Dee Zee Bed Mat Review: Heavy Rubber That Lasts, Smell and All

Buy the Dee Zee if you want a rubber floor that grips what you load, takes a beating and goes in without tools. It's a slab of heavy rubber cut for one truck and bed, with ribs on top, cleats underneath and nothing to bolt down. Owners keep them for years, one for a decade, and move them from one truck to the next, and the bed paint under one came out looking new after four hard years. It costs well under a carpet-style BedRug and about what Rough Country asks for its rubber mat.

Know which mat you're buying, because Dee Zee sells two tread styles under one name and the record belongs to one of them. The Lined mat has straight ribs running front to back, and nearly every long ownership record here is the Lined mat. Among the trucks we cover, Dee Zee still lists it for only three beds: the 2005-2023 Tacoma 5 ft bed (DZ86963), the Maverick (DZ87027) and the Ram 1500's 6.5 ft bed (DZ87016). The X Pattern mat has the same published thickness, rubber and warranty, and on the F-150, the Silverado and Sierra 1500, the 3rd gen Tundra, the 3rd gen Colorado and Canyon and the Ram 1500's 5.5 ft bed it's the only style Dee Zee lists now. It has almost no owner history yet, which is why our scores sit where they do.

Three things to know before you order. The rubber smells strongly for the first few weeks. It grips so well that sliding a loaded cooler across it is a fight. And Dee Zee doesn't list a mat for the 4th gen Tacoma or the 6th gen Ranger at all.

The short version

What works:

• It lasts: a ten-year Lined mat, mats moved to a second truck, owners on their third Dee Zee, and nobody describes one tearing, cracking or breaking down in the sun.
• Cargo stays put: boxes, tools and bags stay where you set them, and the rubber is soft enough not to mar furniture.
• It protects the paint: a 2015 F-150 came out from under one after four years of hard use with a bed that looked new, and nobody had cleaned under it once.
• No tools, no drilling: it unrolls into the bed. Some beds need a trim with a utility knife.

What to watch:

• The smell: a strong rubber smell for weeks, which fades outdoors but can linger in a closed garage.
• Heavy slide-in loads: the grip that holds cargo also stops a loaded cooler or a heavy crate from sliding forward.
• Coverage: the floor only. Dee Zee sells the tailgate mat separately, and the walls stay bare.
• Fitment gaps: nothing listed for the 4th gen Tacoma, the 6th gen Ranger, a 6 ft 3rd gen Tacoma or the 2022 Tundra.
• A thin record on most full-size trucks: the F-150, GM, Tundra and new Colorado mats come only in the X Pattern, which owners have barely written about.

Which trucks and beds it fits

Dee Zee cuts each mat for one truck and bed and publishes the part numbers in its fit guide. Most of its Amazon listings name only the part number, so we confirm a fit only where the listing itself names the truck, years and bed. Everywhere else the fitment table under the score panel gives Dee Zee's part number and a search link. Check fit for your truck.

A few fits need a closer look. The Lined Tacoma listing reads "2005+" with no end year, but Dee Zee's guide stops at 2023, so don't buy it for a 4th gen. Dee Zee's guide shows only the 5 ft bed for the 2005-2023 Tacoma; older forum posts name DZ86964 for the 6 ft bed, and its Amazon listing had no featured offer at our last check. On the Colorado and Canyon, the listing says 2023-2025 while Dee Zee lists DZ77030 for 2024-2026, so a 2023 owner should confirm with Dee Zee before ordering. The Maverick listing calls the bed 4.5 ft and Dee Zee calls it 5 ft; it's the same single bed either way.

Dee Zee's guide says nothing about RamBox. Ram owners with RamBox have bought a mat without the wheel well cutouts or trimmed Dee Zee's 4 ft by 8 ft utility mat to the bed, so ask Dee Zee before you order for a RamBox truck. Over a liner, the Lined Tacoma listing says the mat works with bed liners, owners commonly run it over a spray-in, and a longtime owner has used it over drop-ins too. The X Pattern listings say nothing either way. Mats have also moved between generations of the same truck, sometimes with a little trimming, so an old mat may follow you to a new truck with the same bed.

