Rhino Liner, thoughts and input?

With the recent poll and proposal of Heart Land using Rhino Liner I'm wondering where most owners land on this. Just like the "rubber roof" they both have their positives and negatives along with personal preferences as well.
Another aspect are the brands of a same or similar product: Rhino liner, Duraliner and Monstaliner and a few others as well, just not well known or promoted as much.

While each has its own price point, availability and durability, my own preference is with Monstaliner since it has no rubber filler and comes in different colors. While white may not stay white for long, I'd prefer it over dark grey or black just for reflective purposes and sound dampening.

Thoughts on each product? What would you prefer as an aftermarket? Has anyone used any of the above for any length of time and how is it holding up? Pictures?

That being asked, it would be optimal to remove the carpet in the front storage using an above product instead. It would save a lot of floors in the event of a water leak, especially the water heater and pump.

Are we speaking of spray in/on material? One question that I saw on this topic was the weight that it would add. It is not light stuff. Strong but not light. MythBusters did an episode on it and it stood up under about 2 lbs of C4. I have had it in the bed of my truck for 9 years now and it is doing fine.

+1 on the mythbusters episode. I have had it in the bed of my truck for a while. I would put it on the roof of my trailer. I am also thinking of doing the running boards on my truck.

I looked into the running boards and it was expensive but sure would help on the back roads.

Yup that is why I need it. The dually fenders got eaten up on the gravel roads back home.

I used a brand called permatech for the bed of my truck and I really like it. The black color has held up and not faded. This stuff has held up just as advertised. There is an older dodge running around the Pittsburgh area that has the lower 1/3 of the entire body done in a black spray on material. I have not yet had the fortune of talking to the owner about it.

I will chime in on the durability of Rino Liner as I have it in the bed of my truck. it is not indestructible as I have several gouges in my liner from shovels and large heavy loads that have been "pushed" and ripped the liner. are we discussing using this as an under coat, roofing material or as a floor for the cyclone garage? I also though about using the rino liner for the wheel wells but in the end did not.

my truck went from the showroom floor to the Rino dealer so it has been on there now for 8 years... it has faded some but not much.

Kevin

szewczyk_john said:

I used a brand called permatech for the bed of my truck and I really like it. The black color has held up and not faded. This stuff has held up just as advertised. There is an older dodge running around the Pittsburgh area that has the lower 1/3 of the entire body done in a black spray on material. I have not yet had the fortune of talking to the owner about it.

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There is a guy here at Langley that has a Toyota Tacoma entirely covered in one of the spray on liners, I have seen it several times over the past few years. If I see it again I am going to stop and ask him about it.

Are we talking about using Rhino Liner on a roof of an RV? Part of me initially likes this but the roof of an RV would expand and contract a lot more than the steel bed of a truck so I would be concerned about the elasticity of the Rhino product.

Mark

As Kevin stated below its not indestructible. I've had it in the last 3 trucks and you can rip it. Heavy metal items with sharp corners will get it. Bought a new TV in march and the dealer put the rhino liner in before delivery. I ripped it the other day with my fish cooker. Steel wheels on the floor jack are hard on them to.

As I read the comments about cutting and ripping of Rhino, think about how it would have effected a plastic slide in liner or the bare metal of the bed. the good thing is the dealer can recoat the cuts and tears usually for only a few $. I have had it for 10 years on my1996 PU the only thing that harmed it was plaster of paris. yes it faded but they warn you about that. yes the truck was used for many jobs including countless cords of firewood.

Back to Marks point, are we talking trucks or RV roofs?

"if" I were to have it on the roof of my RV the last thing I would be concerned with is throwing sharp or heavy things on it.

Comparing Rhino to the other brands, and LineX seems to be the biggest competitor, there are differences. LineX is much harder then the Rhino.
My F-350 has the factory applied liner, and although one less thing to have to do after purchase, I would not order it on my next truck The stuff is hard on the knees, Rhino is much more "bone" friendly.

Rhino quality has a lot to do with the installer. When my last truck was done they spent 3.5 hours prepping, 15 minutes spraying and 15 minutes to finish up. It wore well. Battery acid does affect it, no matter what the claims.
Proper floor coating is 1/4" thick. I have seen dealers apply much less then that though. One was local as was pretty much run out of business by Rhino.

Rhino on wood requires additional steps. My motorcycle trailer has it. The wood is sanded, treated and then sits for 24 hours before coating.

I think Rhino on the roof would be good, and I think I would like it. But I don't want to be the tester unless it is done as a test (little cost). I'll give it some time to see how it works.

