Saw that it was posted in the F-150 area but didn't see it here.

Tailgate on my 2009 truck was stolen once to the tune of $4700 replacement cost so I have learned to keep it locked. A friends Dodge's tailgate locks with the power door lock and when I looked into it, the new F-150's have this option but its not available on the Super Duty yet and I assume this Platinum tailgate is more expensive than the Lariat, so I started researching a way.

 

I was looking at the F-150 parts and the Dodge parts to find a way to mod something but the prices were not favorable on either, then I found the Pop & Lock PL8250 Power Tailgate Lock for Ford on Amazon for $81.27:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

After reading a bunch of reviews and some other research I decided to give it a try.






They say it takes about an hour and a half to install but in the reviews there is a lot of complaints about the color codes not being accurate, (more on that fun later) and most said it takes two hours plus to install, no sweat, I have most of Saturday to do it. The kit was well setup up with nice parts and the wire was all encased with waterproof plug for the underside. One issue I noticed right off was the tailgate wiring was quite long which will leave the plug way under the truck and make it hard if you want to remove the tailgate, this will not be a problem for me as with the rest of the build in mind, my tailgate will likely never have to come off.

 

First step is to gain access to the inside of the tailgate. Remove the torx bolts and the plugs as well as the old man handle. If you do not have the old man step then you only have to remove torx bolts to get the panel off.





With access inside, you have to remove the passenger side nut on the tailgate lock assembly and put two supplied washers over the stud, slide the pop & lock plate in and down over the stud with the lock arms straddling the tailgates lock arm assembly and then put the supplied lock nut on to hold it down. This is probably easy with out the old man step.......

 

If you have the old man step, it is in the way of getting the lock plate in and positioned so it needs to come out. Remove the 4 torx bolts indicated with yellow arrows, there are two more torx bolts on the inside face of the tailgate close to the bottom (close to the bed) that need to be removed. The two nut indicated by the pink arrows have to be removed also but you need to make sure and take the stud out from inside the tailgate. I suggest marking the exact position of all the hardware on this unit as with the bolts and nuts loose it moves around a bit and the movement is used to align it to the tailgate, with mine being new, I could still see the original markings.




With the hardware removed, slide the complete assembly out of the tailgate and set it to the side.




With that out of the way, the new lock assembly will slide in and fit over the stud. At this point the directions say to simply feed the wires through a drain hole in the bottom of the tailgate up to the lock assembly......yea, simply!! So, there are baffles and access hole and I think sand traps and waterholes with gators inside that think....well, something bit me, but anyway, this is no easy task and having a rearview camera just adds to the mess. We finally used my inspection camera to work out way through from the top, tape the wires to it and pull them back through, it was simply a nightmare. That done we reversed the procedure to put the tailgate back together.

 

On to the wiring....O dear lawd the wiring..... Yes, people said the color codes they have are not necessarily correct but opening the drivers door sill produced a 2" plus bundle of wires and the search was on, this truck has most every option available but I think now the amount of copper wire in just the door sill is half the cost of the truck! After many attempts and failures at finding the right wires I opened the B-pillar and unplugged the back door harness and used a meter to find the right wires. Crawling under the truck there is a rubber drain plug in the drivers foot well, I used this to push the wires into the cab and down the sill to the B-pillar. I used their taps as I did not want to cut the wires yet (its only a week old) but eventually I will go in and remove them and solder the wires in the right way. With this done the door harness was reconnected and the sill put back together.




Crawling under the truck I started to run the wire back to the rear. There is not a lot of points to use zip ties and I do not like loose wires hanging, especially in a vehicle that goes off road. So, it is zip tied where I can but I used blue painters tape to temporarily hold the wire in position and glued it to the bottom of the truck with clear silicone. We have used this method many times with off road rigs with great success.




Worked my way to the back of the cab




At the back of the cab I moved the wire down onto the frame and ran down the outside of the frame, normally I go inside the frame and run it with the original vehicle harness but there was far too many things in the way on this truck.

 

With the main wire run most of the way back, I switched to the tailgate wires. Here I used zip ties to run it with the rear view camera wire along the upper rear frame member and to the drivers side rear corner. Running it with the camera wire allows enough slack for the tailgate to be lowered.




In the back corner I brought the front wire down the frame and ran it along the main harness to a point I could connect it to the rear wire and secured it all with zip ties. Went back and clipped the tie tails and crawled out from under the truck. Hitting the lock and unlock on the trucks remote now locks and unlocks the tailgate, I am a happy camper and hopefully will not have another expensive tailgate stolen! This seems to be a really well made kit even if the instructions suck, if you decide to add this, leave more time than they say, depending on your truck it can take quite a while. We will have to wait and see how it holds up to the test of time.

 

Thanks for sharing and providing pics and detailed instructions.

 

What Color were the Wires you chose in the "B" pillar for your Power Choice ?

 

Great thread, love all the photos! I'm adding this to the tech folder.

 

Do not remember the colors but looking at this picture, it is the top wire and second wire on the back side of the connector. If you pull the connector and check with a multimeter from each of those wires to ground, you will see the voltage flash when you hit the lock or unlock (one wire for each button).

 

Ford thought of the stupid man handle but forgot the tailgate lock. I too am interested in this mod but it looks like a day to install. Does it work with the factory key fob?

 

Yes, thats why you have to find the right wires in the door to connect it up. Had it in for a week now and all is working great. I reset my doors to all unlock with one click also so the tailgate unlocks with one click of the remote. The manual lock still works too.


BTW, that old man step is a life saver for me....broke neck, back and hip and had cancer, I do not climb so well anymore but I can get in the bed with that step!

 

The pop-n-lock is nice. I've put one on every truck I've owned. I don't even bother to look at the color codes in the instructions. I pop the door panel off the passenger rear door and follow the lock wires to a place with easy access for splicing in the tail gate lock.

 

Just FYI, this is now standard on all 2015+ F150s and 2017+ Super Duties with power locks. Wonder why it took them this long?

 

Damn, that's an install!!!