The specs that matter

Dee Zee publishes thickness, material and warranty, and not much else. Here's what its product page and the Amazon listings say, and what they leave out:

Both tread styles share every line of that table. Neither the weight nor a load rating appears anywhere. Dee Zee says most of its products are made and packaged in Des Moines, Iowa, but it doesn't say where the bed mats are made.

The shipping weights still tell you what you're lifting. Dee Zee ships the Tacoma 5 ft mat at 33 lb, the F-150 mats at 45 lb and the Silverado 8 ft mat at 59 lb, packing included. Take a few pounds off for the box and the 8 ft mat is still a two-handed pull every time you want to rinse under it. It's also weight that comes out of your payload, small next to any truck's rating but there every mile.

On thickness, .375 in is the overall figure. A Tacoma owner who cut a cross section measured about 3/8 in from the top ribs to the bottom nubs and about 3/16 in of solid rubber between them. Another wondered whether newer mats had gone thinner, then found the weight comparison behind the worry had set a 6 ft mat against a 5 ft one. Dee Zee still publishes .375 in for every mat.

Fit, coverage and water

On the Lined mat, fit is good, with some work on certain beds. The mat follows the wheel wells and lies flat, and once it's in it stays put on the highway without fasteners. The long Tacoma mats come with a scribe line to trim them to the 5 ft bed, though not every mat has had one, and a few beds need a slice here and there. A sharp utility knife and a straightedge do it.

It grips hard, and that cuts both ways. Tools, boxes and grocery bags stay where you put them, which is the reason most people buy one. Heavy things you need to slide in are the trouble: a Ram owner who loads coolers for barbecue competitions found sliding them across the mat close to impossible. If you push heavy, flat-bottomed loads up the bed every week, plan to lift them or slide them on a board.

Coverage is the floor. The walls and bulkhead stay bare, and the tailgate needs Dee Zee's separate tailgate mat or another brand's. That's the right trade for most beds, since the floor takes nearly all the wear, but a spray-in still does a better job on the sides.

Water is where a rubber mat earns or loses its place, and the Dee Zee handles it well. The cleats hold the mat up off the floor so air and water can move under it, and the Lined mat's straight ribs send rain and debris toward the tailgate rather than toward the sidewalls. The X Pattern has the same cleats underneath, but nobody has described how its tread sheds water. We'd still pull it a few times a year and hose under it, more often on a painted steel bed that sits out in the rain or road salt, because grit that does get under it stays there.

The underside has a cost too. The nubs sit right on the paint or liner, and owners split on them: they let air move, but they can also wear the surface below. Don't drag the mat around a new bed during install either; it has scratched a fresh Tacoma composite bed. Set it down where it goes.

We score fit and coverage at 7.2. The custom cut, the grip, the drainage and more beds covered than Rough Country lists earn it. Points come off for the trimming some beds need, floor-only coverage, nubs that can wear the surface underneath, grip that fights heavy slide-in loads, and the biggest one: on the F-150, the GM 1500s, the Tundra and the new Colorado and Canyon, the only style Dee Zee lists is the X Pattern, so the fit record above isn't the mat those owners would buy.

Build quality and living with it

Durability is the Dee Zee's best argument. Lined mats run ten years, move from one truck to the next and keep going, and years in open beds haven't broken one down in the sun. Nobody describes a tear or a crack. Those records come from the Lined mat, much of it bought years ago, so read them as evidence for the rubber more than a promise about this year's X Pattern, which Dee Zee says uses the same .375 in fiber infused rubber but which has no long record of its own yet.

• The smell: expect a strong rubber smell when it's new. In an open bed it fades over a few weeks; in a closed garage it can hang around longer, and one Ram owner says it never goes away completely. Air it in the sun before you sleep on it under a shell.
• Cleaning: pull it out, hose it, scrub it with a stiff brush and drop it back in.
• Marks: wrestling it into the bed doesn't leave black marks on your clothes.
• Looks: black rubber, and some mats carry a big logo. If yours needs trimming, trim it so the logo ends up at the tailgate.

