Tips On Preventing Pickup Truck’s Tailgate From Bouncing

There are many reasons why one would want to leave his or hers pickup’s tailgate open when going about the day, though one thing is certain, this will come with its own good and bad.

Leaving the tailgate without much weight there can literally make it bounce up or down rather hard, obviously only worse on those rougher roads, and we probably don’t want anything bad happening to the thing considering that the cost of replacing such part can be not very cheap.

Anyhow, what are the preventative methods for such an occurrence? Read on.

Strap her down

I think the simplest, or should i say, the first solution you should try to hopefully stop the unneeded tailgate budging is tying her down to the hitch.

You can do so with anything you want: a ratchet strap, cam buckle or even some bungee cords – the goal here is to apply just enough downward pressure to either reduce the bouncing, or get rid of it entirely.

Funnily enough, you may find it hard to secure the tailgate as it doesn’t have any good anchor points, so utilizing the holes on the sides could be the only option you have. Obviously this won’t be much of a problem if you have anything in the bed you can run a tie down off of.

Invest into accessories

Tailgate assist

A tailgate assist (Amazon affiliate link to it) not only helps to slow down the drop of it, but also adds additional resistance to help with the bouncing. It’s a great first option to consider, as it really is an inexpensive and easy to apply mod.

How well can it work compared to all the other methods? The only way you can find that out is by installing one and seeing how it works, as the results really depend.

Bed extender

Let me explain how this can easily be the main way to deal with the issue – because the extender also covers most of the area of the tailgate, it adds more overall rigidity, and that’s all we want for the reduction of the bounce.

It’s not an inexpensive solution by any means, however if you haul things like motorcycles, or in general, items that don’t need more clearance, this is actually great.

The item can be purchased on Amazon.

Other tips to keep in mind

Once the tailgate is down, it now clearly faces the ground, right? Because of that, all the rocks and dirt can potentially end up hitting the thing, and you probably don’t want to let this ruin the finish. Well, there’s really nothing much you can do about it, unless being more aware when driving through those dirt roads.

In some states, driving with a tailgate down is flat-out illegal, many of the times unless there’s an actual load resting on it. The only way you can find this out is by reading the local law, so be aware.

Why not consider removing the tailgate completely? I mean, if you don’t really put that much weight on it when it’s down and the object isn’t that long, this can deal with the question the article is about in an instant!

An open tailgate is an easy to steal tailgate. Thankfully it is not that hard to prevent theft in this instance, as all you have to do is invest into a lock.