I was washing my new truck for the first time since purchase and these two items have me puzzled:

the first is a stainless hose band clamp that is around the lower hinge for the tailgate, this can’t be OEM. The second is this tattered weatherstripping on the top of the roof rail.

tell this isn’t just me and that neither of these are correct for a brand new truck???

 

Roof rail no take it to dealer. Tailgate, that was put there after to prevent someone from just pulling the tailgate and walking, it is not OEM it is a prevention measure.

 

I also recently washed my brand new F-150 to discover that cheesy weather stripping on the roof of the cab. The only part of the truck im truly disappointed with so far.

 

This ^^

Ford Accessories offers a similar device (made by McGard) to prevent tailgate theft

https://accessories.ford.com/kit-loc...air-11334.html

 

The dealer probably has their prep guy put those on. Some dealers have lost several tailgates and they are not cheap.

 

I took a little silicone and a weight and glued my strip down worked fine

 

I just put a clamp on my tailgate.

Thieves are lazy and opportunistic. They will look for easier prey before they spend 2 minutes trying to take off a hose clamp.

 

Tailgate Lock
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-2015-20...gAAOSwZQRYcTvz

 

Just curious, if the tailgate locks with the remote, wouldn't that make it harder to steal? They can't lower the tailgate to take it off. Am I missing something?

 

No, you are not missing something.

Tailgates didn't used to lock automatically. Some owners don't like them to lock automatically. Of course, if you go back in the forum to the previous generation, many complained they didn't lock without a key. In fact, some like myself installed a 3rd party electric lock so it would lock when we locked the truck.