thanks for the heads up. I'm about 190lbs and I stand on my tailgate all of the time. hell sometimes my coworker and I stand on it together to load stuff in the bed. He's about 170; 170+190= 360lbs. I better be careful. I'll make sure not to tell toyota about the 360lbs if something goes wrong. I better take a look the next time I'm outside.

On a side note: When I first got my bed extender, it said not to load more than 200lbs on the tailgate alone (I'm pretty sure that was the weight). I thought, shit that isn't that much weight for the tailgate to hold.

 

yeah they did cheeze out on the tailgate. Im 260 pounds and will not dare jump up from the gound onto the gate :lol:

Maybe it can be opened up and reinforced.

 

This is just ridiculous!! I'm about ready to trade in my 2004 Dodge Ram for a Taco DC.........but after reading this stuff, I'm really worried. I need a pickup for my motorcycle. For years I have been riding my bike right up a ramp into the back of my pickups. Even my 1989 Hardbody Nissan had no tailgate issues. But if I add up the weight of the ramp, bike, and me, it's around 600 pounds. Although that much weight will only be on gate for a few seconds........it sure sounds like this is going to be a problem. This is just sickening to hear........especially from a Toyota Truck which is supposed to be "Meteor Proof"......what bullshit! I have been driving only GM's for many years now............and I have never had a problem with somthing as simple as a freaken tailgate. I'm starting to reconsider my future plan.

 

In the fwiw dept.... We looked at many vehicles (cars, trucks, SUVs) before buying what we wanted all along -- a new Tacoma. One other we looked at was the new Nissan Frontier. I am not suggesting the Frontier is a better truck than the Taco (remember -- we got the Taco). It did, however, have a few features I liked, but that's a different topic.

For better or worse, as light and easy to operate as the Taco's tailgate is, the Frontier's is quite the opposite. Though of similar size, it feels very heavy, much more difficult to lift & close -- my wife has medical issues, and she had difficulty with it. Not to say it's any stouter or more durable, but it just may be.

 

I have already taken the plastic off the inside of the gate to have a look see and I plan on cutting some wood pieces to fit in between the flimsy pressed metal supports that are exposed when the plastic is removed.

The difficulty as far as I can see is the inability to get one solid piece of bracing lumber between the metal supports and the gate latch rods that run to the ends have to be kept clear to work.

Another thing that buzzed through the head was filling the gap up with that spray foam, Great Stuff, as it is known to add support to the gate. It dries hard but it is still only foam and doesn't have terrific dimenshional strength.

 

The best way I think is for some aftermarket company to sell a replacement tailgate cap that sits on the top. Where the plastic is. Or just replace the plastic with aluminium.

 

Maybe it can be opened up and reinforced.

I've been thinking the same thing. Somebody should take it apart and see if it can be reinforced with something. I might take a look at it later.

 

If Toyota fixes the tailgate under warranty, whats the problem? :dunno: If you bend it again, take it back again. Its as simple as that.
Even if the warranty runs out and you bend the tailgate again, they have to replace it because it was a condition that was occuring while the vehicle was under warranty.
If the best thing you can find to complain about is that the tailgate is flimsy, you dont have much to complain about. People who own Rangers, Colorados, Dakotas and even Frontiers have much bigger complaints that that.
If worse come to worse, just take the tailgate off and replace it with an aftermaket one or one of those mesh "airgate" ones.
I know the tailgate is flimsy but guess what, you can bend a tailgate on anything. My brother bent the tailgate on his F-250 by stacking too much firewood on it, so dont act like this problem is isolated to Toyotas.

 

A fast fix would be to cut 3/4 "or thicker piece of plywood (8X10)to the shape of the truck bed to the tailgate so that all the wieght will be on the plywood when loading heavy stuff in the bed.

 

That's exactly what I did, I have a 3/4" piece of plywood cut just long enough to come to the end of the tailgate. When I load my quad on it, I drive it up the ramps with me on it, (total weight of over 800lbs) and I haven't had any problems yet.
I did notice on the ramps, they have a warning saying not to use the tailgate as any part of the ramp system. All the pictures also show the tailgate off the truck when loading quads in the bed.

 

If worse come to worse, just take the tailgate off and replace it with an aftermaket one or one of those mesh "airgate" ones.

well that would be great, but he said he hauls a snowmobile, which he says is probably the cause of his cracked tailgate, so no tailgate, no hauling the snowmobile because it won't fit in safely.

