2018 test5 productsHome & Cleaning
Which Spray-in Truck Bed Liner Brand Wins?
We compared 5 spray-in truck bed liner options head to head. PlastiKote came out on top. See the measured results, the runner-up, the budget pick, and a link to the full test video.
Winner
PlastiKote
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The measured results
Every number below is read straight from the test. Scroll sideways to see all measurements. Products are listed in the order they finished.
| Product | Appearance (48+ hour cure) | Light scratch (room temp, garden tool) | Heavy scratch/tear (15 lb plus tool) | Impact (1 lb 5 oz rod, 25 in drop) | Chemical resistance, gasoline | Chemical resistance, salt water | Cold weather (-20 F, 5 lb impact) | Heat (143 F, scratch/peel) | Chemical resistance, acetone/diesel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1PlastiKote | great mix of texture and gloss, narrator calls it a really nice looking, very professional product, very much like Dupli-Color | no scratch at all, the only product with no visible scratch in this test | sustained a very deep scratch, cutting all the way through almost all the way across | by far the best up to that point in the video; very little damage to its ability to stick, plenty of material still left around the dent | very soft and basically dissolved by the gasoline, will not withstand gasoline exposure | no visible damage (true of all 5 products) | clearly not very good in cold weather; a lot of material lost at both the impact area and the scratch area | held up very well; it does scratch but does not peel, described as holding up the best of all products tested in this sub-test | not tested |
| 2Dupli-Color | narrator's favorite or second favorite for looks; not too shiny, nice finish and texture | quite a bit of a scratch, dug into the material itself rather than rubbing off | cut all the way through the bed liner material except for a couple of small spots | rod penetrated most of the material; one of three impact points was okay, the other two took quite a bit of damage | the entire coating came off when the washer was picked up out of the gasoline | no visible damage (true of all 5 products) | did pretty good; quite a bit of a scratch but did not fully penetrate, some material loss at the impact area but not as bad as some other products | not clearly attributable by name in the transcript; see video-level note on the heat test ambiguity | transcript is ambiguous here: narrator says 'we'll see how well Dupli-Color withstood diesel' immediately followed by 'Dupli-Color has been totally dissolved by the acetone', with no clear separation between the diesel and acetone results; kept verbatim, may reflect two different washers being shown in quick succession rather than one result |
| 3EZ Liner | narrator does not like it as much as Dupli-Color, says it does not look as professional, goes on very flat and clumps in some areas | visible scratch but did not cut as deep as Dupli-Color's | did not hold up any better than Dupli-Color, with actually wider areas of tear off compared to Dupli-Color | not nearly as hard as Dupli-Color; the rod fully penetrated all three impact points | held up quite nicely in gasoline | no visible damage (true of all 5 products) | did better than Dupli-Color; scratch depth much less and no material loss at all at the impact area | does not do well in the heat, peels up very easily | not tested |
| 4Herculiner | went on fairly evenly, much higher gloss finish than Dupli-Color or EZ Liner (narrator personally dislikes the high gloss, says it leaves more opportunity to fade), less texture than Dupli-Color | has a scratch, not as bad as Dupli-Color, about the same as EZ Liner | cut through about half the distance between the two ends and all the way down to the metal, but did better than Dupli-Color and EZ Liner | did better than both EZ Liner and Dupli-Color; some material still left behind | gas became discolored and gasoline destroyed the coating, described as a lot of damage that will just peel right off | no visible damage (true of all 5 products) | did not do as well as Dupli-Color or EZ Liner; damage down to the metal and a lot more material loss at the impact area | extremely soft in the heat | not tested |
| 5Rust-Oleum | narrator's least favorite appearance; does not go on like a bed liner material, looks more like spray paint, very high gloss with inconsistent gloss level section to section | did pretty good, a very small scratch, not as good as PlastiKote's zero-scratch result | did the best of all products at this weight; only one area cut all the way through, the rest held up with just a deep scratch | did a very good job, just like PlastiKote; significant dent but some material still left on the impacted area | bubbled up and appears damaged by the gasoline | no visible damage (true of all 5 products) | clearly came in last of all 5 products, with a tremendous amount of material loss | not clearly attributable by name in the transcript; see Dupli-Color's notes for the heat-test ambiguity. The closing summary names Rust-Oleum alongside PlastiKote as best for warm climates, which is not directly corroborated by a clearly-attributed heat sub-test result | not tested |
How it was tested
- appearance/cosmetic evaluation after 48 to 90 hour cure
- light scratch resistance test at room temperature (~80 F) using a garden tool
- heavy scratch/tear resistance test using 15 lb plus tool weight
- impact resistance test dropping a 1 lb 5 oz rod 25 inches through a guide pipe
- chemical resistance test: washers soaked in gasoline, acetone, salt water, and diesel
- cold weather test: scratch and impact resistance after 24 hours at approximately 20 below zero F using a 5 lb weight
- heat resistance test: scratch/peel resistance on metal heated to approximately 143 F in direct sun after 4 days curing
“My personal favorite is PlastiKote. It seemed to do the best overall.”