Rhino Line - X Spray - Lining Coatings reviews & complaints

This is a complaint about spray-Lining companies in Texas. Specifically RHino Lining Dealers and SPeedliner. My partner Jeff Powell has his truck spray-lined by rhino in denton texas. I had my spray-lining done by speedliner in odessa texas. Jeff went to these guys and was told that there would be a solid 1/8" of highly resistant coatings spray-lined into Jeff's truck bed. I was at speedliner and was told basically the same thing. So, we went ahead and got the jobs done close together (in the same week). Jeff Powell was happy with his spray-lining and I was content with mine. So, off to work we went. We both had some warranty paperwork that seemed awesome so there was not really a second thought about that. Well, Jeff Powell was pissed when he came home (he has contracts with some of the oil companies and hauls parts for repairs) to see a huge abrasion that had gone down to bare metal in his truck. He told me about it and I inspected my truck which had little use. Mine seemed fine and I told him that. But, obviously we had different applications for our trucks so it wasn't really worth comparing. I said Jeff, the spray-lining is guaranteed so just go back and get it fixed, no harm no foul.
But, you can probably guess where this complaint is going... Jeff went back to the applicator and brought up the damages along with his warranty. It only took a few minutes before he was promptly explained that the spray-lining jeff had installed was guaranteed against obvious defects caused from installation and that the damage that had occurred was from general wear and tear. So, the repair would cost $300... and the warranty was void. So, the screaming match started and Jeff walked out with his defective spray-lining by rhino and contacted me. We came up with the idea that we could measure the thickness of the liner in the back of the bed where the spray-lining failed. Jeff got a mil gauge and we eyeballed the measurement, thinking it must be wrong. It came back at 40 mils which is .04 inches thick. This is no where near 1/8" of an inch. So, again, with fervor Jeff Powell went back to the dealership and brought his information. This time the installer said to Jeff, our spray-lining is 1/8" thick in heavy usage areas like up near the tail gate... Well, that was the only area that was that thick... The sidewalls were only 25 mils. I was floored because when I compared my speedliner it was .125 inches all the way across the bed. THis is a huge difference compared to the spray-lining job jeff got. Mine was 150 dollars less as well. So, now with a void warranty and fine print to cover the rhino spray-lining dealer jeff powell had pretty much no ammunition. Like a man spent after getting beat, he simply shrugged his shoulders and said, whatever. So, now I have taken the time to write this for him...

What to do?
When you get spray-lining in your truck, measure the mil height and come to an agreement with the applicator where you need the thickest material.
Understand that you are not going to get helped under your warranty and accept it. These companies are crooks in a way. Though I am not sure who's to blame. the applicator or the corporation. It seems to me that this is their dishonest model. THese applicators are probably not to blame. But nonetheless Jeff got Spray-Lining from Rhino and has no recourse accept to learn from his mistakes.

Rhino Lining Line-X Spray-Lining Review
Owning a body shop puts me in the bull’s eye of bedliner vendors trying to sell their dealership products. I have reasonable square footage and thought pretty seriously about becoming a truck spray-lining contractor or dealer. I am being solicited regularly by coatings companies to get into the business. I have some serious issues with the market in general. I have questions and my own experience about the quality and legitimacy of the sales people and companies they represent.
Rhino Lining Scam
I have been told that Rhino Lining and Line-X are the best spray on bedliner companies out there. I have been contacted by Scorpion and Line-X directly to become a dealer. I guess I agreed to some crappy terms on a website that got my information out there. All of a sudden I got contacted by numerous companies trying to sell me on these bedliner opportunities.
Rhino Lining said that they can get me up and running in a few weeks once I signed all the agreements. The problem is that the start-up cost was greater than $50, 000, including some materials. The agreement does not guarantee me exposure through the dealer network and local search results. When I looked at the dealer locator for a whole state I see that the results are limited. If I do a city search I get much more accurate results. This makes me think they are deceiving me by scamming me on the idea that there are not many dealers per state. I also don’t see anything in my agreements restricting access to my zone by other dealers.
Line-X Complaints
I actually contacted Line-X after speaking with Rhino Linings about their startup costs and materials. These guys are like Nazi’s. They are so restricting in their business agreements that I don’t think you can complain about Line-X as an unsatisfied dealer publicly if you have major problems. Ever wonder why you can’t find a negative review on Line-X from a single dealer that’s feels scammed? I think it’s a tactic of Line-X going after the company personally if they do say anything negative.
Coating Materials Scam – Spray-Lining
After feeling abused by these companies, I started looking around for other manufacturers and distributors of bedliner materials. I figured that since this was obviously a profitable market to these large companies that there was probably an opportunity for me to add some revenue to my business. I was not in the mood to get abused or scammed by these big boys.
On a side note; it is such a shame that unscrupulous dealers and sales people represent the spray coatings industry. Unfortunately, in order to not be fooled by the companies representing the spray coatings industry I had to do my research on different spray-linings and spray coatings used for bedliners, industrial equipment, livestock, military, etcetera. Of course, it was the story of the endless google search. Once I came upon polyurea and polyurea hybrid I realized I had opened pandora’s box.
I was now amongst a library of information that was hard to understand, misleading, false and proprietary.
The Polyurea Lie
Well, polyurea, polyurea hybrid, polyurethane, polyaspartic, aliphatic…… I was so confused after reading for an hour I really didn’t know where I had started. The fact that these MSDS sheets are only able to be interpreted by scientists or highly technical people pissed me off. Secondly, the fact that these products don’t simply tell you directly how much polyurea is in the hybrid leads me to believe that these companies are afraid to be honest about their materials.
I have now learned that there is the risk of long term neuro and respiratory damage and chronic problems caused by the improper and long term use of polyurea and polyurea hybrid. These materials have a polymer part and a reactant part, hence two part. Well, the ISO side is toxic and highly reactant to water. While polyurea spray-lining is taking place, the air becomes very dangerous to breathe, so there are guidelines that must be followed to keep yourself and the environment safe.
In addition to this, the spray-lining bedliner dealers I have researched seem to double talk about the actual materials. I finally figured out that these Rhino Linings and Line-X are just pushing spray-linings on any company that can buy. They have different priced material to fit different customers and different applications. If you can’t afford to have a booth and high pressure spray equipment, you can have lower cost polyurethane solutions. Based on how they much they hide their real information, I can’t tell the reason for the different materials…. Is it actual application, or is it a sales model?
It could be either. These materials are all very strong and durable. Given there are some distinct benefits to spraying high pressure over stuff that comes out of a hopper gun, but what’s the real functional difference when the job is done? I think it is hard to tell.
So, at the end of the day, what I figured out is that these large seemingly honest spray-lining companies like Rhino Linings, Line-X, Speedliner and Scorpion are covering up the facts with smoke and mirrors. Hiding the facts about what materials are made of and what is required to spray them and what the functional difference is between them.