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Herculiner Truck Bed Liner
holds the top spot in popularity mainly because it was
the first do-it-yourself bedliner on the market.
Herculiner admittedly has poor UV stability leaving many
users disappointed when the product fades and looks like
trash in 3 to 9 months. Contains a heavy concentration
of crumb rubber (ground up tires) to create its texture.
Rubber particles tend to settle easily in the liquid
coating and constant mixing is needed to avoid an uneven
and splotchy final texture. Herculiner's surface can be
very difficult to clean and may require high water pressure
and intense scrubbing to dislodge dirt and mud that gets
stuck between the rubber particles. The coatings surface
can also be very rough when rubbed against your skin
and can literally "take the skin off your bare knees" if
not careful when moving around the bed. The company now
offers a UV topcoat protectant to keep it "looking new"
as their website says. Herculiner is manufactured in
South Africa by Duram Paint for Old World Industries who
owns Peak brand antifreeze. Herculiner is an aromatic
(non UV stable) single component moisture cure urethane.
Kit contains 1 gallon of coating, roller, brush, scuff
pad and can opener - #HCL1B8, $90.00 - $100.00 Note:
Claims by the company regarding dry film thickness
are subject to interpretation. When Herculiner film thickness
is measured, false readings are obtained because rubber particles stand up high in a thin film coating.
Dry film thickness is really only 4 to 6 mils.
Durabak is
manufactured by the same company that makes Herculiner
and comes in two versions, one with no UV stability and
the second version does claim to be UV stable for a 35%
premium. Both contain crumb rubber and are
single component moisture cure urethanes. Durabak has
the same issues as Herculiner with roughness, uniformity
of texture and a hard to clean surface. 1 gallon
includes roller - $90.00 for non-UV product / $120.00
for UV protection. These links show that Durabak is the
exact same product as Herculiner.
http://www.protectakote.co.za/prodinfo.asp
http://www.protectakote.co.za/contact.asp
http://www.duram.co.za/Products/prod-detail.asp?prod_ID=31
Rustoleum Road Warrior
Truck Bed Coating is a two component epoxy product
also claiming to “fade over time due to the suns
ultra-violet rays”. Road Warrior contains silica sand to
create a non slip surface. It looks and feels similar to
60 grit sandpaper with the sand grains spread very far
apart. Directions say to use a spray protectant to
restore the original look which sort of defeats the
purpose. It's actually not a bad product but it's not
very flexible and cracks easily as all epoxies will do.
A kit contains ¾ gallon of pigmented epoxy polymer and 1
quart of epoxy curing agent, roller, sanding block,
drill mix blade and a paint brush - #7705498, $110.00 -
$160.00. Pot life: 3 - 4 hours, 56% solids by volume.
Duplicolor Truck Bed
Coating (old solvent base product) is a reasonably
popular single component product made by Sherwin
Williams. It has one of the lowest costs of all DIY
products. Vinyl copolymer resins and MEK/Acetone/Toluene
solvents make this product dry quite fast. Solvents
listed make this product extremely flammable with a very
strong odor. It will stand up to UV. In the can, it
appears kind of thick but it contains only 25% solids
content with over 75% solvent (very high VOCs). This
translates into extremely low dry film thickness unless
4 or 5 coats are applied. There are many mixed reviews
out there on this Duplicolor product and it has been on
the market for quite a long time. Poor adhesion seems to
be one of its shortcomings and this is mainly due to
inadequate surface preparation and the fact that vinyl
copolymer resins do not have the best adhesion to
previously painted surfaces. Sold in gallons #TRG250 @
$62.00, quarts and spray cans. A very light texture is
created using a plastic loop roller. No pot life, 25%
solids by volume.
U-POL Raptor is a 2
component urethane bed liner with UV resistance. Raptor
is made in the UK and has become a popular product over the past few years
mainly for its nice packaging. The kit contains 4
bottles that screw up directly under the spray gun.
Raptor is designed to spray and we had a hard time
rolling it on anything larger than a small test panel.
Fast evaporating solvents (MEK/Acetone) caused the
roller to tack up when spreading over a large area. Our
tests did reveal one significant issue with flexibility.
U-POL Raptor flexibility is very poor. After curing only
5 days, the coating cracks very easily with just slight
bending of the sample panel we rolled. Available in 1
gallon kits in black #UP0820 and tintable #UP0821 @
$124.00. Pot life: 60 mins, 50% volume solids. To make
colors, the user needs to purchase additional automotive
paint or automotive colorant and mix that into the
bottles at time of use. As with all paints tinted
outside the factory, some colors will require additional
coats to obtain complete coverage.
