I thought I would share this tailgate safety chain I devised with the forum community. Maybe a solution like this has been shared previously, but nevertheless here’s what I did to put my mind at ease. Never had a problem or my truck was never recalled for tailgate unlatching unexpectedly but got concerned if I did a stupid thing by hitting the unlatch tailgate button while connected to my utility trailer. As you can see my tailer does not have a self-storing foldup trailer jack. So the stationary trailer jack would serve as a piecing arrow to a very expensing tail gate if I were to do something stupid (which is not surprising at my age) or the electronic tail gate malfunction.

 

Good idea. Just a thought, you could get a drop hitch for your trailer hitch and probably clear the jack. That's what I've done at least.

 

You can also extend the shank, although I would avoid that with long trailers or really heavy loads.

 

Clever idea. I thought the recall was to make the key, tailgate and interior button a double push to open the tailgate. My key has a "x2" on it. My interior button says the same. I need to push the tailgate button twice for it to open as well. Ive only had my truck for about 6 weeks, but its not happened to me yet. Id be pretty upset if it happened while towing my box trailer.

Another idea would be to utilize a jack like this:
https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Jac...caAosVEALw_wcB
I find the incorporated tongue jacks annoying to use, needing to spend ages winding it up for travel. If towing my box trailer with the incorp tongue jack, I always warn the wife to not open the gate. On my 2013, I would lock it as it wasnt globally locked with the keyless. Cant do that on my '22 as far as i know.

 

You definitely don't want the tailgate dropping on to the jack........That would really make me mad.....

 

Since it's a really simple setup, I would probably add another to the other side of the truck, one per side, just so that you have an even load if it would start to drop and it wouldn't be as prone to twisting.

 

It's really sad that this is something we have to be concerned about. What's even worse is that the CSP Ford issued for this concern doesn't give me much confidence that they actually know why our tailgates are opening and your solution seems far more reliable than Ford's. My tailgate has unexpectedly opened twice while I've owned my truck, and I'm not sure if I want to implement Ford's fix, convert my tailgate to manual release, or wait to see if Ford ever pinpoints the root cause of the issue.

 

I wish there was a "Feature" where when the truck senses there is a trailer attached (which it does know) that would lock out the tailgate release on the remote and the dash so only the button on the tailgate itself would release it.

 

bcb97 that is a good idea. I will try that also since my trailer is riding a little high and need to have more weight on the tongue. The drop hitch I'm currently using is from my previous 2 wheel drive F150 which sat a little lower. So I need to correct that situation and if that gives me clearance from the trailer jack I will get a two for one solution. However, will still keep the safety chain in use just to keep the mind happy.

 

imnuts very good suggestion to add another safety chain to other side especially since it is inexpensive and I had to purchase a pack of 4 of the small D rings from Lowes