Maybe the next coach will have it.

I think the bedliner material would be a great thing, but with a couple of questions. Good things are the ability to put it on with different colors (not a big thing), the fact that is/may be a lifetime covering, no black streaks and no fading of color. Downside is weight and cost.

I vote for it!

You'll still get black streaks Jay. We have had black streaks problems for years with boats, whether the top was canvas, aluminum (painted or unpainted), gel coat or whatever. If the roof is dirty, the black streaks will follow.

The best thing for black streaks is to get the run off away from the sides.

When I bought my truck (Volvo 420) in 2007, the whole front area and side farings were badly chipped, so I installed color matching Line-X. It was much cheaper than extensive body patching and repainting, but still cost about $1,000. It has held up beautifully. I've gotten many compliments on it and how the truck looks new yet.

I had a filon roof on my previous fiver. It is now 10 years old and the roof is still sound with no cracks or breaks. I don't know if I would want to use bedliner on my roof.

mrcomer said:

Are we talking about using Rhino Liner on a roof of an RV? Part of me initially likes this but the roof of an RV would expand and contract a lot more than the steel bed of a truck so I would be concerned about the elasticity of the Rhino product.

Mark

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Ditto that .. I did read somewhere that Rhino was adding to their product line an RV roof coating, but I can't say it is the same formulation. I would think it would need greater elasticity.

The stuff that is being mentioned for the roofs of our units is not the same material that the use for truck bedliners. It is a different set of materials. The permatech that was used in my shorted box on the dodge took 7 gallons of material as it has shredded rubber imbedded into it. Mine is 1/4 thick. So mine is softer, does not get hot and still provides enough 'grit" that my boxers can walk around on it.
If i had to replace my roof, I would consider something other than the rubber roof that I have know. I would have considered it as an option had it been available but I think the cost would have been the determining factor back then. I will not change my roof until it is in need of a new one, which hopefully will not be any time soon.

I wonder what steel wheels would do if you threw them on the rubber roof that is used now? The Rhino coating may have an occasional limb fall on it and I would think it would be able to handle it better than the rubber now used. It might be a little tougher if you wanted to cut through it to install a skylight or vent. I have it in my truck and I had them spray the rear dually wheel wells-seems to be holding up well but its fairly new.

Interesting input, it was a bit of a trick question.
Duraliner (and now two new companies using a similar formula) does not have the 'grit' in it and the trucks you see that are 'painted' all over are usually Monstaliner. Rhino and some of the more well known liners have never been bed friendly - it started out as the "undercoating" which is why it holds up in the wheel well but not the bed. Tougher to clean too because they use crushed tires as a filler.
The applications have advanced to Marine use as well just after gaining ground in the travel trailer industry - they started with storage compartments but people are innovative and the right ones keep up with their customers (just like Heart Land does) on what they would like to see, performance and durability.

Since Monstaliner was designed with off road Jeeps in mind, it has far more flex capability and off roaders, being a bit nuts, started painting their entire Jeeps moving to snowmobiles, open tow trailers...pretty much anything you can think of with any surface underneath. I'm going to contact Monstaliner on Monday since the service company that didn't do service on our unit had a driver bring it back to the house and he tore part of the edge of the roof on a neighbors tree, not sure if he was confused or stubborn or both but we were yelling at him to NOT go down the lane where the frickin trees overhang...its just been one thing after another.

I'll be in a dry area the rest of the year and would love to work with Monstaliner on using it on the roof - I'm going to have to see if I need to do some prep work first, not sure if I leave the membrane intact and go over it or remove it. Will be interesting to find out. Another issue is cost, it's about a quarter of what the more well known companies charge because they don't have to pay for the crushed rubber and fillers that will brittle and fade and while I could hire someone to shoot it for me, it's always been a more DYI product which of course is your own labor. The nice part about that is you can put down thicker layers if you want to get a good fill and sound dampening, kinda looking forward to talking to them on Monday and getting some ordered if they really are confident about it being used as the roof material.

Side note: I remember when these 'rubber roofs' came on the market. At the time my RV was fiberglass and I preferred it, we used to get a lot of customers in with a tear like we have now as well as the mold spots. It took awhile before it was a standard roof, can't say I like them now anymore than when they first came out.

Excel Fifth Wheels by Peterson Industries is offering a Rhino brand RV Roof on it's Fifth wheels. It will be interesting to see how it pans out. It appears it is different then the bed liner.

http://www.excelrvs.com/news-events/newsletter/february-2013/#Rhino