You're just not loading the right stuff to ruin your tailgate...

I'll have to get you some pics of the tailgate on my '05 superduty...It's beat up, bent, dented, and doesn't shut good anymore...all from loading things, maybe I need a tougher truck...

Tim

 

Matter of opinion, I guess..For safety reasons loading my CubCadet Tractor it is better to remove the tailgate..

And if you are loading popcorn in your truck you have nothing to worry about...

 

Did those dents come from loading ATVs?

 

One came from a lawn mower...The deck cought the plastic cap and about ripped it off...

If my tailgate was made like the Tundra's it wouldn't have made it a week...

Tim

 

I agree. I checked out the Tundra's the other day, and it will not last a week. As for your Ford it along with all the others require a little care in the loading and unloading process. IMHO, it's built better than the Toyota's, but not by much.

I had a new 82 F-100 back in the day. I removed the tailgate to forklift in some skids of ground cover and mulch. Good thing I did! The kid driving the forklift missed the footbrake when he approached the rear of the pickup and bashed the bumper. It was just about the only truly heavy duty item on the truck and saved the rear of the bed.
Most of the time I drove lawncare equipment into and out of the bed using ramps that attached to the rear bumper. I never screwed up any thing on the bodywork of that truck. But after looking at the Toyota's tailgate, as well as the GM foilgate I am convinced that none of them would stand up to the removal and installation process that I performed daily with my 82 over the ten years that I owned and worked it.

Oh, yeah. The lawncare equipment was Jacobsen and John Deere tractors, self propelled tillers, power post hole augers, shredders and the like. I had a one car garage and no room for a trailer. So all the power tools went into the garage every night. And what I was going to use came out every morning and was loaded onto the truck.

 

Same thing happened to my tailgate cap...got it back on though...

 

You got it a little confused. I'm loading the right stuff right. A couple of extra minutes and thinking before loading makes the difference between damage and no damage. Loading my 600+ lb. motorcycle has far more potential to do damage than a 4 wheel ATV or a lawn mower (my 2 lawnmowers are to large to fit in a little bitty F-150)

 

I don't mean atv's and motorcycles...I'm talking about tools, big rocks, logs, fence post, the occasional goose neck trailer hitch , stuff like that...Atv's motorcycles and lawnmowers aren't that hard on them...

Tim