I am buying a new truck and thinking of getting it with a spray in bedliner. Does anyone have experience loading a kayak into a truck with a spray in liner? I wonder if the anti-slip properties of the coating may make it much harder to slide when loading and unloading. My current truck is a Tacoma with a composit bed, and I can slide the kayak in & out with one hand. Any thoughts?
Most spray in liners will have more friction than the Tacoma bed. That particular bed I would call slick or slippery.
I try to set mine in place with as little sliding as possible, but that’s not always easy.
Kirk
I would buy the truck with the Rhino-Liner installed and then I would pick up a piece of indoor/outdoor carpet long enough to cover the tailgate as well as the bed in length. A strip 4’ wide would be perfect and when not in use roll it up and tie a cord around it and stick it in the garage.
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Do you avoid sliding it because of the “drag” or not wanting to abrade the kayak bottom on the bed of the truck?
Mainly because of the abrasion. It probably doesn’t add up to much though when you consider all the other obstructions out there.
A couple of beach landings and that worry will be gone.
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I’m not worried about scuffing the kayak up a bit, I’m more concerned about the bedliner making it two or three times harder to push or pull the kayak into or out of the truck bed. In my old truck it’s like sliding an ice cube on a pane of glass.
Get the spray-in bedliner if you intend to carry anything that might gouge the bed. No, a plastic kayak won’t hurt the bedliner.
I have a factory spray-in bedliner. The term is a misnomer—it is really a bed coating, thinner and less resistant to damage from heavy impacts than what a drop-in bedliner would protect from. OTOH, it won’t trap grit and wear away the paint on the bed’s metal. Tacoma’s bed isn’t metal anyway, but other truck beds still are metal.
I digress from the topic…the CHEAP and EASY and REMOVABLE solution is to put a plain polyethylene tarp on the bed floor. A plastic kayak will slide over a clean tarp without harming either. I did this for many years when carrying my WW kayak in the bed. Remove the tarp when not using it, because an open bed (no topper) will allow lots of dust and debris to settle on the tarp otherwise. If you have a topper, you can leave the tarp inside like I did and just shake it out occasionally.
Ok, I wouldn’t think the difference would be 2x to 3x more difficult. The surface area is pretty small with all the ridges. If it is more than you want to deal with, then the above suggestions of carpet or tarp should get you through.
I’m probably overthinking this - I tend to do that a lot.LOL I was worried about how hard it would be to slide a kayak over a “non-skid” surface. I appreciate the options given. Thanks
Plastic and composite hulls are slick by design. I don’t think you will notice much difference with a spray-on bed liner. Bed liners are tough by design and sliding a kayak on them will not affect the bed liner either.
My concern is more about the sand adhering to the bottom of the kayak wearing the bed liner. Just try to balance or lift the kayak “as much as possible”, rather than sliding it. Get a spay-on liners with a lifetime warranty that includes touch up as needed. Not much difference between paint, drop-in, or spray-on. I had a painted bed that lasted 24 years.