On Sun, 26 Jun 2016 07:15:51 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:

On Sun, 26 Jun 2016 01:44:55 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:

On Sat, 25 Jun 2016 22:57:17 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 25 Jun 2016 14:02:13 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:

On Sat, 25 Jun 2016 12:34:48 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

On Thursday, April 16, 2015 at 7:52:04 PM UTC-4, Ed Huntress wrote:
I just got back from an engineering conference in Detroit on
"lightweighting" cars and trucks, which was an exceptionally good one,
but one mundane fact set me back in my chair. Ford has four stamping
plants making body parts for the new aluminum F-150. At the biggest
one, at the old Rouge plant, their stamping line fills an
11-ton-capacity truck with aluminum stamping scrap every 20 minutes.
The trucks are lined up to haul it back to the mills.

That's a lot of aluminum. All of the US and European car makers have
high-quantity aluminum vehicles in the works ...

"Chevy’s ads show the bed of the Ford F-150 cracking when heavy or sharp objects are dropped into it, while the [Chevy] Silverado ends up with just a few dents, scratches and, in one case, pinholes. In one video, a Chevy engineer drops a large toolbox into the bed of each truck at such an angle that it dents in the Silverado and puts a hole in the bed of the Ford. The campaign is big, too, airing online, on television during major sporting events and at 2,400 movie theaters"

-- http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...uminum-pickups

('GM Airs Attack Ads That Poke Holes in Ford’s Aluminum Pickups' by David Welch June 8, 2016 — 3:30 PM EDT Bloomberg )

"Chevy has several ads which the company says are exhibiting field
tests done internally by GM. In another ad, a load of 55 landscaping
bricks is dropped five feet into the beds of each truck, again denting
the Silverado and putting a few holes in the F-150. Truck owners
usually don’t drop large bricks from such a height."

On the other hand....no one usually drops a tool box or a large valve
or a piece of steel etc etc into the back of a pickup truck...but if
you look at half the pickup trucks on the road used for "work", you
will find dings and dents and places where exactly that happened. No
one plans on "xxxxxx" but **** does happen. Good of Chevy to point
that out.

Im sure someone with a waterjet or laser could make a reasonable
income cutting a sheet of 5/16" aluminum or 3/16" steel (plain or
diamond plate), perfectly fit for putting down, in the back of the
new Fords. Wouldnt add much weight and would prevent bed damage.


---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
The bed on my pickup has never seen the light of day. It has a tough
polymer slip-in liner that takes any abuse, protecting the steel bed.

are they better or worse than the sprayed in Rino Liner type coatings?

I have always had one, too. They are better than the linings because
the ridges hold the materials away from the bed. When the guy bought
my 1990 F-150 in 2007, the bed looked brand new, cept for the strips
of duct tape I used to keep the liner from scratching it. I found that
it had been unnecessary. The liner was 15 years old and had taken
some abuse, but still looked near new. The new one for the Tundra was
$218, costing me roughly $20 a year so far, and it is in great shape.
They do last.

I prefer the slippery liner to the sticky Rhino coating because I like
to slide my freight around, then keep it in place with ratcheting
straps. You have to physically hold the freight up off Rhino lining
until it is in place, lots more work.

AFAIC, poly liners are the only way to go.

Good info!

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus