carpet vs. full rubber mat

[abyars111]

I want to ask everyone's opinion. Our '70 Crew Cab has what appears to be the factory carpet in it now. The interior noise level is very good, I'm happy with it but we plan to redo the interior in the future. I will put Rammat sound deadener throughout the cab when we do this. I prefer to have a full floor mat instead of carpet. Do you think that the noise level will increase from it's current level if I use a full rubber mat with lots of sound deadener in the cab and floor? I will use the truck daily and we'll take trips in it so I want the cab comfortable, I just know with two kids in and out of the cab daily the rubber mat will be easier to keep clean. Have any of you noticed a big difference in cab noise between the rubber mat & carpet? Anyone installed sound deadener like Rammat & a rubber mat?

[Mach428]

My 69 has the factory rubber floor with a full rubber floor mat. It's in perfect condition, otherwise I would install carpeting.

Why not install carpeting with a full rubber mat? Best of both worlds.

[bluef250]

Have you found a premanufactured kit for the truck or are you doing to make it. I have not been able to find a premanufactured kit for a crew. I plan to add insulation for both cab sound and heat (cooling).

[Calfdemon]

I would think that if you used sound deadener, then the rubber mats would not be much different than the carpet. The only thing the carpet might have an advantage in sound wise would be the interior noise. The carpet would absorb some of the inside noise where the rubber would not. As for the exterior noise, if there is a sound barrier between the carpet/mat and the cab, then I dont think you will notice too much of a difference.

As for a manufactured kit, you are not going to find one for a crew cab. You will have to make your own kit. The way I am doing it (with carpeting) is I ordered a stock cab kit from stockinteriors.com which make very nice carpet kits for our trucks. They also sell extra material by the yard. So I purchased the stock kit for the front of my crew cab and then bought an additional yard of material for the rear half of my cab. The extra material is wide enough to cover from door to door and a yard should do the back half of the cab with a little left over.

They also sell rubber floors for our trucks, so you can probably do the same thing if you want to go the rubber route.

[abyars111]

Thanks for everyone's advice. Maybe I need to buy the regular cab carpet for the front and buy a mat and cut to fit the rear. My 8 year old, bless her, baptized the truck with a Cherry 7up. She comes by it naturally I'm a clutz myself. That's the reason I have full vinyl seats in my '55 and will do the same in the truck.

I never thought about the interior noise we'll be creating, right with the carpet there is zero echo.

Some of the guys on the oldfordcrewcabs site have used dentside crewcab mats in their bumpside crews. I like your idea better Rich. Buy reg cab for the front and extra material for the rear. Thankfully I have the old carpet for a pattern.

Maybe a good trade off is carpet and big floor mats. Right now I have a rubber mat all the way across the rear area for little wet feet and huge mats up front.

We'll have to think it over some more.

[colnago]

Another thought to consider. I just replaced my torn, worn, but probably original rubber mat with carpet. Very noticeable difference with the noise level, by the way. But another thing I noticed is that there was a layer of light rust on the floorboard (no cancer, but pre-cancer in some spots). I figure that 45+ years of spilled coffee, rain, muck 'n mud, etc, caused moisture to get captured under the rubber, where it couldn't evaporate easily. With carpet being more porous, it would give the coffee etc an easier path to the floorboard, but it would also allow it to evaporate easier.

It also gives the cab a "nicer feel" to it. And since mine is a daily driver and not a show truck, I'm fine with not being 100% stock.

Just my two cents,

Joseph

[abyars111]

Good point. I think I'll stick with carpet. I will still apply the sound deadener and buy some full mats for the carpet. Thanks for the help!