The warranty is three years against defects in materials and workmanship, for the original purchaser, and it covers a replacement mat, not labor or shipping. Unlike BedRug's, Dee Zee's policy doesn't tie the warranty to the vehicle, though a mat that has outlived its first truck has usually outlived the three years too. Claims start where you bought it, with the receipt and photos of the defect.

We score durability at 8.0. Ten-year and multi-truck records with no tears or cracks would earn more on their own, but they belong to the Lined mat, and the X Pattern most full-size buyers will get has no long record yet. If the X Pattern builds the same history, this score goes up.

How it compares

The Dee Zee gets cross-shopped against Rough Country's rubber mat, a molded mat such as Husky's, and a carpet-style BedRug. Here's what each maker or listing publishes:

• Rough Country: the closest match on paper, also 3/8 in rubber, with a lifetime warranty on its listings against Dee Zee's three years, and it lists a 4th gen Tacoma mat that Dee Zee doesn't. Prices run close; on the Tacoma 5 ft and GM 8 ft beds it's a little cheaper, on the Maverick the Dee Zee is. Rough Country's pages for its Tacoma, Maverick, Ram and Silverado mats say they don't fit over a drop-in. Our Rough Country Bed Mat review covers the smell that lingers for months on some mats and the long beds it skips.
• Husky Custom Bedliner: a molded mat for owners who want a different feel, with nibs underneath for air. It costs more than the Dee Zee on the F-150 and GM short beds, Husky publishes no thickness, and it won't go over a drop-in. We haven't reviewed it.
• BedRug XLT: the padded, carpet-style floor that we reviewed. Clean loads slide in and out more easily and it's kinder to your knees, but it costs noticeably more than a rubber mat, holds dirt in the fiber and needs a dry bed. For gravel, scrap and wet gear, rubber is the better floor, and a rubber mat goes on top of a BedRug, never under it.
• A spray-in liner: protects the walls too and traps nothing underneath, but it's harder on cargo and knees. Owners who run both like a Dee Zee on top of the spray-in.

Owners describe living with the three floors like this:

Installing it

Sweep the bed, lay the mat in front to back, and check it against the wheel wells and the bulkhead before you cut anything. Dee Zee publishes no install time and no instructions beyond the fit; it's a no-drill, no-hardware job.

If your mat needs trimming, follow the scribe line where there is one, or mark a line with masking tape and a framing square. A fresh blade in a utility knife cuts it in several firm passes; an oscillating multi-tool goes faster. On the long Tacoma mats the scribe line takes roughly 13 in off the length for the 5 ft bed, and that offcut covers the middle of the tailgate if you want it to.

Cut openings for any floor tie-downs you use. A hole saw or a utility knife works for D-rings and the corner anchors; a razor blade alone makes slow work of the extra holes. There's no reason to drill the bed to hold the mat down: Dee Zee calls for no drilling, and the mat stays put on its own.

Who should buy the Dee Zee

Buy it if you haul tools, gear, firewood, scrap or dump runs and want a floor that grips, protects the paint and lasts longer than most people keep a truck. It's the mat we'd put over a spray-in, and on a bare bed it does the job alone. It's the easiest call on a 2005-2023 Tacoma 5 ft bed or a Maverick, where you can still get the Lined mat the long records describe. On a Silverado or Sierra 8 ft bed or a new Colorado or Canyon, the X Pattern listing we confirmed is the one to buy, with less history behind it. On every other bed, match Dee Zee's part number to your truck before you order.

Pick something else if you slide heavy coolers or crates up the bed every week, if a lingering rubber smell in the garage would bother you, or if you drive a 4th gen Tacoma or a 6th gen Ranger, where Dee Zee lists nothing. A BedRug suits clean loads and knees better, and Rough Country lists a mat for the 4th gen Tacoma.