Ford Modular Drop In Bed Liner (DIBL) Long Term Review

[icegradner]

Back in the fall of 2021 through spring of 2022 a lot of posts here at the MTC were about the factory bed liner options for the Maverick, everyone wanted the spray in liner! When I placed the order for my Maverick in the fall of 2021 Ford suddenly put a hold on the spray in bed liner as part of the XLT Lux package, swapping it for the modular plastic drop in bed liner. At first this bothered me a lot, since the common consensus from owners of older trucks was that drop in bed liners were bad, would scratch the plant and in the end would cause the bed of the truck to rust out. When my truck came in July 2022 I was skeptical, but I could tell it was much better made than the other drop in liners that I've seen in other trucks, including other Ford models. Only time and use would tell the real story.

Let's get the most common myth, that drop in bed liners cause truck beds to rust out, out of the way first. Today I took out the liner for the first time since I bought the truck, which was a rather involved process with my Maverick since I had to remove the Elevate Rack system, Ford factory sliding aluminum bed rail system, and Bakflip MX4 hard folding cover to even get started on the process. Taking the liner itself out, and put back in was rather easy. I didn't remove the front panel since it is attached with 3M automotive tape from the factory. I have put a black hard plastic protective tape on the rail below the window that overlaps the gap between the liner and the front of the bed, so there shouldn't be anything between those parts.

I own a small landscape business, so the bed of my Maverick gets well used with tools, plants, green waste removal, along with bulk soil and mulch loads. Needless to say the bed of the truck gets dirty, and due to the previously mentioned stories about rust in the bed from plastic liners I had a growing concern about this being possible. Given how long it took to get the job done, 4 hours in total, I think I can safely wait another 2-3 years before cleaning under the liner again. Please keep in mind I use a bed cover whenever I don't need the bed open. If you do not use a bed cover it could be worse, maybe?

The image below is what the truck looked like when I removed the cover today, no dusting or using a blower to clean it up. A little bit of dirt and some flakes of mulch, that's it. No scratches, no rust, and no dents from throwing in heavy items. The most dirt was where the D-rings attach at the front of the bed, since that area is open for stuff to go through. Using a tarp when loading materials in the bed will mitigate how much gets in that space, and keeps stuff out of the tailgate gap. If you don't have the D-rings stuff getting in that space at the front of the bed shouldn't be an issue other than where the panels meet.

The liner itself isn't perfect like day one, but that is it's job and it's been rather easy to clean when it was required. There is the odd scratch, and some rust spots from wet tools on the liner. Other than the fact that the factory plastic drop in bed liner is smooth and stuff rolls around it's been great. Wooden dividers help with that a lot. Not much else to say about it than that, hope people find this review helpful.

I give the Ford factory modular drop in bed liner a 9 out of 10 review.

Below is what modular factory liner typically looks like between cleanings.

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[coppermav]

I don't care what people say...drop-in bedliners ONLY for me. I like the added layer of hard plastic when I throw hard/sharp materials in the bed. Rotted out bed you say? At least a hard liner can be removed and washed underneath, or at least junk can flow underneath to the designed drains built into the bed. Spray-on bedliners can crack and trap moisture in specific spots, creating even more corrosion issues. I sprayed Fluid-Film underneath my hard liner from new, so I'm not real worried.

I have my opinion, and everyone else has theirs. If you think I'm an idiot, there's a good chance I am

 

[Prickly Pear]

Hey @icegradner, thanks for sharing. I got the DIBL with my 24 XLT Lux and was pretty sure that getting one was the right call. I have had two solid liners in the past and they were great but the modular did give me some concern with the gaps. Good tip on tarping too - I have been doing it but your post will help remind me not to get lazy!

 

[BradnChristine]

I put the Ford DIBL in my 23 Lariat. Happy with it, until I bought a Bedrug liner for my wife's Ranger. Love that thing, as my trucks don't get terribly dirty in my use. If I had to do it over, I'd get a Bedrug for the Maverick. I usually use an old comforter in the bed when hauling cement blocks so I can pull the blocks towards me. No scratches.

 

[Henrydg]

Back in the fall of 2021 through spring of 2022 a lot of posts here at the MTC were about the factory bed liner options for the Maverick, everyone wanted the spray in liner! When I placed the order for my Maverick in the fall of 2021 Ford suddenly put a hold on the spray in bed liner as part of the XLT Lux package, swapping it for the modular plastic drop in bed liner. At first this bothered me a lot, since the common consensus from owners of older trucks was that drop in bed liners were bad, would scratch the plant and in the end would cause the bed of the truck to rust out. When my truck came in July 2022 I was skeptical, but I could tell it was much better made than the other drop in liners that I've seen in other trucks, including other Ford models. Only time and use would tell the real story.

