Hi all, planning to order a 2021/22 model with the 360 camera package. I plan to remove the tailgate intermittently to use a four wheel camper. Several questions:
1. Do I need to recalibrate every time I remove and attach the tailgate? Is it a pain in the butt to do?
2. Does the truck give an error message if the the rear camera is detached?
3. Will the copilot 360 assist still work without the rear camera?
4. I also plan to order the power tailgate, is it difficult to remove and attach compared to the traditional non powered one?
thanks for your help

 

I'm not sure that anyone, even the techs at the dealer, can answer those good questions with any confidence. For 1 to 3, I would sure hope the field service bulletin would take care of it, but hard to know. May take some experimentation on your part. As for number four, there are detailed instruction in the owner's manual and it does not look terribly complicated.

 

My truck with the power tailgate came with the caps for the wiring when the tailgate is removed in the bag of miscellaneous stuff under the rear seat. That alone tells me Ford expects that I may remove the tailgate. I truly hope it doesn't require recalibration every time as that would truly be a pain in the butt. The instructions in the manual look easy enough and there have been some postings that said they required recalibration but that may not be everyone as some also stated their installer took theirs off for a bed liner spray and reinstalled with no problems. Will be interested in finding out more before I have a reason to remove mine in the future.

 

Did you ever find a solution to this?

I don't have a solution, but I can tell you what I have experienced this past weekend.

I have a 2022 F150 with the 360 camera and power tailgate. I removed the tailgate for the same reason as you want to. I disconnected the 3 cables that lead to the tailgate. Those three cables have 3 different shaped plugs. I had a zip lock bag of "tailgate removal plug covers" provided in the glovebox. It contained 4 plug covers (really they are just actual plugs with no wires attached to them). 3 of the plug covers matched the plugs that I disconnected. I plugged the plug covers in and made sure I heard them click into place.

(BTW, make sure to have the tailgate open when disconnecting the large plug - if its not connected, you will not be able to unlatch the tailgate to remove it)

This is what happened:
1. Rear camera view on the screen shows blue. Thats to be expected because there is no camera there.
2. Front and side cameras show a very faded view of whats around them. They used to be crystal clear, but now they are faded/cloudy in the daytime, and very grainy at night.
3. Dash shows "Tailgate ajar" warning message whenever I start the truck. I can press OK to clear the message. No other warning light displays on the dash, so I can live with that one.
4. The tailgate ajar warning means that locking the truck does not happen properly. The doors lock, but the truck chirps/beeps as if one of the doors is not closed properly. Also the power mirrors do not fold in any more (I guess because of the fact that the truck thinks something is still open).

I have not found a solution to this yet.

I called my local Ford dealer and they said that they did not know if that was normal. They said that they did not have anyone who had taken the tailgate off. I will be taking the truck in there to get them to have a look at it anyway. Fingers crossed that they can figure it out.

 

bakaivar...Did you ever find anything out on the tailgate removal issues? I have a 2022 F-150 Tremor with the same issues. I permanently removing my tailgate to install an Alu-Cab Canopy Cabin Camper and have the same issues. I have called several Ford service departments and no one knows anything about tailgate removal.

 

Unfortunately I have not been able to resolve the issue.

 

My solution will be getting my All-Terrain Camper built a bit short so the tailgate can stay on...

FWC won't change a single structural thing, but ATC will change (just about) anything.

 

I don't know if it will work on the 2021+ f150s but I had 4 super dutys back in the day that had service bodies installed and I removed the camera and installed them into the service body. As for the tailgate ajar, it may be as simple as finding a wiring diagram for the ajar switch and make a jumper wire to close the circuit. I've done this with a few rams as well that had flat decks installed. The major issue is making sure the spacing for the backup sensors is the same as the bumper otherwise it beeps when there's nothing there.

 

Has anyone seen any products that just extend the wiring harness going to the tailgate and maybe adds an easier disconnect for all of the plugs in the middle? I can't understand why I need to crawl under my truck each time I need to take my tailgate off and the 4 separate plugs on my 2022 are garbage in my opinion. it would be great if there was just a plug at the tailgate somewhere that could be disconnected. Any electrical guys out there have any ideas?