Truck Bed Insulation, in this article we will see the information related to the bed of the truck like the size of the truck bed, how it’s classified, how to measure it, and the insulation installation process of the truck bed. Just like a garage door, a caravan car or camper van needs insulation, similarly, most of the truck is also important to insulate. If you want to insulate the truck bed insulation you will go with the below information. To make things easier for you here we are coming with this post.
Truck Bed Insulation – Various Options of Truck Bed Insulation & Different Types of Truck Bed
To begin with, let us take a look back at what insulation is and how it will help us for a comfortable life. Insulation is a special material that is mostly used to prevent heat as well as sound which comes from one area to another. Insulation works superior in different ways. Thermal insulation is useful for controlling heat. The effectiveness and power of that insulation are measured by its r value. The higher r-value means a higher performance of insulation.
We can define truck insulation, as the body of vehicles is mostly equipped with layers of some insulation material or product. Which can stop to heat transfer inside or outside of the truck, this process is called truck insulation.
Now the question should arise in your mind about the truck bed, so a truck bed is referred to as an open area of a vehicle, of a truck. The bed of the truck is made up of steel material or aluminum material. The steel material truck bed was famous and mostly used before 1999- 2000, nowadays aluminum truck beds have gained popularity and used mostly after 2000.
It will surprise to you that truck bed insulation should make your journey easier. For that you need, proper insulation material with a higher r-value and another one is space from where the air is trapped. To insulate the truck bed, you can use thick cargo. Here is another option which is a rubber bed liner. Both of these make your truck bed more insulated.
How To Insulate A Truck Bed / Various available options for truck bed insulation
You should keep yourself warm in the truck by filling the gaps using cotton candy-like fiberglass insulation. To make insulation thin and warm you should use blanket insulation in your truck to insulate the bed. You have another option which is thin, warm, soft, and, durable as well as easy to handle, that is adding a carpet to your truck bed by identifying the cold spot. You should install the carpet.
However, you have some more options to insulate the truck bed, that is –
Fiberglass or aluminum camper cap
If you want your truck or camper van fully insulted then, you need to insulate first its shelter. Without insulating the shelter, you will not be able to take full advantage of your full truck insulation. So, before doing truck bed insulation you should install a fiberglass or aluminum camper cap.
Foam Board Insulation
If you have a small-size truck bed then one sheet of Foam Board is enough to insulate the entire truck bed. You should use the Foam Board insulation on the side of the bed. This material has a higher r-value as well as privacy. If your truck’s bed is 8” sizes then you need a 42*6 board piece. Then lay 1/2 inch plywood on the top and screw up it, for that your bed’s measurement must be accurate.
Reflectix 24” x 25’ double reflective insulation roll
To insulate the ceiling of the truck along with the bed you should use Reflectix insulation on the ceiling, it works great as insulation material because it’s very lightweight and it won’t fall down the time of driving. It provides great insulation quality and is easy to install. Reflectix insulation looks like aluminum foil.
After cutting the Foamboard and Reflective insulation with an accurate measurement, fit that pieces to your truck bed. It is a little bit difficult to stick them to aluminum or fiberglass camper shell but using super-glue like epoxy makes things easy to hold both insulation and truck cap.
Different Types of Truck Beds
The bed is an important part of the truck so when you go to buy a truck you should check whether the bed type of truck, bed size, and bed style of the truck are right according to your need or not. Because the truck bed is one important part of a truck many truck owners like to select the truck instead of buying a car.
The truck bed, this feature special parts for both the truck driver and truck owner to carry heavy loads such as furniture, and household appliance allowing the carrying of essential camping equipment which needed to trip. The size as well as the cargo capacity of that truck bed is determined by the model of that truck.
Truck bed size:
If you go to the market to buy a truck, then you buy a truck after thinking about many things, like truck color, power of the engine, and model of the truck one more thing to consider is the size of the truck bed. The classification of sizes of trucks is classified into long beds and short beds. Having the right size truck bed can be very helpful for you.
It is important to know about the truck bed size and types to get the benefits of all these things and makes your life comfortable as well as to fulfill your need for a truck, you just need to select the type of truck bed and truck bed size according to your need and use. To make fast and easy the selection of a truck bed the following information should be useful to you.
Following are the different types of truck bed sizes:
There are different types of truck bed sizes available in the market but, you can choose according to your need. But particularly in both that the two main truck bed sizes mostly used by the truck owners that is Standard Short Bed and Standard Long Bed. Let’s see information about all types of truck bed sizes in detail with their advantage and disadvantage.
