Bed Liners and Hitches

[GreatWhite]

I'm getting a new(er) F250 SD today. It has a DuraLiner drop in bed liner already installed. Anyone have any experience installing a hitch over the top of one of these? It is a pretty dense high impact plastic. I'm planning on installing my B&W Companion hitch in this truck but will have to get a retro kit for this truck.

Trying to get things ready for the western rally in mid-June

[bigskyjimmy]

Yep had a drop in bedliner on my last Ford and it was no problem the rail kit came with round steel spacers that go in the grooves of the liner under the rails so you can tighten down the rails without smashing down the bedliner flat

[GreatWhite]

Thanks.. B&W doesn't use the same system.. it's essentially a gooseneck in the bed. When the ball is removed, a square steel post is inserted, locked in place.. and the companion drops down on that. Then cinched up to the post. A bit concerned about rust under the liner. I've always had Line-X

Edit: Spoke with both B&W and local installers. They don't recommend installing over a berliner.. metal to metal is the name of the game. Guess I'll pull the DuraLiner and have a Line-X spray job done More $ More $ More $$$

[snfexpress]

Line-x has always worked for us.

[GreatWhite]

Yah, me too Michael.. I've had it in all my pu's Looks like I'll have to see if I can sell the bed liner on Craigslist.

It's been a few years since I did my last Linex-.. Now they have about 4-5 variations. I'm going for the Premier which has a UV poly coating. Hoping that holds up and keeps the Line-X from greying out.

[jsmitfl]

You are right about rust. On one of my older trucks it had a liner and rubbed the paint completely off in areas. They are very slippery and its hard to keep things in place back there. Like having bearings under it. Most definitely want metal to metal on that hitch.

[bethandkevin]

Not sure about the B&W. My uncle had the drop in liner with conventional rails. He neatly trimmed the liner to fit around the rails. It actually worked pretty well, making the bed liner and rails nearly level with one another.

[racerjoe]

I was not comfortable with bolting the base thru the liner on our old truck. I cut out an area so the plates bolt direct to the bed. And to those that are thinking that you will get a lot of dirt under liner, when I removed the liner and base plates before selling, the box was mostly clean,just some dust and little junk, no paint or rust issues. My thought of cutting liner is I would rather be safe by bolting direct then worrying that liner might crush. Box still looked good after 9 years of use.Figured liner is jut a "throw away" item.

On second thought, I would pull the liner and have a spray-in installed.Only reason why, it looks neater

[DonandBonnie]

We have Line-X and the B&W companion hitch. We had the hitch installed first, then the Line-X. The hitch came with rubber pads glued to the bottom to minimize metal to metal interaction in the bed. Over the past year the glue has failed and they have fallen off. Now its hitch sitting directly on the Line-X. When we remove the hitch there is absolutely no sign of wear on the liner where the hitch rides.

Many years ago we had a truck with a drop in bed liner. After a couple years, the bed liner wore the bed paint away. It held moisture between the liner and the bed. When we removed the liner there were several places where the bed had rusted away. Personally, we won't use a drop in bed liner.

[DHenry]

I just had the Full Metal Jacket bed liner sprayed in my new Ford F250, was about $150 less than LineX and has a life time warranty. It is supposed to be equivalent to the premium LineX product at the cost of the regular LineX liner. We will see :-)