No Tailgate Party here

[CapnDean]

I set a pallet containing 8 bundles of shingles into the bed of my truck.  I set the pallet 2/3 into the bed and 1/3 on the tailgate. I am guessing that this was in the 600-700 lb zone.

(Engineering calculates asphalt shingles at 225# per square and this was less than 3 squares).

 

My tailgate strap on the right side parted.  Looks like the cable rotted?  It has clearly pulled it straight apart.

 

I can only imagine what coulda happened here.... I didn't think that I put too much weight on there!

 

I have a friend whose tailgate fell, and BOTH of his parted.

 

Is this common?  Or is it just us southern climate folks?

 

Dean

[TxDoc]

Fairly common. I had one break with an ATV sitting on it and the internal strands were rusted.  O'Reilly's sell replacements.  I made my own that slightly lifts the tailgate and takes the strain off of the factory cables.  The pics are on a 97, but have not made the same thing for the new truck.

Pics

[RyanbabZ71]

my right one didnt completely fail but it was close

 

I live up north

[chevy4x4trucks]

It happens everywhere, the cables are weak and weaken even more in time from constantly being bent.  A strap on my 96 S-10 rusted through in the middle and I ended up replacing both w/ chains.