painting trailer with bedliner?

bobd1972 · Oct 11, 2008

A fellow at a marina recommended painting my trailer with bedliner material. He claimed some of the new trailers come this way. As anybody seen or tried this? Do I need to prime first?

bob

tmcalavy · Oct 11, 2008

Re: painting trailer with bedliner?

I would be concerned about how it bonds to the trailer metal. Would it ever become brittle and start to chip off? Just asking, as I have considered the same thing.

kenmyfam · Oct 11, 2008

Re: painting trailer with bedliner?

Decent rustoleum type paint works good for me. Never considered anything else really.

reelfishin · Oct 13, 2008

Re: painting trailer with bedliner?

I could see maybe using it on the top surfaces to improve foot traction but other than that a good coat of paint should be fine.

jevery · Oct 13, 2008

Re: painting trailer with bedliner?

Ranger trailers come coated with something similar. They call it Road Armor. Claimed to resist chipping from rocks better than paint. Seems to work. Mine doesn't have a mark on it after two years use.

tashasdaddy · Oct 13, 2008

Re: painting trailer with bedliner?

they do this, because it is pretty, and cheaper than galvanizing a trailer. get a galvanized trailer, or use rustoleum.

HappierWet · Oct 13, 2008

Re: painting trailer with bedliner?

IMO RUSTOLEUM is hard to beat especially with the rusty metal primer. How often does anyone paint their trailer though? Just when it starts looking cruddy or as preventative maintenance?

fdmsiv · Oct 13, 2008

Re: painting trailer with bedliner?

Bedliner material is $$$$. I was so shocked when I found out that it would be 400~600 to have the bed of my tacoma lined. It is a 6ft bed!

Granted these were professionals and what not, but the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. Rustoleum works great

Jokerswild · Oct 13, 2008

Re: painting trailer with bedliner?

i actually had this same question, the trailer for my boat needs some work. i contemplated doing this, if for nothing else just to get through another season or two. trailer is not in great shape, but still very usable. i just dont want to push it.

Mkos1980 · Oct 13, 2008

Re: painting trailer with bedliner?

I used Rustoleum HammerTough. I get compliments all the time on how new and nice the trailer looks.

Gary H NC · Oct 13, 2008

Re: painting trailer with bedliner?

I used Rustoleum HammerTough on my wheels and it worked great.
I also painted mt fenders with the roll on bedliner.I wanted a textured finish because i use the fenders as steps all the time.Its been on there over a year and is holding up great.

TheWoodCrafter · Oct 13, 2008

Re: painting trailer with bedliner?

I am restoring a 15ft tri-hull. I plan on having the trailer powder coated. They told me it would run about $450 with sand blasting after I completely dis-assemble it.

reelfishin · Oct 15, 2008

Re: painting trailer with bedliner?

TheWoodCrafter said:
I am restoring a 15ft tri-hull. I plan on having the trailer powder coated. They told me it would run about $450 with sand blasting after I completely dis-assemble it.

If your going to sandblast it and take it all apart, you may want to look into having it hot dip galvanized. It may be cheaper than the powder coating.
We have a plant near by here that does galvanizing, so its not a big deal here. That price sounds pretty good for powder coating. They wanted $400 here to do a pair of small truck bumpers last year.

rndn · Oct 16, 2008

Re: painting trailer with bedliner?

I would be concerned with the bedliner material actually trapping water inside a small cut or rock chip. I know the stuff is tough, but I would rather use good old reliable rustoleum.

chiefalen · Oct 26, 2008

Re: painting trailer with bedliner?

Just did a trailer for my Arrowglass 1976 trailer.

Fresh water used, never touched saltwater.

Galvanized rustoleum, it has a high zink content.

Looks good.

ferrellb · Oct 28, 2008

Re: painting trailer with bedliner?

I have no idea if it would be good for a trailer, but it is not expensive. They sell an excellent liner material at JW Whitney and at Northern tool for well under $100. I have painted in my truck bed and it performed excellent.

vinnie187 · Oct 28, 2008

Re: painting trailer with bedliner?

I painted my axle and hubs with spray on bed liner , looks great , easy to apply, and holds up really good to gravel roads.

mthieme · Oct 28, 2008

Re: painting trailer with bedliner?

I've never seen this although you would think someone would have done this (commercially) a long time ago.
Most trailers are galvanized are are okay as is.
Any steel ones I've ever had were painted, but eventually crumbled from rust.

wgt500 · Oct 29, 2008

Re: painting trailer with bedliner?

Bed liner is great for durability. I've sprayed it on trailers many times. I like to use a good zinc rich or phosphoric acid containing primer as a base coat before spraying the bed liner. I've experienced the bed liner not having good adhesion to bare metal, especially spray can bed liner. I like to use the bed liner in gallon containers and thin it with acetone to get the texture I'm looking for. I spray it with an undercoating gun holding the gun back about 18 in. from the surface. This way I get a nice even coat. Bed liner can also be topcoated with any automotive paint. I always spray a coat of Bulldog adhesion promoter prior to topcoating with urethane enamel. The final product looks great and has super durability.

Hobbes_24 · Feb 7, 2009

Re: painting trailer with bedliner?

My neighbor works for line-x and i was considering having my tailer line-xed. Their bed liner material is sprayed on at a very high temp around 150 degrees Celsius and adheres great to primer. Also I was told as long as the coating completely encapsulates the frame of the trailer there will be no place for it to get caught and tear or chip at all. and there is (i believe) a lifetime warranty for Line-x and they will fix tears and chips should they ever occur under warranty.
I am considering it because i can get a 600 dollar job done for about 100 bucks. So its so very tempting.

-Chris

painting trailer with bedliner?

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