F150 Bed Rug

[SushiGirl]

I have ordered a bed rug and headliner for F150 bed and cap. They are here and ready to be installed. NOW I find out it is premolded to fit the bed and can't accept foam board insulation and 1/2" plywood subfloor, what I planned on doing. 

I suggested Reflectix for insulating the floor and the cap dealer said maybe luan over it. But I'm concerned luan will just crack with any weight on it. Does anyone know what to do in this situation in which I barely have any depth allowed for insulating under the bed rug?

(The gray indoor/outdoor carpeting thing that molds to the bed and cap)

 

[Almost There]

Reflectix is NOT an insulation product, it is a radiant heat barrier and as such won't do you much good at all in a floor application. It also requires a dead air space to act as a radiant heat barrier.

Luann is way too thin to be using on a floor unless the floor surface is nice and smooth to start with.

Personally, I'd be concerned about putting in the bed rug in the first place. Any type of carpeting is really not going to be long lasting. We climb in and out of our vehicles multiple times a day, tracking in the outdoors in massive quantities.

Yes, back in the 70s and 80s we laid shag carpeting down but man, it was hard to keep clean.

Today, most of us go for anything from wood laminate to vinyl sheet flooring on top of a wood underlay - I prefer vinyl laminate myself. If you really want rugs, go for small area rugs that you can take out and shake out and throw in the washing machine.

If you're going to be building bed frames and cabinets and want to attach them to the floor so they don't move around on you, consider plywood at least 3/4" thick so that the screws can get a good grip into the flooring.

Insulation is the floor is IMO, highly over rated unless you're planning on staying in really cold northern climates through the worst of the winter.

 

[TMG51]

X2 on everything Almost There said.

I know you've ordered the carpet so you may be committed to it. Any way you can add insulation/flooring on top if that's what you want?

Either way, don't be discouraged! All sorts of people make this lifestyle work all sorts of ways and the only way to do it wrong is to not follow through with it.

 

[Every Road Leads Home]

I'll say from personal experience, Luan is actually pretty tough stuff. My Dad covered his van floors in it his entire 30 year floor covering career. It made it easy to slide heavy rolls of carpet in and out. But aside from that it had tools tossed on it daily, 5 gallon pails of adhesive, power stretcher, etc etc. He'd put it in when he bought a new van, and didn't replace it til his next new purchase.

That aside, if you want to screw stuff down like Almost There mentioned, you should use 3/4" And I will also agree floor insulation is the least necessary of all the insulations. I'm currently in a 27' travel trailer and the weather outside my door at this very moment is 4 degrees and dropping and about -10 with the windchill. My sides and roof are insulated, my floor isn't and it's a very comfortable 70 degrees inside at the moment.

And now to answer your question! If you really want to use something underneath it, i'd use strips of thin polyiso cut to fit between the metal ribs/indents in the truck floor and then just put the bed rug mat on top. The mat itself will provide a small amount of insulation along with the polyiso you add and I think you'll be happy with it. If you want even more, do the strips of polyiso, followed by a thin layer of carpet padding...jute padding like they use underneath carpeting in automobiles and then the bed carpet.

 

[DannyB1954]

If you fill in the low spots of the bed with something like foam, You can go with a very thin plywood, Say 1/4" If not 1/2 " should work just fine.