A pickup bed mat works well even over an expensive spray on liner. That's because the cheap liners do some things as well, no better, than more expensive bed liners. Here's what that may mean for your pickup over time.

Certainly a main reason for any sort of bed lining is preventing damage to the bed of the pickup. One big way that truck beds get harmed is when they get hit and dents result. Impacts with enough force will cause dents and dings.

Scratches certainly cause problems but nothing like dents do. Careful use of touch-up paint makes scratches disappear in a jiffy. Dents are forever without some serious, and expensive work.

That's right, dents often produce permanent damage. That's why preventing dents has more value than stopping a few light scratches.

Plastic truck bed liners certainly do well at stopping dents. Rubber bed mats protect equally as well. In both cases the liner material soaks up the impact shock before it gets to the metal of the bed. The liner or the mat not only absorbs the shock, it spreads the force out over a larger area making it all but impossible for the pickup box to get dented.

Look at a spray on bed liner. You can't beat it for looks but what happens when you start doing rough hauling with such a coating in place? Then is there a way to use a pickup and protect the expensive liner itself?

The coating can and does suffer damage as a result of hard use. This damage can be repaired with another coat of spray. But it is still subject to damage. There's also the hassle of returning the truck to the applicator and waiting to get it back. Then again, the repair still is just another coat of expensive paint, subject to damage again.

That's where a cheap bed mat right over a spray on lining can save the day and prevent damage to the truck box. And then, maybe as important, the spray liner can be protected by a mat riding over the more expensive liner as well.

That's a major plus for a mat. It's cheap protection for a much more costly bed liner as well as almost assuring that the box of your truck will stay free of dents to the floor and free of most scratches as well.

A rubber bed mat right over a pickup bed, even over a spray on liner, virtually eliminates the chance for dents and does it at almost no cost to the pickup owner.