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I am happy to report that Orchard Ford came up trumps! They opened up the talegate and filled the cavity around the white plastic lock bits (below the tailgate step in the tailgate). Hopefully this will prevent any water from settling there before freezing. They have placed some thin plastic above the white plastic devise. They true test will be when I am in the mountains over the weekend and when it is below freezing point. We have had good weather (above freezing point) the last two weeks. Will let you know.
I had this happen to me too. Couldn't get the tailgate open due to freezing temps, and then didn't worry about it. When I got out of my truck at work the tailgate was down. I couldn't see it due to the tonneau.
I don't know if this fits your scenario but... Do any of the problem tailgates have Line-X on them? I had the Line-X done and everything was working fine until the middle of the next day when the tailgate release would "click" but the tailgate would not open. I finally had to remove the panel across the inside of the tailgate to manually operate the release latch - moving it far enough to get the tailgate to open. I thought it was a problem stemming from the thickness of the Line-X coating on the back of the truck bed and on the tailgate, and, I guess, in a way it was.
The remedy to my problem was to loosen the tailgate latch stud slightly and move it toward the back of the truck about a sixteenth of an inch. In this picture you can see around the washer a faint imprint in the paint where I moved it from.
Works fine now in all temps. Maybe it could be contributing to your problem. Just a thought.
A similar thing happened to me the other day. At the hardware store, I tried to open the tailgate but it would not open. I tried several times, you could hear the regular "click" after hitting the button, but the tailgate would not budge. The weather outside was about 20 degF and it had snowed lightly during the night. I thought it might have been the seal of the tonneau cover that was froze to the tailgate.
I shoved my stuff into the back seat and went home. When I got there, the tailgate was open. Clearly this was disturbing since it didn't open when it should have, but did open when it shouldn't.
It hasn't happened again, and it has snowed a couple more times since. I'll keep an eye on this ...
Mine did the same thing, I thought is was the cover seal too. I thought I was going to break the latch pulling so hard, finally it opened.
I do not have LineX or the tailgate step, and the times I've noticed this there has been precipitation and then freezing temps. It didn't do it being in the mountains on <20 degree days, but if it snowed or rained and then froze it will lock up. So I think it's definitely water getting in and then freezing, not just ambient temperature.
Worked all weekend in temps below freezing. So far so good. Bsrummin has a point. Hopefully the Ford designers take note and add a manual tailgate-key to the next version.
Worked all weekend in temps below freezing. So far so good. Bsrummin has a point. Hopefully the Ford designers take note and add a manual tailgate-key to the next version.
Hi Newbe
I'm just over from you on Coast and as you know we don't get a lot of below temps but we have Mt Washington ski hill just behind us and I'm concerned that when we go sking by the end of the day my tailgate will be frozen. Did your dealer say that Ford missed sealing it up or was missing a part. I read your earlier post of what they did but just wondering if something was missing?
