Quote:
|
Note: Does anyone with a micrometer have access to an older Toyota pickup or a Ford, Chevy or Dodge Pickup truck? Would be interested to see how this compares.
|
If I can find a flat place on my F250 I'll get a measurement with my mic versus the Tundra. Yesterday I pulled the black plastic top trim off my Tundra tailgate. Pretty interesting, after the outer sheet metal wraps over the inner, it is spot welded 15 places across the width of the gate to the forward inner panel. It would be hard for a separation to happen between the two panels along the top due to the welds. I figured that was happening first, then the outer upper edges were separating second but I think I'm wrong on on that one. Once the black plastic is off, looking at the panel holes the clips go into, it's easy to see that the sheet metal is unbelievably thin for tailgate material. I don't claim to know everything, but I've done a bunch of metal fabrication and welding as a big part of my job for years and it's definitely going to take some real clever engineering on Toyota's part to come up with any way to make this thing servicable for ATVs, etc. It's so flimsy and thin, there's just not much there to work with. I hope not, but I think we might be screwed on the tailgate issue. Even if a dealer fixes one under warranty, it's just going to break up again if a guy continues to load an ATV. Before I put the plastic back on today I'll take some pics however I don't know how to post them on this particular forum.
Quote:
|
why don't you put something across the hole width to distribute the weight across the whole thing.
|
Actually I've done that with a sheet of aluminum. Yesterday after pulling the trim piece, I sat way back in the middle of the gate area on the aluminum and bounced as well as I could while leaning over and looking at the seam exactly where Alaska Cub's separated and I could actually see the two crimped pieces separate to a small degree. I weigh right at 175 lbs.---this is not a good sign.