Bed liner: To keep or to remove

[Cedar Jones]

Hi, this is my first post. I'm building a little camper in the back of a 1999 Tacoma. In a couple weeks my leer 122 (with windoors!) is arriving. I'm going to build a sleeping platform elevated above the wheel well on one side and extending a little more than halfway across the bed, so I'll have room to store my bike upright on the other side. It will probably be pretty similar to the bajataco setup, just narrower.

So my question is this: should I take out the bed liner or leave it in?

As far as I can tell, here are advantages of taking it out:

• Lighter.
• Slightly more space.
• Maybe the bottom of the sleeping platform will seat better (smaller grooves).

Disadvantages:

• Quieter with the bed liner in, less stuff scraping on other stuff.
• Reduced insulation from the cold (albiet small).
• More wear in the bed.

So yeah, I can't decide. Any ideas would be great! I've attached a picture in case that helps!

 

[TangoBlue]

Welcome to the forum!

Remove the bedliner. I did mine and found wear spots through the paint and beginning stages of surface rust... and that was just within a year. In 2002 I had it professionally shot with Linex. Easily cleaned with water and a little elbow grease. Since then it's held up without any problems and has withstood a lot of abuse. You can easily build anything on top of the Linex. Probably the single most imporatant thing you can do to insure the integrity of your bed for the lifetime of your truck.

Good luck on your plans!

 

[nctacoma]

It also depends on what you use your truck for when you are not overlanding.

Do you use the truck for work? Do you need the slippery surface of a bedliner to get things in and out of your truck?

I started to take mine out after I got my cap, but then remembered what a pain in the butt it was to move material in and out of my truck when I had a truck with just a bed mat in it. I realized the bedliner is so nice and makes it much easier to move sheet goods and lumber stock in and out of the truck. I ended up leaving mine in because of this reason.

 

[Cedar Jones]

I'm just going to be using it to live in, so I'll probably take the liner out. The only things I'll have to be sliding around are the bins under the sleeping platform, and I'll probably put carpet with rubber backing down on the floor. Thanks to both of you for the advice.

 

[Hill Bill E.]

For that use, pull it. Since your not hauling big items or dumping rocks into the bed, it'll be more of a pain to have it.

With that type of liner, everything slides around. Probably not what you want for your intended use.

Sell it, and use the $$ towards building the interior you want.

 

[robert]

Spray in bedliner is the way to go if you don't need stuff sliding around easily.

 

[Mc Taco]

From the picture it looks like the one I had in my 1993 pick up. You'll need to cut of the front lip of the bed liner for the shell to seat well anyway. Remove the drop in bedliner and use a spray-in bedliner to protect the bed if it matters to you.

If you build a platform in the back not having that drop-in will be a lot easier. And you gain access to the two extra cargo hooks in front IIRC.

End of the day, enjoy your truck and explore. I miss my 6 foot bed of my '93. Bed was set up when I left on trips. Could be under covers fading to sleep with in 10 minutes of parking if need be.