Bed-liner manufacturer Dual Liner calls the truck-bed swimming pool popularized on reality TV and internet memes "a DIY project we don't recommend" because a bed full of water overloads almost all pickup trucks available.
It might seem like a fun idea on a hot summer day -- you have pickup truck, a tarp, and a garden hose -- how bad could it be?
Pretty bad, as it turns out, because water is so heavy. At 62 lb. per cubic foot, water is even heavier than crushed asphalt (45 lb./cu. ft.).
In a useful info graphic, Dual Liner published the cargo capacities of 24 pickup trucks, from compacts up to medium-duty dual-wheeled units, right alongside the payload if you filled their cargo beds with water.
None of the compact pickups were rated even close, and the half-tons were capable of handling about half of the weight of a load full of water.
If you only filled the bed half way, just a third of the trucks could handle the load (and how likely is the typical truck-bed-swimming-pool type to keep the truck half filled?).
(Hint: either can easily cost more than $60,000, which is about twice as much as a decent in-ground swimming pool.)
