Bedlining a trailer?

[TheFutur]

I was just wondering if anyone has done this?

I've decided to bedline my fenders due to them constantly rusting because of rock constantly bombarding them and chipping the paint off.. i was also debating bedlining small sections of my trailer that also get beaten up by rocks and are showing some rust.

Any thoughts or experience with this?

 

[4x4runner2002]

i haven't done it yet but i plan on using some raptor liner on mine. you can tint it with any color and control the texture.

 

[TheFutur]

haha it's nice to know I'm not the only one thinking about it/planning to do it.

Thought I was just crazy or something..

Hoping the stuff I bought holds up, seems like I can't take my trailer down a gravel road without having to repaint the fenders... and with the wet season now here my fenders aren't looking to pretty...

Hoping to get it done by the end of this weekend, just waiting on my brother to remove his kayak from the workshop so I have a heated and covered space to work.

 

[Quiero_acampar]

Cost?

I've thought about it too, but the cost of some flat paint with enough for touch ups seems much lower than painting the whole thing with Bed liner.

 

[4x4runner2002]

I've thought about it too, but the cost of some flat paint with enough for touch ups seems much lower than painting the whole thing with Bed liner.

the tintable truck bed kit from raptor liner is usually $130 but you can usually get it cheaper if you look around. i figure its not all that expensive and you won't have to touch it up very often if ever.

http://www.tptools.com/U-Pol-Raptor-Spray-On-Truck-Bed-Liner-Kit,2600.html

 

[TheFutur]

Not to mention im only talking about a few select areas prone to chipping.

I picked up a small tin for $30 and if it lasts a year ill be happy. Its quite laborious sanding off all the rust and repainting my fenders once every two months during the wet season...

I wouldn't do the whole trailer unless i had tons of $$$

I can take some pictures of areas im thinking about doing if that helps illustrate what i mean.

 

[Sigmataun49]

I will be covering my entire trailer in bedliner. Just finished the metal fab, will have it sand blasted after thanksgiving and then bed linered at the same time. Build thread is a few threads down.

 

[mxfan]

I was going to do mine also. Then switched gears. I am going to use Deck restore texture paint. My trailer is wood thou.

 

[grogie]

I was just wondering if anyone has done this?

I've decided to bedline my fenders due to them constantly rusting because of rock constantly bombarding them and chipping the paint off.. i was also debating bedlining small sections of my trailer that also get beaten up by rocks and are showing some rust.

Any thoughts or experience with this?

My trailer has Linex applied. It originally had a cheaper product applied by a friend that built my trailer. We had originally talked about having Linex done, but to save some money on the build he attempted the lesser product. However about a month later, several areas began to peal off. They were not large areas, but probably an issue with the prep work although he told me that he followed the instructions. In his defense, the guy is a fabricator, not a painter and I was the one that turned down the Linex to begin with.

Well I tried to patch it, but it looked like crap as it was uneven and the product was a pain to work with (started harding in it's own bottle). I then contacted a local Linex dealer to have the trailer sand blasted ($150) and then they applied their product with their UV protectant. Total for that was about $1,000. However they broke several of the lid's hinges as they let the lid slam back after removing the lid's gas lifts, and then didn't want to take responsibility for it saying it was a unique job! So I had to have new hinges welded on (which burned the surrounding Linex), and then the Linex dealer had to touch up the new hinges (for another $300 total). I should have had the Linex done upfront as my friend would have taken care of it with his own vendor. You get what you pay for!

Anyway, the box inside and out is sprayed. The product is awesome! The trailer will never rust, and mud and grim spray off easily. No kidding... about nothing sticks to it! I actually put a rubber workout mat inside as otherwise stuff just wants to slide around.

What I'd tell you upfront is to have Linex applied and do the entire trailer. Don't go with the cheaper stuff as if the prep work isn't right you'll be dealing with it later. The Linex is much thicker. I towed the trailer off-road around Utah a year ago and no rock chips period. I see some trailers that are painted and I can imagine the owners just have to keep repainting them. Not with Linex...

One thing I'll also say is to make sure that you have everything welded to the trailer that you want, as once the Linex is applied, you can only bolt things to the trailer. I wish I had had a few more attachment points welded to the trailer before the Linex was applied.

This is the cheap product...

This is Linex...

My build thread is here if interested with more pics... http://tventuring.com/trailerforum/thread-163.html

:ylsmoke:

 

[TheFutur]

Me being a ************** just fitted flaps behind the truckwheels. No stone chips & trailer stays generally cleaner.

Yeah I have mud flaps behind my tires as well, but unless they touch the ground they wont solve my issue. I though about making something like this but I can't see that doing too well off road.

My trailer has Linex applied. It originally had a cheaper product applied by a friend that built my trailer. We had originally talked about having Linex done, but to save some money on the build he attempted the lesser product. However about a month later, several areas began to peal off. They were not large areas, but probably an issue with the prep work although he told me that he followed the instructions. In his defense, the guy is a fabricator, not a painter and I was the one that turned down the Linex to begin with.

