Hello all
Has this ever happened to anyone? Just noticed this. My tailgate is splitting on the end.

 

Question now is if dealer will warranty it or claim it has to be from abuse

 

Absent any damage you may have inflicted on the tailgate somehow, I'd lean towards a material defect in the aluminum during manufacturing. That's a very tight bend radius and a very high stress area when the panel is being formed.

 

Are you still under warranty or not?

 

I am out of warranty but the truck only has 42,000 mi on it. It was definitely not abused I didn't even notice it my son did. So I'm going to bring it there tomorrow and see what they say

 

You probably have a long haul uphill against the wind with a major corporation unless you can document this as a known problem or you have a very sympathetic dealership.

 

I do know the owner of the dealership pretty well. I'll let you know what happens. This is complete bull****!

 

Do you have the tailgate step? Just trying to think through how this could happen. Maybe a few spotwelds were missed and the stress of the step being used created a crack and then with how thin the aluminum is it spread.

 

No I don't have the step ladder on the back. It's an XLT 2018. Not sure what happened. Its just going to get worse. I have the dealership take a look at it tomorrow and see what happens see what they say.

 

Unfortunately you're SOL as it seems you're out of warranty coverage.