Protecting your Truck’s Interior with Floor Mats and Liners
No matter the time of year, regardless of where you live, mud and dirt always seem to find a way of getting into your vehicle. I find this is true of most vehicles, whether you’re commuting on the busy highways of California or cruising down dirt roads in West Texas. And if you’re bouncing around in a truck, like me, then your floor boards are even more likely to get dirty from time to time–or every day, if you’re me.
My wife doesn’t blame me. I mean, I drive a pickup truck. Part of the reason why I own a truck–heck, part of my purpose in life–is to go out and get it and often myself dirty. Whether I’m off-roading down a muddy path in the woods or bouncing through pasture. While I don’t mind the dirt much, my wife does. And part of that is personal, part of it has to do with the resale value of my pickup.
I guess when I was younger, I never really thought much about it. But the truth is, if you’ve ever traded in a vehicle before, one of the biggest reasons you can get docked a grade or two on trade-in value is floorboard wear and tear. Now that could be anything from the ripped up upholstery of my old 1984 C/K Chevy 1500 cause I did drop my hunting knife that one time–or seven–when out with my buddy “hunting deer,” a great euphemism we sometimes use for throwing back a few cold ones after the days hunting is done, especially if we didn’t manage to see any bucks that time around.
But beyond serious floorboard damage, just having a dirty carpet or upholstery is enough for some croney at the dealership to knock your truck’s KBB rating down from Excellent to Good. I don’t think it’s fair. But as my high school history teacher always said, “Life ain’t fair. Who the hell told you this all was gonna be fair…” He kept going from there, often getting into profanity and such, but you catch my drift.
Protecting your upholstery is very important, even if you don’t mind it getting dirty from time to time, cause–you know–you bought a truck for a reason.
So here’s the big questions:
How do I protect my upholstery in my pickup truck? What’s the best way to protect my floorboards and keep resale value high?
The best way to shield your floors from muck and mud is truck floor mats and liners. And the best two producers of such products are:
The best way to shield your floors from muck and mud is truck floor mats and liners. And the best two producers of such products are:
- Husky Liners and
- WeatherTech
Now you may be thinking that those two sound just great, I’m going to go get me some Husky floor mats or WeatherTech floor liners immediately. Thanks Mr. Parts Expert. Well, you are welcome, gentleman. But you might wonder, where, oh, where should I go for such products? That is a great follow up question, my kind sir.
What’s the best place online to buy floor mats and liners?
Who has the best deals on floor liners and mats from Husky and WeatherTech?
Midwest Aftermarket immediately comes to mind. Not only do they have the lowest prices guaranteed online, they also have fast & free shipping within the United States and free returns too. Midwest Aftermarket provides exceptional customer services as well
Midwest Aftermarket immediately comes to mind. Not only do they have the lowest prices guaranteed online, they also have fast & free shipping within the United States and free returns too. Midwest Aftermarket provides exceptional customer services as well
So if you have any questions about fitment or difference between products, you can call them up, live chat them on the website, or read their many great reviews and guides. Midwest Aftermarket is the first place I go to when shopping truck accessories, including truck floor mats and liners.
Now one of the chief reasons for buying a product like a Husky floor mat or WeatherTech floor liner online is convenience. And Midwest Aftermarket has that in spades, no doubt. But the main reasons to go onto the Internet for shopping aftermarket parts is quality.
Sure, I could always run down to the local box store and scoop up a pair of floor mats. But how long are they gonna last? How durable will they really be? Here’s the truth about all those knockoff brands: they’re cheap and must be replaced often.
Before I learned about Midwest Aftermarket, I often would buy accessories for my truck at local parts shops and box warehouse stores. And concerning floor mats, specifically, I found I often had to replace my mats once, sometimes even twice, a year.
And the stock mats didn’t fare much better. So at the end of this terrible experience, I about gave up on floor mats. Then I found my first pair of Husky Liners over at Midwest Aftermarket, and I was shocked by how long they lasted. I’m still rocking those exact same floor liners in my ol’ ‘84 Chevy. No joshing. Now I only wish I’d had those mats in there from the get go.
And that’s one of the reasons why as soon as I buy a new automobile now, one of the first purchases I make is floor liners to replace those nasty stock carpet mats.