Well I tried to patch it, but it looked like crap as it was uneven and the product was a pain to work with (started harding in it's own bottle). I then contacted a local Linex dealer to have the trailer sand blasted ($150) and then they applied their product with their UV protectant. Total for that was about $1,000. However they broke several of the lid's hinges as they let the lid slam back after removing the lid's gas lifts, and then didn't want to take responsibility for it saying it was a unique job! So I had to have new hinges welded on (which burned the surrounding Linex), and then the Linex dealer had to touch up the new hinges (for another $300 total). I should have had the Linex done upfront as my friend would have taken care of it with his own vendor. You get what you pay for!

Anyway, the box inside and out is sprayed. The product is awesome! The trailer will never rust, and mud and grim spray off easily. No kidding... about nothing sticks to it! I actually put a rubber workout mat inside as otherwise stuff just wants to slide around.

What I'd tell you upfront is to have Linex applied and do the entire trailer. Don't go with the cheaper stuff as if the prep work isn't right you'll be dealing with it later. The Linex is much thicker. I towed the trailer off-road around Utah a year ago and no rock chips period. I see some trailers that are painted and I can imagine the owners just have to keep repainting them. Not with Linex...

One thing I'll also say is to make sure that you have everything welded to the trailer that you want, as once the Linex is applied, you can only bolt things to the trailer. I wish I had had a few more attachment points welded to the trailer before the Linex was applied.

This is the cheap product...

This is Linex...

My build thread is here if interested with more pics... http://tventuring.com/trailerforum/thread-163.html

:ylsmoke:

That looks awesome! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Quiero_acampar]

I'm making plans for an old M101. It's a 6x8' trailer, so doing the whole thing would be super pricey. I'm contemplating lining the inside, but even then it's a lot. I got the trailer for free, and I'm living on a teacher's salary, so I'm going to have to convince my wife to spend anything on it, let alone $1000+ just on a Linex or rhino line job.

 

[TheFutur]

Yeah I hear that.

I'm currently a student only working 1-2 days a week so money id definitely tight for me too. I'm just hoping to cover up some problematic rust areas, it's only the fenders and a small section of the frame that's getting pelted by rocks and my mud flaps already hang as low as they can... I'd hate to imagine not having them on!

Hoping to do it this weekend, will post pictures if I manage to get around to it!

 

[Jessica1987]

yeah that Line-x is no joke but you pay for it. My bf did a small trailer covered in line-x years ago and it was like $500. We painted my fenders with the Rustoleum stuff that Oriellys sells and its holding up nice. It's not as thick as the professional Line-x but it's still good stuff for $12 a can. There are a lot of tutorials online on how to do it yourself. That's what we did.

 

[jays0n]

Commercial spray on bedliner is usually pretty heavy, is hard to repair if it gets damaged, and is very expensive. I was going to have the inside of my trailer done with Line-X but the price was insane plus the part they don't tell you until you ask for details is that they have issues getting it to bond correctly to different materials so it would have been necessary to prime it first with a certain type of primer they required (I don't recall what) if you have any wood, fiberglass, plastic or aluminum that you want to coat.

After learning all that I went with a roll on product called Durabak. It comes in a few colors and is about the same price as the others out there, cheaper if UV stabilization isn't necessary. I rolled it onto my marine plywood floor, inside of the fiberglass tub and on some of the steel brackets with no issues at all. It's been 2+ years and it still looks like new.

Scott from Compact Camping Concepts in OR applied some to a piece of plywood 6 years ago and has left it outside in the sun, rain, heat, etc to see how it's held up, you can see his test thread here.

 

[97kurt]

Commercial spray on bedliner is usually pretty heavy, is hard to repair if it gets damaged, and is very expensive. I was going to have the inside of my trailer done with Line-X but the price was insane plus the part they don't tell you until you ask for details is that they have issues getting it to bond correctly to different materials so it would have been necessary to prime it first with a certain type of primer they required (I don't recall what) if you have any wood, fiberglass, plastic or aluminum that you want to coat.

After learning all that I went with a roll on product called Durabak. It comes in a few colors and is about the same price as the others out there, cheaper if UV stabilization isn't necessary. I rolled it onto my marine plywood floor, inside of the fiberglass tub and on some of the steel brackets with no issues at all. It's been 2+ years and it still looks like new.

Scott from Compact Camping Concepts in OR applied some to a piece of plywood 6 years ago and has left it outside in the sun, rain, heat, etc to see how it's held up, you can see his test thread here.

I used durabak on my fenders, the stuff is really tough and pretty rough as far as bedliner goes. Linex is softer. UV wise it held up great for about 2.5 to 3 years on my truck being parked outside 99% of the time. Its faded a tad since then and I will probably have to rattle can some semi flat or semi gloss over it in the next year. Anyways, its a great product and super easy to apply.