Spot welds in tailgate...
 

Opened my tailgate to my 2010 Lariat w/10,000 miles this morning, and heard a loud bang. Looked for the culprit and found that the 2 spot welds on the right hinge had popped. The right and left hinges are different as the right has a fold over on the top as you are looking at it from above. You can see that is seperated from the tailgate about 3/8 of a inch. Brought it right down to Colonial Ford in Plymouth Ma., and they said to bring it in Monday morning to the body shop. Anybody have anything like this happen? I never have used the tailgate as a seat never mind to carry something on.

The same thing happened to my '11. Brought home June 7th welds popped loose on July 8th, about 1,500 miles. Took the truck back to dealer and the first four guys to look at said exactly the same thing "Damn, I've never seen that happen before." Dealer ordered new tailgate and replaced it, but I'm thinking it will happen again at some point due to tailgate support cable on passenger side has slack in it when the gate is down. I started looking at every F 150 I can and it seems every one of them has this cable with slack in it. Not sure if yours does but seems kind of odd. Oh well my new truck is still light years better than the gov't motors I traded for it!

Can you post some pictures please ?

there was another thread about this, with pictures

tailgate hinge snapped I think for search

Looks like it an official TSB for 2009 - 2011 trucks!

TSB data for: 2011 FORD F-150 Bulletin Number: TSB-11-4-11 Sequence Number: 10039065 Date: 20110414 Component Name: 162500 STRUCTURE:BODY:TAILGATE Make: FORD Model: F-150 Year: 2011 Summary: FORD: THE TAILGATE APPLIQUE MAY SEPARATE FROM THE SHEET METAL. 2009-2011 F150. *RM

So what's the fix??

The fix for mine was dealer ordered new tailgate and replaced the broke one. That was in July and by the way they reacted when they saw it I am assuming the TSB wasn't out yet.

isn't that TSB for the the Platinum applique on the tailgate?

it is.

No.