When you make purchases through links on this site, The Track Ahead may earn an affiliate commission. Also, these posts are based off my own experiences. I am not responsible for any action you take as a result of reading this. Learn More
Cleaning out your truck bed can usually be a straightforward and easy process: wash, scrub, and rinse. However, there are a few things to know that will make the process easier and efficient. I recommend parking your vehicle so that the back of the truck is facing downhill for better water drainage. Also, the amount of effort cleaning your truck bed will depend on what you use it for and how clean you want it to get.
Protection of the Truck Bed
Typically if you’ve got a truck, you might be using the bed to transport large items like furniture. Or, maybe you transport something that gets dirtier like hardscape or landscape materials. Depending on what you typically use your truck for, you may want to consider having bed protection for your bed. Extra protection to protect the paint in your truck bed is always a good idea, but you want to also consider the type you use as it could actually damage more delicate items during transport.
If you don’t really care much about your truck bed getting all scratched and banged up, then by all means just leave it and rinse it out whenever you need to. You might even spray on some soap with a foam gun if you want it a bit more clean, but maybe you don’t even need to scrub it clean at all.
If you’re concerned about protection for your truck bed, I highly recommend getting a protective spray-on liner applied for something that fully adheres to your truck bed and prevents it from future damage. In addition to that, putting on a protective mat will prevent punctures, dings, and dents to the spray-on liner. It will also allow you to transport more delicate items that you may not want scratched if you’re transporting directly on a hard, textured, spray-on liner. There’s just so much to consider when choosing what kind of protection you want on your truck bed, so here is an article I’ve written that might help you if you’re trying to make that decision:
How to Pick a Bed Liner For Your Truck
And if you have a bed cover, then you probably won’t need to clean your bed very much at all. When I initially had my bed uncovered for several years, I’d have to clean it pretty often. But once I got my bed cover installed, I rarely need to clean the bed anymore.
How to Quickly and Efficiently Clean Out Your Truck Bed
The best thing you can do to make cleaning your truck bed process more efficient, is to simply park your truck so that the tail of the truck is facing downhill. Whenever you rinse the bed with water, all of the water will drain out easily towards the open tailgate. If you don’t park this way, it takes forever for the water to drain and it wastes a lot of water when you’re trying to rinse everything out of the bed.
If you’ve got a bunch of small debris in your bed like rocks, mulch, or something similar, you might need to use a broom to clean up the bulk of it. I would make sure to shove a towel or something similar in the annular space between the bed and the tailgate when it’s folded down because all of the little bits will get stuck there and even get inside the tailgate, making all kinds of noises in the future rattling around. Sweep as much of the debris off of the bed.
After that, use a hose with the strongest jet setting and spray off the entire bed. If you’ve parked the truck wih the nose facing uphill, then the back of the truck will be angled down and all the water and dirt will run down out of the tailgate opening.
If you have a bed mat, take that off and clean it off. You can use car wash soap, all-purpose cleaner, etc. with a brush to clean it. Then rinse it all off.
Car Wash Soap: Find on Amazon
All Purpose Cleaner: Find on Amazon
Short Handle Brush: Mothers Short Handle Brush
Long Handle Brush: VIKING Long Handle Brush
If you’ve got a foam gun, you can soap up the bed itself quickly. Otherwise, use car soap, all purpose cleaner, dish soap, anything really to soap up the bed and scrub it with a brush. I’m using a general tire and wheel brush here. Rinse off.
If you’ve got a bed mat, it’s hard to clean it and let it dry somewhere, so I usually like to rinse it off while I have it on the bed of the truck (after I’ve cleaned it). Then, fold it up partially and let it dry in the sun. Then put the bed mat into position when it’s fully dry.
Rinse out any remaining soap suds or debris. Then let it dry out in the sun. Again, with the truck’s tail pointing down the slope of the road or driveway, any residual water will run out of the truck bed and not pool up in the bed itself, allowing you to quickly dry it out.
