I recently became a Dodge Dakota owner just a few weeks ago. I owned a 1988 toyota pickup, that I'd rebuilt (since it had been put into a tree by at a low speed by it's prior owner. Anyways, some crack head stole it a few weeks back, and I came accross a 1999 Dodge Dakota for such a good price I couldn't imagine saying no. It's got the 3.9l motor in it, is 4x2, and has just the extended cab. It needed some work when I got it, but with just a bit of small maintenance work it's in amazingly good condition!
One thing the truck did not come with though, was a bed liner. The truck bed was scratched to high hell, and as I move a lot of audio gear in my truck along with work as an apprentice electrician, I need my truck bed to be pretty burly. I did a lot of research about local spray in places, along with some of the DIY options. I was surprised to discover a lot of positive reviews for the HERC-U-LINER diy bed liner. Everyone who had used the product had great things to say about it, and the only people with negative reviews had no concrete statements of their experience with it, nor a friends. Considering the major financial hit I'd just taken with having to unexpectadly purchase a new truck, the cost of the Herc-U-Liner DIY kit sold me. Coming in to a grand total of $150 after additional tool costs and what not, the price was right up my alley.
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So, here is my review of the Herc-u-liner bed liner that I installed myself. I'll talk about my instillation, what sucked about it (It's undeniably a b*tch), and what I would advise for others to do. I will also post periodic updates about just how my bed liner is holding out.
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Instilation:
The herc-u-liner DIY kit includes a few basic tools, a gallon of the liner, and a relatively helpful manual. Reading the manual is probably a good idea, as it is REALLY informative. I read so many reviews online I didn't think I'd need to read the manual, but turns out there was some useful information in there.
One of the main things I read online in regards to properly installing the liner, was preparation of the truck bed. Not wanting to do a half assed job, I pressure washed the truck bed, soap washed it, pressure washed it again, sanded it VERY thuroughly, swept it out, and then cleaned the surfaces using acetone. I don't have pictures on my digital camera, however my friend Johnathan was there for the install and took pictures himself. At this point I would like to stress to anyone reading this review, that the liner takes a LONG time to install. I would honestly plan on spending an entire day installing the liner, and definitely you need to get started before noon at the very latest. Also, when budgeting your time, plan excessively for the amount of time nescessary. This stuff isn't easy to apply. It's not extremely difficult, but it's not like paint at all.
Next we prepped the truck bed for painting by placing 2" painters tape around all of the lines. I made the mistake of changing plans midway through the instillation, and there fore you'll notice in the pictues below that the rails by the tail gate were messed up a bit. All of my other lines are as clean as can be. Once again, I can't stress the importance of this step enough! There are no second chances with this stuff, so be very fanatical about doing each step properly. Thankfully the one place I messed up is rarely visible, so I'm not sweating it too much.
Next came applying the liner itself. Be sure to stir the paint extremely well before applying, per the directions. You'll notice it's not easy, so once again spend a long time with this. Also, be sure to pruchase elbow length rubber gloves. When you get this stuff on your skin it will not come off. I installed this bed liner almost four days ago, and I still have large sploches of it on my hands from not using elbow length gloves! The first layer went on smoothly, but definitely does not provide adequate coverage. Infact, it looked kind of miserable and had me questioning the wisdom of my purchase. Thankfully I (and Herc-u-liner) proved myself wrong!
The second layer REALLY touched up the truck, and looked great when finished. My only advise regarding installing the second layer, is that you should probably have a backup roller around. The cheesy one that came with my kit broke, making the second install a bit hellacious. When the second layer dried, the truck bed liner was looking extremely burly, and was definitely pretty though.
I let the truck bed cure for 6 hours, and then returned with another quart of liner, which was in addition to the single gallon included with the kit. There were a few spots where the paint was showing through, and I wanted to ensure that I did a perfect job. I quickly touched up the remaining area's, and was able to do a damn near perfect job. I still however noticed a few very minute area's throughout the truck where the paint was still visible, that I will probably touch up again with yet another quart of liner.
I'd like to stress to everyone who mentions that the spray in Line-x goes on a 1/4" thick, along with anyone who may think when reading the part about being able to see the paint, that Herc-u-liner goes on thin. It definitely doesn't! This stuff is seriously BURLY, and very granular. It is a very rough finish in the end, but definitely will hold anything you need it to hold, and it surely won't let anything slip. However, as the roll in stuff is very granular, when a spot does occur it's not from being lightly covered, it's just sort of a fluke area. Because of the problems I had getting 100% absolutely perfect coverage out of the DIY kit, I would strongly advise purchasing two additional quarts when installing the herc-u-liner. I'd espescially advise it to anyone with a larger truck bed, since I was barely able to get adequate coverage for my short bed with just a singular additional quart.
