Every truck bed should have a liner installed for protective purposes. But before you purchase and install a liner, you should know the difference between a spray-in liner and a full solid liner like Dual Liner. I’ll explain the difference in this review article.

So here’s a story. It’s all about how my life got flipped, turned upside, when I bought a used pickup with a spray-in liner. That’s how I learned to always go with Dual Liner.

Alright, enough singing semi-made up songs. So I’ll start with the easy read version. Here’s all the reasons I no longer like Spray-In Truck bed liners:

• Overspray.
• They hide rust underneath.
• Say it with me–trapped moisture!
• And sun damage.

Full disclosure: I did this to myself. It is all my fault. Here’s what happened. A couple years ago, I was in the market for a used older truck. I was just going to use it local to do odd jobs and such. Sometimes I junk stuff, for instance, like old appliances, to make a bit of money on the side. So I started making so much on the side, saved up a few thousand, and I thought about how much an older pickup might cost me.

See I already had a nice newish Ford F-150. But I didn’t want to haul anything that might damage my paint job, like old batteries or rusty metal in there. And sometimes it just isn’t worth grabbing the trailer for an odd junking job. Also, I don’t know about you, but when my buddies ask to borrow my nice truck, I always get a little nervous. So I figure, if I by an old clunker, I can use it to junk stuff and loan it out to people who need it to move stuff. Easy.

Sure. It should have been.

I did it old school. I went through the local printed catalogues and such. I know. Super analog. But I did. And I came across exactly what I thought I wanted: a 1992 Ford F-150. It had 150k miles on it. But again, I thought that wasn’t a big deal. I wasn’t going to be using it to commute or nothing. The price was right. So I went to have a look at it.

And here’s where you could learn from me. I have always thought I had a pretty good eye and I knew a thing or two about trucks. I popped the hood of this red ‘92 Ford stepside. And everything looked in place. The guy said the transmission was still good. And that was a big concern for me.

He let me take it out for a test drive, and she drove like a charm. When we got back to his place, I was sure I was going to make him an offer. But first, I glanced in the truck bed.

The truck bed looked solid. But it had a particular popular brand of spray-in on it. Now I don’t want to pick on that particular brand. It isn’t the brands fault. But I’ve got to tell you–look twice. I really wish I would have.

So I made the offer and the guy took it. And I had myself a new junk truck.

One of the first jobs I used it for was some yard work. My wife is all into landscaping and mulch. I don’t mind working outside and getting my hands dirty, but I hate it when red mulch gets all over my truck bed, leaving traces of pigment all over it. My daily driver is a blue F-150. And that red mulch makes it look ridiculously purple and red. It’s like a masacre in my truck bed. I can spray it out, but sometimes it takes a few times. And I didn’t have any truck bed liner.

No worries, I think. This is exactly why I bought that old junker. At this point, I’m also thinking about getting a spray-in for my blue F-150. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

So I go and get the mulch from the local garden supply. We buy it by the truck load. And when I get home to unload it, I start trying to push it out with a shovel. And let me tell you, the first few layers went just great. But when I got down to the bottom, the stuff right on top of the spray-in liner, it really just got stuck on there. I actually had to go get a broom and really go to town on that mulch to get the last of it out of the truck bed.

Hey, no big deal, right? It’s my work truck. But this was still a huge pain in the butt. I get that those spray-in liners are supposed to have a lot of grit to them so that stuff won’t slide around in your truck bed, but this is just silly. I immediately started to question getting a spray-in for my newer truck.

The junk truck sat a few weeks then before I got a side gig hauling fill dirt for a guy. This guy needed three truck loads worth of dirt at least to fill in and level out a big divot in his backyard. He tells me that every time it rains this whole side of his yard looks like a muddy swimming pool.

I tell the guy I’m on it, give him a decent quote, and he hires me up. So I get ahold of another guy I know who’s got tons of fill dirt he’s looking to get rid of. Easy job. Some shovel work, but no matter. I take my son along. It will be good for him, I think. I’ll teach him a lesson about hard work and give him some of the profits. That’s a win-win in my book and also how my own father taught me about money.

Loading the first load was no big deal. The unloading was a pain in the butt, like the mulch, but I’d done it before now and knew what to expect. I warned the boy about it too, so no problem, right? I figure the next day, I’ll just spray out the bed and it’ll be fine. We finish up the second load as well without any issues. And then my wife calls with an emergency having to do with the washer. Fun times. Son says he’s got this last load under control. I’m so proud of him. He’s just 16, but I trust him, especially with the junk truck. I’m feeling pretty good again about my truck purchase.

So the kid drops me off to deal with the washer, and he goes and finishes up the job. Afterwards he says it went down with a hitch. Great, I think. By the time I remember to go spray out the truck bed, it’s been nearly a week. But that’s no biggie. Not like the dirt is gonna hurt that spray-in liner, right?

So I sprayed out the bed real good using the hose. And as I’m finishing up, I notice something: a bunch of gouges in the spray-in liner. I get down close and look at them, soaking my jeans. I can pry them back a little, and I start to realize what’s happened. One of us (or both. I don’t want to sell out my boy, here. It could have been me too.) must have hit the liner with the shovel a few times. And what do you know, it damaged and cut all the way through in a couple places. Damn, I think. I thought these spray-ins were durable.

I don’t fret too much about it. It’s just the junk truck. No biggie.

So I do a few more small odd jobs here and there, but all is pretty much well. Winter comes. Things settle down. The truck sits all winter. Maybe I started her up once or twice just to get the gas flowing.

Now the thing is–and I didn’t think about this–the guy I bought this clunker off of had it in the garage at his house. When you have a three car garage I guess you can spare the space. But not me. My garage is mostly filled with odds and ends either myself, my wife, or my kids have collected over the years. We can barely fit my wife’s SUV in there, let alone another vehicle, especially not the junk truck. So my new blue F-150 and old junk truck have to live outside all winter. No biggie, though, right?

Well, come Spring, I’m getting ready to help my buddy’s kid move the college. The college girl doesn’t have much. I think all the big stuff can go in the junk truck and my buddy can drive my truck and get the boxes and small stuff.

So I’m making sure the junker is ready, and I glance into the truck bed and all the snow has melted, but there’s still a puddle in a couple spots. You guessed it–the spots where the holes were made with the shovels. Great. I try not to think too much about it, but at this point, I’m thinking this can’t be good. A truck bed liner is supposed to protect the bed, not funnel water down to it all winter long.

Anyway, the moving expedition goes just fine. I do notice that there’s a bit of a rust color coming up through those slits in the spray in though, but nothing too worrisome. At this point, I’m sure I don’t want a spray-in liner for my new F-150.

So I start looking at my other options. I don’t really want a full drop-in liner cause they look kinda flimsy and at this point, I’m getting skeptical. I take a look at Bedrug, but after the friction issue with the spray-in, carpet just doesn’t sound like my jam. And then I found Dual Liner.

So I wanted something that would line the side walls, the tailgate, and the floor of my new blue F-150. But I didn’t want a drop-in, a spray-in, or a BedRug. DualLiner had me covered.