Monster in 5' bed pickup?

[hbliam]

overkill

[He Man]

Colin Hay - Overkill (Live Acoustic)

[x136]

cant speak for the toyo..... but I'm sure it's not much different for my Nissan

I realize this is an old post, but...

Keep an eye on that tailgate hinge. I had the tailgate of a Titan at my last job fall off due to a failed hinge. I don't remember the exact details, but I think some kind of pin fell out on one side, which allowed the whole tailgate to drop off.

[oldschoollion]

overkill

when doing something, you can choose to work with a member of two families.  you can go with an O'Verkill, or an O'Shite.

then again, the same can be said of the engineering and maintenance schedule of our motorcycle of choice.

[Langanobob]

This is the first I've heard of any tailgate issues.  If it were my truck I'd take a long term permanent approach and fix the hinges, support or weld a 2" pipe to the top of the gate or whatever it is that is the cause of the problem.  That way you won't have to mess with plywood (the plywood is a good idea, it's just another complication and another thing to have to store somewhere).

I have an '86 Toyota pickup and I've used the tailgate for a ramp to load a mini-excavator on the truck, a very small mini-excavator but still...it's a shame that Toyota seems to be getting influenced by the "make it cheaper, not better and build it to sell, not to use" philosophy.

[LA]

If Toyota finally relents and fixes the problem trucks when they fail, there is a factory bulletin on it somewhere.  Service Mgr. at a good dealership would know the fix or could find out. 

I would mimic their fix.

To just fit extra cables to the tailgate would keep a failure from being a failure and the front straps will stay taught if the tail gate falls a little.  I usually strap a bike at four points too.

Tailgate in my old Datsun or my old s10 is loaded the same way.  I always thought it was normal really.

Sounds like the OldMan is putting some miles on the bike, specially considering how close to the Arctic Circle he is.

LA