Carried a 4x8 with the tailgate locked on a angle

10271 Views 14 Replies 6 Participants Last post by dubie2003, May 7, 2010

eanx32

Discussion Starter · May 4, 2010

I found out that if I unhook my tailgate straps and hook them onto the tailgate latch posts, the top of the tailgate was from what I saw, the same height as my wheel wells. I was able to slide a sheet of ply on top of the wells and the tailgate. I still strapped it to the rail system so it could not go any where.

I am just wondering if any one else does this?

Cheers. (New 2010 Pro 4x Crew owner, and love the truck!)

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dubie2003

· #6 · May 5, 2010

Anyone else remember the thread where someone carried a set of 4x8 sheets in the bed of the truck with the tailgate up and it bent the hinges?

I think the only safe way is to use the 2x4 or 2x6 in the bed indents and then something above the tailgate. This way the load is level.

Also a single tie-down is somewhat stupid. Yes it can work but it is a single point failure. It is better to use 2 (1 as a back-up) and 4 if you are paranoid. Its always easier to add/remove a tie-down then to have to pay for repairs when a few sheets fly out the back and cause an accident.

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dubie2003

· #11 · May 6, 2010

eckemoff said:
I frequently carry 10+ sheets of 3/4 plywood and the hinges look new. In fact, the hinges do not hold any weight when the tailgate is locked in the up position. If you look closely, there are 2 latches the hold the tailgate in place while it is up.

I mean ratchet stripes when I say tie down. Some of these have 10,000 LB capacity (they are frequently used to pull boats out of ramps) and get the plywood really tight together, so that you basically carry a big block of wood that is so heavy that it holds itself place in the truck bed do to plain mass. An example: Ratchet Strap: 2 inch Ratchet Straps, Tie Down Straps

But yeah... it is always good to secure the load as much as possible.

Do you actually realize what you type?

You should read this thread: http://www.clubfrontier.org/forums/f8/load-onto-tailgate-while-closed-36690/

He was carrying something in the load range of 1k and it was up on the CLOSED tailgate and the end result was failed hinges and pulled bed pins.

I give you this thou, your 2010 has the updated hinges but I am still not confident that they would hold up to a heavy load.

I still stand behind my tie-down statement. It doesn't matter how much they can hold in tension if there is a chance that they could be cut by a sharp edge. Once the strap starts to get cut, its holding power decreases and it quickly reaches its tension limit and then....... SNAP and your crap has a chance to fly out the back.

This is also why it is best to stop every once in a while to check your load. Check all the straps and to ensure the load hasn't shifted. If everyone would do this it would eliminate the guys that are on the hwy with tarps flying off and chairs falling out the back of their pickups.

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dubie2003

· #13 · May 6, 2010

eckemoff said:
Seems that playing 2x6 in the slots would also bend the truck bed at their resting points. You'd have to leave the tailgate down in order to allow the 4x8 sheets to lay straight/level and it seems it would be hard to strap the sheets from sliding out the back or throw the rear glass (if you put more than 5 sheets) with this method. Suppose you can get the extender that plugs into the trailer hitch, get 3 2x6's, lay all the plywood, and ratchet strip it together and to the utili-track system.

I support this idea. Heck, you can even add some additional supports below the 2x6s so that it also rests on the bottom utilitrac rails. This way the weight is not only on the sides but the bottom too. Then if you figure out a way to turn the bed extender into some kind of rear support you would be good to go. Not to mention a bunch of tie-downs, lol.

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dubie2003

· #15 · May 7, 2010

eckemoff said:
Hmm... I inspected the latches of my tailgate again.

I DO HAVE A LITTLE BEND on the metal surrounding the latches! It is barely noticeable, but still there!

This is plain stupid because I never had this problem on my chevy s10 and I loaded it with more than I have on this truck.

This is what gets a lot of people. Apparently Nissan has a different design or tolerance issue when building or something but the tailgates are not as sturdy as the older GM one (like the S10).

Heck, the bed on the truck will flex to the point that when you are loading dirt into it, if you don't have the tailgate closed, it may not close afterwards. This has happened to a few people. Others even had issues trying to open the tailgate when they had the bed loaded with dirt. Not to mention the flex it gets when offroading. I believe Penski even stated that he can no longer put his tailgate on because his bed has flexed too much (his case is the extreme thou since he puts that truck thru hell and it just wants more, lol).

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