A lot of folks have asked about truck bed liner products, so I thought I'd compile a list of the "usual suspects" and toss them up for review. Maybe this should be posted in a thread and a link provided here, I don't know.
Herculiner is the industry leader mostly because it was the first DIY bedliner on the market. Herculiner is an aromatic (non UV stable) single part, moisture cure, urethane. Herculiner admittedly has poor UV stability and will chalk up in less then a year. It uses ground up tires as it's texture, which are difficult to keep in suspension during application. It's also hard to clean as a result of these various sized particulates. They're now offering a UV topcoat, which looks to help. A gallon kit is about $100.
Rustoleum Road Warrior Truck Bed Coating is an epoxy, that also by the company's admission isn't especially UV stable. They use sand as the texture particulate, so good luck trying to repair this stuff and both Herculiner and Road Warrior are very rough on the butt if used as a textured surface, easily tearing bare flesh. It's not very flexable, though in it's intended use, doesn't need to be. I like this stuff better than Hurculiner, but it tends to be a bit brittle. It's not a 100% solids product (about 60%) and a gallon costs about $130.
Durabak is a rebadged Herculiner. Available in two versions; no UV stability and the second version does claim to be UV stable for an added price. Again both of these are ground up tires for the texture, single part urethanes and sells at the same price point (the UV stable stuff is $30 bucks more).
Duplicolor Truck Bed Coating is a reasonably popular single part goo from Sherwin Williams. It's pretty cheap. Vinyl copolymer resins and MEK/Acetone/Toluene solvents make this product dry quite fast. It has a strong solvent element to it, but it 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 means extremely low dry film thickness unless 4 or 5 coats are applied. There are many mixed reviews out there on this product and it has been around for quite a long time. It has next to no pot life, but only costs about $65 a gallon.
Duplicolor Bed Armor is a new product from Sherwin Williams. Bed Armor is a one part water base urethane that has shredded Kevlar particles as it's texture. Keeping these in suspension will drive you nuts and the Kevlar doesn't improve it's strength, just adds texture. It is UV stable, but I've not been impressed with testing and uniform application. A gallon is about $90.
U-POL Raptor is a LPU bed liner with good UV resistance.This is a British made goo with some clever marketing. It's a fast drying product, intended to be sprayed and is a bit brittle. It can also take a long time to fully cure, depending on environmental conditions. It is available as a tintable base. It's about 50% solids with less than an hour working time, once the components are mixed. Tints are an additional cost, but gallons are about $125.
PlastiKote is a water base acrylic-latex bed liner with tire rubber for texture. It is made by the Valspar. It's low odor, but nothing to brag about, though is fairly cheap at $70 a gallon. It also is very rough on the butt.
POR-15 POW-R-LINER is a 2 part urethane bedliner. This is a rebadged U-POL Raptor product and costs $180 bucks a gallon.
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 so quickly that the roller tacks up too fast in the wet coating. About $150 a gallon.
Gator Guard II is also made by Dominion Sure Seal of Canada and is an epoxy. The hardener component is thicker than peanut butter. Since epoxies offer no UV protection it'll 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. It has a 45 miniute pot life and is costly at $200 a gallon.
There's another I'm testing now, SEM Products Rock-it and it's another another LPU. It's about $100 a gallon, tintable and seemingly UV stable, but that's all I got on it now, other then a hardener recall, back in 2011.
