastic starts the rattle and roll that makes more than just whistling and noise. It also makes vibration which may rub paint away hidden beneath the liner. Combine that with water underneath and you may wish you had never seen a liner like the plastic ones.

4. And The Cost Is...

That means plastic liners can cause damage as well as prevent damage. Something much less likely to happen with mats. What's more a bed mat costs only s fraction of what drop in liners set you back. The price often includes free shipping and may be so low as to be nearly nothing.

5. To Slip Or Not To Slip

Plastic liners make for easy sliding. Rubber makes for no moving of cargo at all. If you like sliding cargo get plastic. If you want no-skid conditions, rubber beats plastic for sure. Even carpet mats stop most movement too if you like the carpet cushion properties.

Truck bed mats protect from impact like tough plastic but offer some other advantages. Either option stops dents before they happen but the cheaper option, mats, eliminates some potential problems associated with the drop in bed liners.

Discover more tips about the underrated rubber truck bed mats at our website.