Let's get the most common myth, that drop in bed liners cause truck beds to rust out, out of the way first. Today I took out the liner for the first time since I bought the truck, which was a rather involved process with my Maverick since I had to remove the Elevate Rack system, Ford factory sliding aluminum bed rail system, and Bakflip MX4 hard folding cover to even get started on the process. Taking the liner itself out, and put back in was rather easy. I didn't remove the front panel since it is attached with 3M automotive tape from the factory. I have put a black hard plastic protective tape on the rail below the window that overlaps the gap between the liner and the front of the bed, so there shouldn't be anything between those parts.

I own a small landscape business, so the bed of my Maverick gets well used with tools, plants, green waste removal, along with bulk soil and mulch loads. Needless to say the bed of the truck gets dirty, and due to the previously mentioned stories about rust in the bed from plastic liners I had a growing concern about this being possible. Given how long it took to get the job done, 4 hours in total, I think I can safely wait another 2-3 years before cleaning under the liner again. Please keep in mind I use a bed cover whenever I don't need the bed open. If you do not use a bed cover it could be worse, maybe?

The image below is what the truck looked like when I removed the cover today, no dusting or using a blower to clean it up. A little bit of dirt and some flakes of mulch, that's it. No scratches, no rust, and no dents from throwing in heavy items. The most dirt was where the D-rings attach at the front of the bed, since that area is open for stuff to go through. Using a tarp when loading materials in the bed will mitigate how much gets in that space, and keeps stuff out of the tailgate gap. If you don't have the D-rings stuff getting in that space at the front of the bed shouldn't be an issue other than where the panels meet.

The liner itself isn't perfect like day one, but that is it's job and it's been rather easy to clean when it was required. There is the odd scratch, and some rust spots from wet tools on the liner. Other than the fact that the factory plastic drop in bed liner is smooth and stuff rolls around it's been great. Wooden dividers help with that a lot. Not much else to say about it than that, hope people find this review helpful.

I give the Ford factory modular drop in bed liner a 9 out of 10 review.

Below is what modular factory liner typically looks like between cleanings.

Thanks for your long term review. Appreciate your effort to take everything apart to look things over. I found your review very helpful (and reassuring).

 

[Meeka]

I put the Ford DIBL in my 23 Lariat. Happy with it, until I bought a Bedrug liner for my wife's Ranger. Love that thing, as my trucks don't get terribly dirty in my use. If I had to do it over, I'd get a Bedrug for the Maverick. I usually use an old comforter in the bed when hauling cement blocks so I can pull the blocks towards me. No scratches.

Why can’t you put the rug on top of the DIBL?

 

[Mosin]

I have a rubber mat about 3/8" to 1/2" thick in my 2022 Maverick XLT's bed, which prevents anything from putting dents in it. I also have the Ford tailgate protector on the tailgate.

 

[icegradner]

I put the Ford DIBL in my 23 Lariat. Happy with it, until I bought a Bedrug liner for my wife's Ranger. Love that thing, as my trucks don't get terribly dirty in my use. If I had to do it over, I'd get a Bedrug for the Maverick. I usually use an old comforter in the bed when hauling cement blocks so I can pull the blocks towards me. No scratches.

If I wasn't doing landscaping I think I would go for a bed rug as well, then again I'd likely sell the Maverick and get a nice hybrid car again. I'm sure the bed rug is much nicer for camping and other not so dirty things. Since the DIBL came with the Lux package I wasn't interested in paying for something else to go in the bed, likely won't unless for some reason the DIBL breaks. I doubt that it will since with the bed cover it doesn't get the UV exposure an open bed would get.

 

[Darklyter]

On my order for my '22 XL, I wanted the DIB kit but the whole kit was not available..just the bed cover part... So the Velocity Blue was shining elsewhere in the bed.. 1 week in and I'm installing the Ford Tonneau cover and drop my ratchet on the driver wheel hump. D'oh!!! Just a thin scratch but it felt like a dagger in the heart, lol. Waited until the whole DIB kit was available and ordered it. So happy ever since but now I have an extra bottom and tailgate panel. .
Same areas for dirt collection by them D rings.. I just hose them off and leave the cover open for the FL sun to dry things out.

 

[Space]

Curious, my 23 Lariat bedliner install did not include bed rails and now that screw holes are covered I am not sure how to cleanly install bed rails.
Any tips?
I currently installed bungee cords on both sides via Ford provided eye hooklets and then taped clipping hooks in middle of cords. Not sure what they are called. Very useful but not pretty. Actually used them today.

