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.

Dual Liner FTW!

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.

It comes in five pieces, in a single big box. It costs less than a spray-in, and it is something I can easily install in my own garage in a few minutes. I watched a couple videos and read a review. This seemed pretty simple. Midwest Aftermarket, the company who’s review I’d read, explained that for the money, I really wouldn’t go wrong with Dual Liner truck bed liners.

Also, none of the issues I’d experienced with that spray-in should come up. There would be some friction, but nothing like the spray-in. The Dual Liner material won’t stain from red mulch and can be sprayed down with water. Dual Liner would let water drain out from under it through stock holes already in my truck’s bed. This was everything I wanted in a truck bed liner.

So I ordered it up from Midwest Aftermarket, and installed it myself. It shipped out to me fast, we are talking like 3 days. And it really was simple to install. My son and I did it in about 15 minutes using normal everyday tools like a socket wrench.

And I’ve gotta tell you, I’ve been super impressed with this new Dual Liner. But I thought, maybe over time I’ll get just as disappointed with it as the spray-in. So I let some time pass.

The seasons went by. And suddenly it was spring yet again. This is almost always a busy time of year for me junking. A lot of people are doing spring cleaning, throwing out old junk, tons of appliances and such that I can junk for cash. Win-win for the people and myself. The people get rid of stuff they don’t want and for free. And I get money for junking the stuff. It’s a great side gig, if you’ve got a truck.

So I’ve got a guy who wants an old deep freeze junked. I could have taken my new truck, but I didn’t really want this old rusty deep freeze in the back there, even though the Dual Liner could have handled it no problem. I’m just thinking there’s no reason to do so. I’ve got the junk truck for a reason. And this deep freeze had lived outside for years, out against this guy’s garage in his backyard. It’s gotta be pretty nasty, especially if it stopped working.

So I took the junk truck, and I brought along my boy again for some muscle. We loaded up the deep freeze no problem. And like I’d thought, I was super glad I brought the junk truck. That deep freeze was nasty!

So we’re on our way over to the salvage yard, when I hear this terrible sound. We had just gone over some fairly big pot holes, but nothing that would cause any damage. I pulled over to the side of the road. We’re checking the tires, under the hood, the frame. And then I see something dripping under the truck bed. I’m like what the heck is that?
So the son and I both jump up into the truck bed. And when we do, we start hearing that sound again. What do you know but the deep freeze has punched through the truck bed in a spot--guess where--where one of those shovel holes had been, and those some nasty rusty colored water draining out that new hole. What the heck I think?!

So we get the deep freeze dropped off at the salvage yard, and the truck makes it home. I started looking into what happened more, and it became pretty obvious that the spray-in liner had trapped water in that hole and rusted out part of the bed. So I started looking into removing the spray-in liner. It sounds like it would cost a pretty penny, but the more I looked into it, the more I wanted it done. I couldn’t have more water getting trapped there, causing the bed to rust.

So I found a guy who’d do it pretty cheap, and I took the junk truck on over. The guy warns me that with these spray-ins, you never really know what you’re going to find underneath. I totally didn’t understand what he meant. I just gave him the go ahead.

Boy was he right. That spot wasn’t the only one that was rusted. Heck, there were terrible rust spots and deep scratches all over the place. Not only did the job cost me, but the bed looked like it was ready to be junked itself.

So I started thinking. I got some Rustoleum to touch up the rusted spots. And then you know what I did? I went and ordered another Dual Liner Truck Bed Liner from Midwest Aftermarket.

I installed that DualLiner, and I’ve been using that junk truck ever since, and we really haven’t had any major problems. So I have to tell you, I highly recommend Dual Liner bed liners, and I would definitely avoid a spray-in. Not only are they a hassle, but they also might hide damage that you don’t even know is there. For me, the damage may have started with the previous owner, but I’m pretty sure those rust spots came from me and our shovel situation.

Needless to say, no more spray-in bed liners for me.

And hey, if you’re in the market for a truck bed liner, let me recommend Midwest Aftermarket. Both times they had the best price on Dual Liner for me, and their shipping and customer service were excellent. I also enjoyed their reviews and product guides. In fact, if I’d read some of their articles before buying that junk truck I might have thought twice about the purchase or at the very least removed the spray-in liner immediately and saved myself the hassle by getting a DualLiner right away. Next time I’ll know better. Hope maybe my knowledge and hindsight can help save you from a spray-in liner disaster too.

Author Bio

Cass Cooper is the founder & CEO of Midwest Aftermarket, a website that promotes and sells dual liner truck bed liner, truck bed liner, dualliner bed liner while offering free shipping and returns within the United States. He often writes articles pertaining to the selection and utility of WheatherTech Floor Mats for the interiors of the car.

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