Water in tailgate???

jmpen · October 23, 2013

Finally got to haul a deer in the back of the new 14. As i was hosing off the bedrug(the blood came right off), i shut the tailgate and it sounded like the tailgate was full of water. I know the bedrug was holding some of the water but it sounded like it was coming from inside the tailgate. thoughts

kstruckcountry · October 23, 2013

If it's anything like trucks in the past it will drain through the bottom of the tailgate.

mikejones · November 23, 2013

Here is my reply that I sent to Austin at RealTruck:

Here is what I have discovered: The assistant manager at the dealership, finally, came up with this idea after I explained my various solutions to the exact problem you are describing. The solution: to install a rubber or flexible plastic weir onto the Line-X bed liner product that has been sprayed on the inside of the bed (and the inside surface of the tailgate) on the tailgate at the lower inner section of the tailgate, so that the water will be deflected to not be able to enter into the 4 linear drain holes and the two larger drainage holes that are in the bottom inside of the tailgate. The rubber or flexible plastic weir would extend the length of the tailgate and extend down to below the lower lip of the tailgate where the water funnels into the drain holes from when the truck is parked with the front of the truck is higher than the rear of the truck is parked with the front of the truck is higher than the rear of the truck and the tailgate is down and it rains hard. When the tailgate is put up, the weir would not be right against anything so that water could slowly drain back out (if water got in there, but I don't think it will because of what the weir is doing. They thought that some water might come inside the tailgate through the lath mechanism and that is why all the drain holes are in the bottom of the tailgate on the inside.

The dealership wouldn't create an put this type of weir in. The dealership and the GM customer care department both said that I would be voiding the warrantee for the tailgate if I stopped up the drain holes at any time. I don't accept this treat much accept this threat at all. It is their design flaw. They were saying things to me like I should jst put up the tailgate, or I shouldn't drive with the tailgate down using my bed extender in the rain unless I was going to lift the tailgate up (but if I were on a long trip and it was raining and the temps went below freezing, I wouldn't be able to unload the items that were in the bed of the truck that were keeping me from lifting up the tailgate to drain it). They haven't heard the end of me yet. However, since no one, not even the folks at Line-X (the spray in bed liner company) would create out of fairly stiff rubber or flexible plastic a weir and install it, the Line-X owner in Lansing is going to give me a sample of the bed liner product on something and I will practice with various super glue type of products that I own. I think the Titebond Instant Bond Wood Adhesive will work the best. (It also bonds to ceramics, metal, plastics, rubber, Leather, China, pottery and more.) I am going to bond the strip of rubber or plastic to the inside lower edge of the tailgate above where the holes are and let the weir extend down and over the holes and further down so that it hangs past the lowest lip of the tailgate. It appears that there is clearance there for when the tailgate is put up, that a 1/16" or 1/8" thick rubber or plasti weir will not interfere with closing the tailgate.

I'm going to read the web article right after sending this.

Mike

mikejones · November 23, 2013

Okay, I'm not so sleepy now. Here's more background. The problem will come when you get water inside the tailgate and then that water freezes, because you needed to keep the tailgate down during the time that the water flowed out from the bed of the truck (because the truck was parked on a downward slope with the rear of the truck lower than the front of the truck) and onto the lower lip of the tailgate that funneled the water into the 4 linear holes and the two larger holes all in the bottom inside of the tailgate, and then that water freezing and the latch mechanism failing to work because of the ice in the tailgate.

They all tried to pass the buck on the issue - GM customer care, the body shop... No one wanted to say, "oh, we see there is a design problem, and we would be happy to creatively think of how to solve the problem for you." They tried to say things like, I should just put up the tailgate before it got cold enough for the water to freeze, or, the truck wasn't designed to have the tailgate be down when it rains and then gets cold enough to have the water freeze, or, I'm the first person to have ever encountered this problem, or, your tailgate warrantee will be voided if I in anyway plug up the drain holes. All these answers were insulting to me.

The whole point of having bought a crew cab, and thus accepting a bed length of only 5'9", was that I was going to use the truck to haul longer items than 6' in length, with the tailgate down, and that would happen in the fall, for instance, when it would rain and then get cold enough for the water to freeze. Where I park the truck in my driveway, to not have the items in the bed of the truck facing the street, I back the truck in and thus the rear end of the truck is lower than the front of the truck. This helps water not to stay in the bed of the truck (but I think there are two drain holes in the front of the bed floor of the truck (where there were not any in the old truck a '93 GMC Sierra, which had a bed liner, where the new truck has a Line-X spray in bed liner).

So, I will be testing out the various glues on the test piece of material with the Line-X product sprayed on it, so see which glue bonds to the liner material (as it is designed that things will not generally bond to it - and thus be difficult to get out or off of the spray in bed liner surface). Then, we will glue the rubber or flexible plastic piece to the tailgate, just above where the holes are. It will be the length of the tailgate and be maybe around 4" wide. Just wide enough to extend down (when the tailgate is down) to hang below the lower lip of the tailgate. The water should thus be directed away from the drain holes and down past the end of the tailgate and onto the ground. Then when the tailgate is closed and thus in the vertical position, the rubber or plastic piece will just hang, vertically, in-between the tailgate and the rear end of the bed of the truck, but not be so tight of a fit that the water can't drain out and might get inside the tailgate. However, if it works right, water won't any longer be getting in there and filling up the inside of the tailgate.

We are going to use a heated shop area either over Thanksgiving or over Christmas/New Years to work all of this out and attach the rubber or plastic strip to the tailgate. I kept telling them that I knew I wasn't the first person to have encountered this, since I'm not the first person who wanted to use my new truck as a work truck in inclement weather instead of just a lawn ornament in sitting in my driveway. I go winter kayaking and often in the spring and fall do construction projects where I will be having the tailgate down with the bed extender in there for days at a time because I have material in the bed of the truck where I can't just lift up the tailgate and drain the water out of the inside of the tailgate - which I wouldn't want to do anyhow, in that I don't want water getting into the inside of the tailgate in the first place. Of course people are going to be parking their truck on a downward slope with the tailgate down, when it will rain and then get cold enough to freeze that night. What were they thinking...?

GM should be paying me for pressing it enough to try to find an intelligent design solution to their problem.