Bed Liner with Gooseneck

[Harold_J]

My K3500 truck came with a nice drop-in below the rails bedliner. Will this present any problems when installing a gooseneck hitch. I will probably use a Reese hitch as I have a friend who can order them via his auto parts store. Most all the components would be underneath the bed.

Will there be a concern about water getting underneath the liner and trapped between the liner and bed floor, or is there a way to prevent this? There is also a thin foam-like pad underneath the liner, I guess supposed to protect the bed floor. What about the mounts for the safety chain attachments?

 

[jimainiac]

I had a "disappearing" gooseneck hitch installed in a pickup when we thought we were going to get a gooseneck trailer. They took out the liner and installed the hitch, then cut a space out of the liner for the ball to come up. I took a piece of pressure treated 3/4" plywood and cut it to fit the cutout. It stayed that way for about 10 years, because we decided to stick with bumper-pull trailers.
The drop-in bedliners aren't meant to be water tight, anyway.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Yea, really only one good way to do it and that is get rid of the drop in line and have a sprayed in liner after its installed. The big problem is not the water but its the dirt, gravel, sand, ect.

Chris

 

[wallace]

We install the B&W turn over hitches and that is about the neatest looking (job wise)goose neck hitch, we will take and run a bead of silicone caulking around the 4" hole to keep the crap out from under the bed liner.

 

[jimainiac]

Wallace Equip. has a good idea with the bead of silicone around the cut out opening, but I think you need to regularly remove the bedliner to clean the bed. Dirt and water can get in from the sides under the bedrails, and from the rear. I try to remember to do this at least once a year.

 

[BOBBYROGERS]

i did the silicone trick on my truck not because of the water but the dirt like you said and it works great been that way for years

 

[radman1]

Yea, really only one good way to do it and that is get rid of the drop in line and have a sprayed in liner after its installed. The big problem is not the water but its the dirt, gravel, sand, ect.

Chris

This really is the ideal option - spray in bedliner. I previously used a bedliner with cut out at the gooseneck before. I was always paranoid about the dirt and water build up under the bed. My latest truck has a spray in Line-X. I placed a bed mat over the floor and roll in back when I need to use the gooseneck. If you go the spray in bedliner, have the hitch put in first and then the spray on liner. It will look very nice.

Even with a bedliner, I used a bed mat on the floor. The bedliners are so slick and stuff slides everywhere without the bed mat. I use the bed mat with the spray in liner just to protect the floor from dings/dents.