 

[icegradner]

Curious, my 23 Lariat bedliner install did not include bed rails and now that screw holes are covered I am not sure how to cleanly install bed rails.
Any tips?
I currently installed bungee cords on both sides via Ford provided eye hooklets and then taped clipping hooks in middle of cords. Not sure what they are called. Very useful but not pretty. Actually used them today.

You'll want to remove the side panels of the DIBL to do the install. If you are getting the Ford OEM bed rails there are markings on the back of the liner that show the points to drill out. You may also have to tap the screw holes for the install, I know many people did. There are spacers for the kit to make it compatible with the DIBL.

 

[Mark dSF]

Back in the fall of 2021 through spring of 2022 a lot of posts here at the MTC were about the factory bed liner options for the Maverick, everyone wanted the spray in liner! When I placed the order for my Maverick in the fall of 2021 Ford suddenly put a hold on the spray in bed liner as part of the XLT Lux package, swapping it for the modular plastic drop in bed liner. At first this bothered me a lot, since the common consensus from owners of older trucks was that drop in bed liners were bad, would scratch the plant and in the end would cause the bed of the truck to rust out. When my truck came in July 2022 I was skeptical, but I could tell it was much better made than the other drop in liners that I've seen in other trucks, including other Ford models. Only time and use would tell the real story.

Let's get the most common myth, that drop in bed liners cause truck beds to rust out, out of the way first. Today I took out the liner for the first time since I bought the truck, which was a rather involved process with my Maverick since I had to remove the Elevate Rack system, Ford factory sliding aluminum bed rail system, and Bakflip MX4 hard folding cover to even get started on the process. Taking the liner itself out, and put back in was rather easy. I didn't remove the front panel since it is attached with 3M automotive tape from the factory. I have put a black hard plastic protective tape on the rail below the window that overlaps the gap between the liner and the front of the bed, so there shouldn't be anything between those parts.

I own a small landscape business, so the bed of my Maverick gets well used with tools, plants, green waste removal, along with bulk soil and mulch loads. Needless to say the bed of the truck gets dirty, and due to the previously mentioned stories about rust in the bed from plastic liners I had a growing concern about this being possible. Given how long it took to get the job done, 4 hours in total, I think I can safely wait another 2-3 years before cleaning under the liner again. Please keep in mind I use a bed cover whenever I don't need the bed open. If you do not use a bed cover it could be worse, maybe?

The image below is what the truck looked like when I removed the cover today, no dusting or using a blower to clean it up. A little bit of dirt and some flakes of mulch, that's it. No scratches, no rust, and no dents from throwing in heavy items. The most dirt was where the D-rings attach at the front of the bed, since that area is open for stuff to go through. Using a tarp when loading materials in the bed will mitigate how much gets in that space, and keeps stuff out of the tailgate gap. If you don't have the D-rings stuff getting in that space at the front of the bed shouldn't be an issue other than where the panels meet.

The liner itself isn't perfect like day one, but that is it's job and it's been rather easy to clean when it was required. There is the odd scratch, and some rust spots from wet tools on the liner. Other than the fact that the factory plastic drop in bed liner is smooth and stuff rolls around it's been great. Wooden dividers help with that a lot. Not much else to say about it than that, hope people find this review helpful.

I give the Ford factory modular drop in bed liner a 9 out of 10 review.

Below is what modular factory liner typically looks like between cleanings.

You work yours hard so a liner is definitely the best option. For the rest of us Weekend warriors, I find a lay down bed mat is pretty dang good, and can be removed in seconds to clean underneath. Got mine for 80 bucks before the China tariffs kick in, along with a really well made aluminum bed top for 479. Yes it was all Amazon.

 

[Charles T.]

I’ve had DIBL and spray…prefer the spray but I don’t do any abusive loading.

 

[Bob The Builder]

Add me to the list of DIBL fanboys. Plus i got mine for $150.00 out the door with Pass Points and dealer discount.

Local LineX shop quoted me $650.00 for a four and a half foot bed. Outrageous.

 

[grandpa_disney]

You'll want to remove the side panels of the DIBL to do the install. If you are getting the Ford OEM bed rails there are markings on the back of the liner that show the points to drill out. You may also have to tap the screw holes for the install, I know many people did. There are spacers for the kit to make it compatible with the DIBL.

So do the spacers come with the kit or a separate purchase?
I just took delivery on my 2024 XLT Iconic Silver. It came with the DIBL and black appearance package. I was thinking about adding bed rails, but as @Space said, the mounting holes are covered. Kinda of a bummer that the drill points are not marked on the front.

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