Duplicolor Bed Armor
is a new product made by Sherwin Williams. Bed Armor is
a one component water base urethane that contains fine
Kevlar particles which really does nothing to enhance
durability but acts as a texturizing agent and an
alternate to using crumb rubber. Bed Armor claims to be UV
protected and we believe this is correct. We were not
impressed at all with this product. Even with constant
stirring, it was very difficult to keep the Kevlar
material from clumping together resulting in a terrible
and non-uniform texture. We were quite surprised with
the poor results during testing and thought we had a bad
can so we ordered another online instead of buying
it locally. Same poor results! Shame on you Sherwin! This
product is a disaster. Just look at the video on the Bed
Armor web site and you can see that the texture obtained
from rolling is terrible. They won't even show a
close-up of the results in their own promotional video.
Contains Bis(2-ethylhexyl) Phthalate, CAS # 117-81-7
which EPA has listed as a "probable human carcinogen"
See here for the data
http://www.epa.gov/IRIS/subst/0014.htm
Bed Armor is available in quarts and 1 gallon kits with
roller, tray, brush and scuff pad. Gal kits #BAK2010 @
$80.00 - $100.00. No pot life, 43% volume solids
Hippo-Liner is made
by Dominion Sure Seal of Canada and is a 2 part urethane
bedliner coating. Hippo has no UV protection as it is
based on an aromatic isocyanate rather than an aliphatic
isocyanate which would offer the best UV stability.
Hippo-Liner is mainly designed for spray application and is
difficult to roll uniformly because it contains solvents
that evaporate very quickly and the roller tacks up too
fast in the wet coating. Not a bad product if you can
deal with the lack of UV protection. Available in small
kits containing 1.7 liters (less than 1/2 gallon) with
minimum of 2 kits or ideally 3 kits required to do most
projects correctly. Black only #BHBL @ $75.00. Pot life:
30 mins, 52% volume solids
Color Your Hippo
sprayable bedliner is a tintable version of Hippo-Liner
from Dominion. Color Your Hippo is made from aliphatic
isocyanates so it does have UV protection. This is not a
bad product. To make the color, the user needs to
purchase additional automotive paint or automotive
colorant and mix that into the Color Your Hippo at time
of use. Because Color Your Hippo was designed for spray
and contains fast solvents it is also difficult to roll
with good results. Available in 1.7 liter kits #BCYH @
$87.00. Multiple kits required for small bed or tub. Pot
life: 60 - 75 mins, 50% volume solids
Gator Guard II is
also made by Dominion Sure Seal of Canada and is a 2
part epoxy bedliner coating. The "B" component is
thicker than peanut butter. Since epoxies offer no UV
protection, Gator Guard will chalk and fade
significantly when exposed to direct sunlight. Contains
a very large non-slip material and its surface is
extremely rough and hard to clean. Some of the texture
particles are surprisingly sharp almost like shards of
glass. We rolled Gator Guard and it's surface looks and
feels like a 12 Grit sandpaper. The data sheet for this
product says that the white cures to a yellowish white.
This is because it is made from epoxy resins which will
naturally yellow and chalk on ageing and when exposed to
UV. Available in 1.7 liter #BGG2/#BGG2W @ $65.00 and 6.8
liter kits @ $225.00 in both white or black. At least 2
of the small kits are needed to do a small bed or tub.
Pot life: 45 - 60 minutes, 50% volume solids
PlastiKote is a water
base acrylic-latex bed liner with crumb tire rubber for
texture. It is made by the Valspar Corporation. Has a
reasonably low ammonia like odor, dries fairly fast but
is nothing special. It's probably pretty good to line
your little red Radio Flyer wagon. Has a fairly rough
surface like Herculiner and Durabak. PlastiKote bed
liner is available in gallons #256, $60 - $80
POR-15 POW-R-LINER is
a 2 part urethane bedliner. Since POR-15 does not make
any of its own products we studied their MSDS carefully
and decided with a high level of confidence that this
product is U-POL Raptor with a POR-15 label. We have not
done actual testing of this product. Refer to
the U-POL Raptor review above for details on this
product. POR-15 POW-R-LINER is available in 1 gallon kits @ $179.50, Yikes!
SEM Products Rock-it
is another 2 component urethane and
was developed to compete with the U-POL Raptor. We have
not tested this product yet so we do not have much to
say. We did hear of a recent product recall regarding
the catalyst portion. Available as 1 gallon kits in
black @ $100.00 and tintable @ $105.00. Pot life: 60
mins, 48% volume solids
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