Using truck bed coating on Floorboards of tractor

[k0ua]

Has anyone ever used any of the Herculiner or Plasticote truck bed coating material/coating on the steel floorboards of their tractor?
my old b7500 had a rubber mat over the metal, but my new L3400 just has painted steel (perforated) for floorboards. It is very stable, but is showing some wear already, (20 hours). and I have seen other posts of these types of tractor floorboards which show a lot of bare steel. Of course I could repaint it easily, but I was looking for a more long term/longer wearing coating. Also these type of coating can be redone easily again also. The Grand L version's of these tractors have the mat, but mine is just an L. I bought a gallon of the Plasticote brand, (not much more than the quart) at Tractor supply. and coated the handle of a large pair of Channel Locks tonite that were bare metal, to see how it will do before I go rubbing it on my new 'bota. takes a lot of stirring to bring up the rubber particles in the bottom of the can!. If anyone has done this let me know. I was going to mask off the rest of the operator station and just get the surfaces your feet touch.
James
K0UA

 

[CharlieS]

should work. I dont know anything about either of those brands, so depending on the thickness when it drys, you may want (if the material allows) to give it two or 3 coats for added thickness.
Thinking in terms of Rhino-Liner, from what i've seen of it, it would be tough to wear through.
I would suggest testing it out on a piece of scrap, mainly to learn how it applies and determine how many coats for the thickness you'd like to have.

 

[k0ua]

thanks, yeah it looked pretty thin on the pliers handles, I figure 2 coats min. or maybe 3, but I have lots of it.. Yes Herculiner and Plasticote bed liner are the do-it-your-self version of Rhino.. I doubt they are as good, but the same idea.
James

 

[Big Bri]

There is a thread on here where someone did just that on his kubota. man it came out looking good, he even did his step.
I too am disappointed in how fast the floor paint has rubbed off.

 

[General Lee]

There is a thread on here where someone did just that on his kubota. man it came out looking good, he even did his step.
I too am disappointed in how fast the floor paint has rubbed off.

LOL, I'm disappointed how fast the rubber mat wears loose. 37 hours on my Bota' and the floor mat doesn't stay attached to the floor. Those rubber nipples don't hold it. So I will be doing something like Herculiner in the near future.

KUoa - keep posted on your results.

 

[Big Wave D]

There might be other threads, but here is one about doing what you're proposing:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/150718-other-uses-roll-bed-liner.html

 

[czechsonofagun]

They make Durabak too - it is less Ford Henry - you can have other colors than black.

 

[k0ua]

Thanks everyone, and thanks for the links. I feel better about trying this, just gotta be careful. as I followed that one link and read about the guy that got some of this material "where he didnt want it" and was quite concerned about his predicament.
James
K0UA

 

[medicshawn]

There a bunch of options available. I used herculiner in a truck bed a few years ago. It is tough. What I didn't like was the chalkiness and it was pretty bumpy. I thonk now they have some type of UV top coast or stabilizer. I recently did some research for repainting a trailer. There's some stuff called Raptor that you spray on. I think the raptor you can get tinted. It looked pretty neat. I ended up using rustoleum's truck bed coating. You can buy it at Lowes/Home Depot and Walmart. If you want it in a quart you can get it anywhwere I bought a gallon at WalMart (in the automotive body repair section). I wanted to be able to roll it on. It was cheap also 45 for a gallon 20 for a quart. You can also get it in spray cans for touch up (or application). I haven't used my trailer much but it seems pretty tough. It also rolls on almost flat which would probably be good for slip resistance. I top coated mine with black spray paint to better match my trailer.

 

[flatlander 2500hd]

I had the floor board of my MX5100 sprayed with Line-X. They charged $100 for it to be done, with me bringing the floor board to them.