William Wixon wrote:

"Bruce L. Bergman" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:49:41 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:
On Fri, 14 Mar 2008 05:35:20 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm,
"William Wixon" quickly quoth:
Larry Jaques wrote:

I'm not willing to pay $300 for a fancy liner or expensive spray-in by
a professional. What other options does a cheapa&H&H&H&H&H&Hfrugal
guy like me have?
I was happy with a plastic drop-in before, and probably will be again.

Doesn't matter whether it's 'slippery' or 'sticky' bed coating, or a
molded 'drop in bedliner', if I slide in a pallet of anything heavy
into the truck I always put a layer of plywood or chipboard in the bed
first. Two layers of plywood if you plan to skid the first pallet to
the front of the bed by pushing it with the second pallet.

Then your load has something sacrificial to slide against, as wood
pallets ALWAYS potentially have loose nail heads and/or gravel and
rocks sticking out on the bottom friction surface. You could even
embed abrasives like that in plastic or press-molded pallets.

My utility bed is steel diamond-tread, and I still do that. Don't
want to mess up the paint too bad.

-- Bruce --


yeah, me too, i have a 3/4 inch thick rubber mat (i think it used to be a
conveyor belt, came from my previous truck's first owner). you can also get
"stall mats" from Agway, Tractor Supply ( whatever)
http://www.thegreathardwarestore.com...746&click=2744 .
the rubber is super grippy, it's difficult to push or pull anything on or
off it. the protruding nail slashed the bed liner on the wheel well.
(since i'd JUST got the truck and just finished the undercoat job (myself)
it REALLY ****ed me off) i thought if it was a hard coating instead of a
soft coating maybe the nail woulda skidded across it rather than slashing
all the way though to metal. i really like this rubber mat. i feel it
protects the bed not only from scratches it also spreads the load (rocks,
boulders) and prevents, at least to some degree, the sheetmetal bed from
getting dented as well. it doesn't rot, i've had it in the back of two pick
up trucks now. it's easy to take out to clean it and the bed. relatively
inexpensive.

b.w.

I look at my truck as a... well... truck. I try to keep the cab portion
relatively scratch and dent free, but I actually use my truck and I
expect the bed section to get a bit beat up. If nothing else, it helps
keep the eco-ego-maniacs in their hybrids from thinking the truck is
some sort of status symbol toy.