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Here's a picture of the completed truck bed:
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I fully intend to get an additional quart and touch up all of the area's where the paint is very lightly visible, as I want this truck bed liner to last. When all is said and done I'll have spent around $180, including all of the preperation oddities. So far everyone who's seen the truck bed liner has been very impressed, espescially others who have had their truck bed proffesionally sprayed. Considering that my truck bed liner cost half as much as a proffesional spray in, and looks so damn burly, I'd have to recommend it. I espescially recommend it to anyone who doesn't feel right letting some one other than themselves do the work.
Before I completely go ahead and give this product my approval however, I want to test it's durability. As I mentioned before, I'm an apprentice electrician, so I'll be hauling a decent amount of tools, scrap copper, and other oddities in my truck bed. I also own my own mobile DJ company, and sound reinforcement company. About two to three times a month in the summer I have to load up my truck and trailer with a large 10k generator, amplifiers, speakers, cabling and more, and drag it all out into the woods. Most of my gear is kept in metal boxes, or has heavy duty metal protective corner pieces. Since it's also all very heavy, it's often lugged into the truck bed, slid accross the truck bed, and then slid back out when removed. I'm fairly confident that I'll be able to provide a pretty adequate review of the durability of the Herc-u-liner product in the months to come.
HERC-U-LINER 4 MONTH HEAVY USAGE UPDATE:
Allright everyone, it's been fourth months, and I've put a lot of heavy usage on my truck bed! It's durability has now been somewhat tested, and is now available for you all to check out. I put this truck through a lot this summer. I worked as an apprentice electrician, and my boss also bought a small business inside of a lumber mill. I dragged massive amounts of logs everywhere, moved truck beds stuffed to the brim full of copper, and also moved tons of concert pro audio equipment for my own business. I didn't own a tonneau cover all summer, and do not have a canopy on my truck. Because of all of the above, the bedliner received a lot of dings, dents, and sun exposure. I can confidently say that all of the stories floating around about the bedliner are answered.
First off, the whole thing about the liner getting a dingy black color in the sun... is correct. However, the rumor that it becomes tacky, and will get black on your equipment and hands and everything, not true. Even durring 100 degree humid weather the cover remained fairly durable. The color of the truck bed doesn't fad untolerabley either. From anything but the closest distance it looks to be high quality.
Durability is the next factor. Check out the pictures blow. Be sure to specifically notice on the top image, along the bottom of my gate you can see red. Those are areas where hard impact removed the liner and exposed the paint underneath. The second mark is about a quarter in diameter.
While overall the truck bedliner surely held up, a few problematic areas have begun to surface. I'm not entirely surprised by this, as I did some pretty hardcore work with my truck this summer. However, I'm a bit let down. I've put a gallon and a half of cover on this truck now, and it still needs more now. In the end I will probably place another gallon on the truck.
4 month Product Verdict:
So far my total costs for installing this truck bed liner has totalled $160, and required approximately 10 hours of work. The truck bed liner has been quite nice, proves to be fairly durable, and effecient. Hoewver, it does damage, it does go on light in some area's, and personally I feel it requires more work to be complete. Also, when comparing my herc-u-liner to a line-x liner, it definitely will require another gallon of coating to be even remotely comparable. I will be placing such a coating on my truck at some point, however this will add another $80 of cost to the truck, and another 6 hours of work. At that point, my total costs will be $240, and 16 hours of work.
This truck bed liner comes in only $160 behind line-x in the end, and requires 16 hours of work to effectively compare to the line-x bed liner.
Personally, had I the finances all at once to pool into the line-x liner I would have gone with it instead of doing the liner myself. A gallon is certaintly not enough to do the truck bed, and two gallons may be barely sufficient. I definitely prepped and treated the truck bed properly to install it, and this is defintiely a good example of what you can expect if you meticulously do all of the work yourself. In the end I will have a very functional and durable truck bedliner, however the money saved, versus the time invested simply doesn't even add up. There are also area's in which line-x spray in liers clearly win. Underneath the bed rails is nearly impossible to effectively coat with the brush or roller, and therefore is an area left exposed and unpotected.
Herc-U-lined Dodge Dakota Truck Bed (My review w/pics + First post)