 

If Toyota fixes the tailgate under warranty, whats the problem? :dunno: If you bend it again, take it back again. Its as simple as that.
Even if the warranty runs out and you bend the tailgate again, they have to replace it because it was a condition that was occuring while the vehicle was under warranty.
If the best thing you can find to complain about is that the tailgate is flimsy, you dont have much to complain about. People who own Rangers, Colorados, Dakotas and even Frontiers have much bigger complaints that that.
If worse come to worse, just take the tailgate off and replace it with an aftermaket one or one of those mesh "airgate" ones.
I know the tailgate is flimsy but guess what, you can bend a tailgate on anything. My brother bent the tailgate on his F-250 by stacking too much firewood on it, so dont act like this problem is isolated to Toyotas.

If you re-read my post, you will see that i mentioned that the weight of the snowmobile spread over the area of its track is LESS than the weight of a man standing on it. sooooo, if you can't stand on it, and its not strong enough to hold you, how are you supposed to climb in and out of it? or load it with anything? or how about explaining the
"bed-extender"? its disigned to extend the useful length of the bed to ......wait for it.......
carry a load on the tailgate.

I recieved a call from Toyota today stating that: "the tailgate is not a structural load carrying component and therefore no warranty." I told him he had better reconsider because I plan on making their life a living hell until they do. I am going to cut&paste the posts in this thread and send them in a flood to Toyota and raise a stink. If it is so flimsy you can't even stand on it...then where is a placard stating that? I have read through the entire owner's manual, and warrany book....no mention whatsoever that you can't use the tailgate to support a load, or stand on it. I read every page in both books. nada, not a peep.

I'll keep everybody posted as to developements as they occur.

 

If you re-read my post, you will see that i mentioned that the weight of the snowmobile spread over the area of its track is LESS than the weight of a man standing on it. sooooo, if you can't stand on it, and its not strong enough to hold you, how are you supposed to climb in and out of it? or load it with anything? or how about explaining the
"bed-extender"? its disigned to extend the useful length of the bed to ......wait for it.......
carry a load on the tailgate.

I recieved a call from Toyota today stating that: "the tailgate is not a structural load carrying component and therefore no warranty." I told him he had better reconsider because I plan on making their life a living hell until they do. I am going to cut&paste the posts in this thread and send them in a flood to Toyota and raise a stink. If it is so flimsy you can't even stand on it...then where is a placard stating that? I have read through the entire owner's manual, and warrany book....no mention whatsoever that you can't use the tailgate to support a load, or stand on it. I read every page in both books. nada, not a peep.

I'll keep everybody posted as to developements as they occur.

:thumbup: good luck

 

Although I believe my Taco is the best truck I've owned ( a life long GM man), I do have two issues, both related to weak structure. All my GM's (six,all bought new) had virtually bullet proof tailgates. I'm 160 lbs and would hesitate to sit on it, let alone drive a bike or snowmobile across it. The other is the fact that the rear suspension hits bottom regularly with nothing in the box while hitting what I would consider relatively mild bumps in the road. My truck is the heaviest of all - DC long box 4wd at 4129 lbs dry weight. This particular model should have stronger rear springs than say an acsess cab 2wd, but I don't believe that's the case. My life long knock on Japanese vehicles has been what I perceive to be a weaker structure than GM Ford or (heaven forbid) Chrysler. I have heard of people adding a 3/4" piece of plywood accross the full width of the tailgate, but this is something that Toyota definitley should address. A real shame, a terrific vehicle, but Toyota seems to think that tailgates are like trunk lids and puts a car rear suspension on trucks.

 

If Toyota fixes the tailgate under warranty, whats the problem? :dunno: If you bend it again, take it back again. Its as simple as that.
Even if the warranty runs out and you bend the tailgate again, they have to replace it because it was a condition that was occuring while the vehicle was under warranty.
If the best thing you can find to complain about is that the tailgate is flimsy, you dont have much to complain about. People who own Rangers, Colorados, Dakotas and even Frontiers have much bigger complaints that that.
If worse come to worse, just take the tailgate off and replace it with an aftermaket one or one of those mesh "airgate" ones.
I know the tailgate is flimsy but guess what, you can bend a tailgate on anything. My brother bent the tailgate on his F-250 by stacking too much firewood on it, so dont act like this problem is isolated to Toyotas.

Has anyone tried to get a new gate after it has been bent? I think the dealership has a lot to do with the success or failure in achieving that attempt.

If we had a lot of time and resources then maybe that would be a good solution but it is no guarantee.