Best Price on Floor Liners and Mats for your Pickup Truck
I’ve been a penny pincher all my life, much to my wife’s dismay. So I remember the first time I browse top quality aftermarket floor mats, like those from WeatherTech and Husky Liners. I thought to myself, self, couldn’t you get this for about half the price down at Wally-world? Perhaps, I responded. But I’ve been down that road, and I know those cheap knockoffs just aren’t going to get the job done. They may cost a bit less, but they never last and they don’t really protect my floorboard completely.
Those cheap box store or auto parts shop carpeted mats especially seem to just push dirt and liquids to the side of the mat, making a terrible stain that eventually outlines most of the mat. I can remember going to replace my mats one time, and after taking the old ones out, I could see exactly the shape and outline of them. It looks like a dirt outline of a corpse from some cop movie–here’s where we found the discarded bodies of those two cheap-o floor mats, officer. You can tell by the dirt outline that they perished together, in agony, within 6 months of being bought. What a shame. What a shame. Cruel, cruel world.
Snap out of it, man. And think quality over cheap price. If you’ve got to replace those old mats more than once, then you should have just started with something that was built to last. And both Husky Liners and WeatherTech manufacturer the most durable and longest lasting floor liners around.
Protecting your Floorboards and Upholstery
The second biggest reason to go with Husky or WeatherTech over those cheap mats is quality of protection. Both Husky floor mats and WeatherTech floor liners are designed to fit your vehicle’s floorboard exactly. They use digital technology and even lasers to measure the exact dimensions of your vehicle. Then they custom make their liners to fit perfectly.
On top of a great fit, this means that Husky and WeatherTech are able to create side walls that keep the dirt, mud, and any liquid spills on the mat instead of just letting it race off the edges, creating that gross stain outline around the liner. No crime scene here.
Both WeatherTech Digital Fit Floor Liners and Husky X-Act Contours are designed with channels to funnel any spills or liquid away from the edges and towards the center of the mat. That’s some smart design.
Another great feature of these products that I hadn’t thought of before I picked up my first pair is that they are made of thermoplastic. I know, material composition isn’t too sexy these days, so let me explain why that’s so useful. Thermoplastic is waterproof, rigid enough to take a beating, but flexible enough to be easily removed. This means that if you spill your morning coffee while bumping around backroads, or like I did this morning commuting to work. Sigh. Well, if you spill, you don’t really have to worry. Not only does the liner keep the coffee in the middle of these channels, but it is also really easy to clean up.
Tonight when I get home, I’ll just park my truck out by my garden house. I’ll pull my Husky liner carefully out of my front seat, making sure to keep that cold coffee balanced in the middle of those center channels. Then I can just dump it out in the flower bed–I hear coffee grinds are good for flowers, so the actual drink must be too? And I’ll rinse the mat off with the hose. Bada-bing. Bada-boom! Let the Husky Liner dry overnight, and I’m ready to toss it back in the a.m. and head out for the day.
In the past, spilling my coffee would have been a terrible ordeal. I had crappy carpet mats that would soak up the liquid so that by the time I was able to get home and pull the mats out, chances are pretty good the coffee would have soaked all the way through and into my upholstery anyway. Then to clean those stock mats off, I’d have to go use a special high powered vacuum at the car wash place. You know what I’m talking about.
Those vacuums never seem to get all the dirt out of my mats, and most of the time I seem to run out of quarters before I’m done with all my mats. What a pain in the behind! Well, guess what? I haven’t been to one of those darn vacuums in years. Since I picked up my first set of Husky Liners, I just rinse those puppies off at home, and I save my quarters for the pool hall or when I’m really feeling lucky, those slot machines they’ve got at all the gas stations these days. I may even strike it rich someday because I don’t have to waste quarters on silly vacuums.
Spoiler alert: I’m still broke, and I think I’ve spent like $5 in quarters in those damn slot machines. In other words, I ain’t quit my day job just yet. Haha!
Anyway, the point is, I couldn’t be more pleased with my investment. And that’s just what Husky Liners and WeatherTech Floor Mats are: an investment. These products protect your vehicle and increase resale value. I’m not sure why you haven’t gone and ordered yours yet. Get on it!