Short Bed Truck
Shorts beds are available in sizes 5’5” to 5’8”. Sometimes this truck bed type is known as a Short Box. We see commonly the pickup truck with that type of truck bed. If your truck has a compact model then your truck bed is nearly five feet long and if the bed is in a full-sized truck, then your truck bed will be long nearly 6.5 feet long. But instead of long beds, short beds should provide more space for other items.
To insulate this type of truck bed you can use cellulose insulation near about 13 bags otherwise, you can use 33 bags of Fiberglass insulation material to insulate the truck bed.
Advantages of short bed truck:
Buying a short-bed truck, you should live in or around the city with your truck.
This truck bed size should easily pilot. You can go by truck on a narrow road.
Disadvantages of short bed truck:
short bed truck would not allow the truck to carry the heavily loaded materials, because of its limited space of bed.
If you want to transfer or carry large or heavy equipment, or material daily, you can’t do that with this type of bed truck.
Long Bed Truck
Long Bed Truck is longer in size. This type of truck bed is also known as a “long box”. The long-size beds are 2 feet extra long compared to the short bed. Mostly compact trucks have long beds and their lengths are nearly 7 or 8 feet long. Long Bed Truck should offer more space compared to others. Long beds are ideal for the contractor and can carry long items like long pipes, plywood, glass, dry partition wall, and so on.
To insulate the Long Truck bed nearly 18 bags of 30lb cellulose insulation and if you like Fiberglass insulation, then you need 33lb Fiberglass insulation to insulate the Long Bed Truck.
Advantages of Long Bed Truck:
This type of bed is known as great for use. You can carry heavy things or job equipment like construction materials or farming materials.
Mostly compact truck long bed with a dimension of 4 by 8foot plywood with the tailgate shut and make easy to do the job.
Disadvantages of Long Bed Truck:
It gets difficult for truck owners living in cities or near cities with long truck beds.
The extra length of the truck makes it difficult to drive and navigate along narrow roads and traffic.
Standard Bed or Fleetside Bed
This bed type is also known as a” style side Bed”. This type of truck bed is commonly used. It has more cargo volume inside the truck bed because it is extended well over the wheel. This should provide more space and room as compared to a short bed. This bed truck has outside walls that are smooth as well as line up with the edge of a wheel, maintaining the aerodynamic environment. and offering more space to bed.
To insulate the Standard Bed Truck you need 15 bags of cellulose insulation or 33lb bags of Fiberglass Insulation to insulate the truck bed superbly.
Advantages of standard Bed:
The main and most reliable advantage of this bed type is, it should allow more width within the overall bed.
Step side Bed or Flare side Bed
This type of bed is referred to as a ‘sport side bed’ and this bed is similar to the standard truck bed style, however, but it has a few differences we can see compared to a standard bed. Step-side bed trucks have stepped from the back of the truck near the side of the truck bed. There is another difference in, the wheel wells on the outside of the truck, which should make it less aerodynamic than the standard bed.
The main disadvantage should realize of this bed truck type is that it does not offer more space over wheel wells to use like a standard truck bed.
How To Measure Truck Bed
Truck bed measuring is not that difficult, but if it is measured from the wrong place to place then it should create a complication when you want to use it. That’s why here we describe the simple way to measure the truck bed. For measuring the truck bed you need to measuring tape. Take tape and measure the bed from the insider area of the bulkhead and the insider area of a tailgate, after that, you will get the length of the truck bed.
Now for getting width, you have to need to measure the widest part of the truck from point to point. Keep in mind, the bed of a truck can add some inches of space so you should not measure the truck bed size from the outside. By using this way you should measure the truck bed size.
How to insulate a truck bed?
You should use cotton candy for filling gaps to keep warm in the truck. You should also use blanket insulation in your truck to insulate the truck bed for making the insulation thin and warm. Otherwise, you may have another option that is thin, warm, soft, and, durable as well as easy to handle, that is adding a carpet to your truck bed.
However, you have some more options to insulate the truck bed, like installing Fiberglass or aluminum camper cap, Foam Board Insulation, or Reflectix 24” x 25’ double reflective insulation roll.
Final Thought on Truck Bed Insulation
In this post, we shared information about truck bed insulation. If you want to buy a truck then you have to need to consider one important thing the size of the truck bed and the best insulation material for that. So, many people always have one question, which truck bed type should buy, for them, we just say, the selection of truck bed size depends upon your needs and use. The insulation material and quantity depend upon the size of the truck bed.
To insulate the truck bed you can choose fiberglass insulation material, Foam board, and cellulose insulation. Both are effective and able to provide highly insulated environments in trucks. Another option for insulating the truck bed in all sizes is Refletix insulation which is available in double reflective insulation in roll form. But to stick it you should use super glue like epoxy glue available on Amazon instead of that glue that comes with it.
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