Has anyones tailgate ever fallen off going down the road

 

That wouldnt happen unles it was open and the hinges were rusted OFF.

 

No, but close. The restraining cables were all that were holding it on.

The tailgate latch had gotten rusty and stiff, wasn't allowing a proper 'catch'. The hinge pin inserts had long ago failed.

Got the latch freed up and lubed up good, put in a new set of hinge inserts, and life is once again 'on the sunny side'.

 

I'll bet that was an OH SH*T! thing when that happened

 

HAHA.. that does suck though

 

Happend to my buddy, but worse. sent his done up 1990 GMC Serria GT 350 5spd 4x4 to paint. the day he got it back from paint he was driving home and the tailgate fell off landed on the brand new black painted side and slide down the tar. Haha god damn...that did suck. anyways. hope it dont happen to you again!
-Way

 

It happens real easy on the new f-150s if the tailgate is down. I had a couch on the back of my 04 lariat and the tailgate was down. The couch wasn't quite long enough to extend out onto the tailgate but long enough to not be able to shut it. I went over some railroad tracks and it bounced up and came right out. The tailgate assist makes them very light and they only need to bounce up 4-5 inches before they will come out. It dingged up the the back of my truck and I scratched the tailgate. Since these new trucks are so quiet, I didn't even know it happend til I got to my house witch was another 25 miles. It was only 6 months old. I was a bit Irate.

 

thanks for bringing this up. I didn't know there was an achiles heel in my pick up.

Years ago I had a chevy pick up. The latch was loose and one day the tailgate just opened and slammed into the down position. There was a tremendous bang and I thought I had an accident or something. I looked all around me thinking I must have lost some one and we hit. but I was in my lane and there was no one near me at all. I finally pulled over and saw what happened. It still wasn't funny, but I was relieved.

Bob Wassam

 

I had it happen to me on an old rusty mudder 79 chebby. The gate/bed was sooo rusty that it would intermittently come off. Once I thought the exhaust sounded funny, it did because the gate came unhinged and the lever rods stayed on. It pivoted down and covered my exhaust up lmao. Another time it came completely off when I dukes of hazzard'ed off a high set of tracks while off roading one day. I eventually went back and picked it up, after we were done mudding lmao...

 

My fullsize Bronco rear tire carraige wasn't latch propertly- on the freway- had to brake - spare tire slams into thelatch an tailgate- sending a loud shutter and giving me the a jolt- I thought i was rear ended!