At some point, even a good dealer will come to the conclusion, be it right or wrong, that the customer is the source of the problem and may decide not to honor a bent tailgate warranty claim and now you will have to deal with Toyota themselves and a search of this forum will show you how much fun that can be. If you do it once, shame on them but if you do it twice or three times, shame on somebody, either the design engineer or YOU. I wouldn't want to take the chance that the shame would fall on me.

I have personally witnessed a big fat motorcycle being loaded across the tailgate on a Tundra by a big fat guy. The tailgate didn't even flinch. I wouldn't want to even consider doing that to my Tacoma but if pa-pa Tundra can take it, why shouldn't son Tacoma be able to do same?

Complaining about a flimsy tailgate may not be the absolute best thing we have to do but it is one area of a near perfect truck that needs a touch-up and that is a strong reason for having this group in the first place, to touch-up, tune-up and fix-up as well as share the experience.

I would never know of the TSB's that applied to my truck had it not been for this forum and I may even have tried to load that big fat motorcycle with the help of the big fat dude that rides it someday but not now knowing what I do as a result of these "complaints".

 

Good topic. I have a 300+ pound motorcycle and I've never dared load it using the tailgate...I just take it off. (Which I like being able to do.)

The engineers should've considered this and, at a minimum, offered a tailgate similar to the Tundras as an option, since a lot of people don't put heavy loads in their bed.

 

I've owned my truck for three weeks and have yet to open my tailgate, now I'm afraid to as it might bend!

 

one time i had my hands full and closed the tail gate with my knee very softly, knowing damn well it's a POS and i dented the f-ing thing.. totally ridiculous

they really took their "this isn't a work truck" claim seriously.

they must have sat in a board room and said "ok, this isn't going to be a work truck" and let that premise guide everything they did with the truck.

at one point i think they said, "hell, let's build it out of foil"

bah

 

The only weight limit on the tail gate I ever saw, was when I got my bed extender. It said something like no weight in excess of 200lbs should be on the tailgate. I'm even afraid to let the gate drop open from its closed position. I had an 87 ford ranger with one of the tailgate cables rusted through and broken, and never thought twice about loading crap in it.

 

I am never sitting on it or jumping from the ground up onto it again! :ugh3:

 

I am never sitting on it or jumping from the ground up onto it again! :ugh3:

Jump up from the ground onto the tailgate? What are you, a frigging cricket? I guess maybe I'm just getting old.

Last time we had this discussion I went out and hopped around on one foot, up on my toes (as much as possible,) concentrating my ~150lbs over a couple of square inches. Not a problem. I also load my ATV (combined weight ~750lbs,) and loaded a golf cart (about 900lbs) across my tailgate.

But I refuse to let factual examples get in the way of speculation and exaggeration, so I now refuse to put anything more than 7 of those peanut shaped marshmellow things on my tailgate. I might cut back to 6, because I got a little nervous last time I did 7.

 

Jump up from the ground onto the tailgate? What are you, a frigging cricket? I guess maybe I'm just getting old.

I am a 19 year old cricket! :lol:

I got hops!

 

I recieved a call from Toyota today stating that: "the tailgate is not a structural load carrying component and therefore no warranty." I told him he had better reconsider because I plan on making their life a living hell until they do. I am going to cut&paste the posts in this thread and send them in a flood to Toyota and raise a stink. If it is so flimsy you can't even stand on it...then where is a placard stating that? I have read through the entire owner's manual, and warrany book....no mention whatsoever that you can't use the tailgate to support a load, or stand on it. I read every page in both books. nada, not a peep.

I'll keep everybody posted as to developements as they occur.

It might be worth mentioning to Toyota that when the tailgate is lowered it was designed to be level with the rest of the bed and therefore a reasonable person would assume it is meant to be an extension of the bed especially since Toyota uses the term "bed extender" for their bed extender which fits OVER the TAILGATE. If Toyota felt that it is far weaker than the rest of the bed (and that a reasonable person should assume that) they should not have made it open to a horizontal position, but open farther so it would be sloped down so you couldn't load things on it, or sit or stand on it. That 200lb limit should be expressed in sq. inches or something since it depends how the weight is spread out. Also is the 200lb weight rating limited to when the truck is not being driven? And does it say that? You hit a bump and that would increase the load on the tailgate.

Those class action sharks never stop swimming. Good luck.

 

I stand on mine all the time when loading stuff. had 2 guys on it last week with a washer on it as well and nothing happened. I'll admit it does feel flemsy but i've yet to have an issue with it. However i did all of this before reading this post so i will probably be more careful in the future. :thumbup:

 

I am 165 and have never had any issues with it yet. But to "all" who had experienced this issue thanks for giving me the headsup so I can avoid putting too much weight on it.