If it weren't for bad luck... So I spent the afternoon hauling hay in my truck... I know- but after all, it's a truck. Anyway, I went to close the tailgate, and it simply popped out of it's track, or off it's bolt, I guess is a better way to put it. It took me three minutes of sweating, fighting and muttering to get it back in place. After all, I was hot, sweaty, and had no help. I wound up scratching the paint in one spot. It's the first scratch on the truck, other than in the bed. After I got her back in place, I heard something fall out of the truck. I looked down, & there on top of the sawdust was a little plastic clip. It fell from near the right side of the tailgate, hit the backside of the bumper, and hit the ground.
What the heck is this clip? Is my tailgate held in place by a plastic clip??? Has anyone else had a problem with the danged tailgate popping off when opening or closing the gate?
Bottom line- I'm ticked a little- again. I don't DARE take it to the old dealer. I could take it to a different dealer to try to get the scratch worked on, and check everything out. I'm just ticked- I've owned four pickups, and never had a tailgate come off when I was closin' it.
Anyway- how common is this? I've never taken the tailgate off before, and seldom used the tailgate. It's usually closed. Do I need Ford to look at it, or can I replace that clip? BTW- the clip looks undamaged and unmolested...

C1

 

Man thats strange! Let us know what happens and the cause if you find out! Hope you get it fixed nice and good!

 

YIKES!! I use my tailgate A LOT and I hope that is just a freak occurance. I think my dark colored tailgate would not look so purdy after taking a tumble off the truck. Best of luck to you and please keep us posted!

 

My wife and I hit the magic button one day also. Thank God she happend to be on one side and I on the other of the tailgate and we caught it. I was closing it with out pushing some boxes all the way forward and the gate hit it and POW off she came. Haven't had any reocurences since then, but I am more careful now too.

 

you shouldnt have to be careful, i could slam the **** out of my 03 without problems, But the 04 the tailgates are falling off?? if this is the exhange for lighter tailgates.... Please give me my heavy one back

 

In hindsight, Randall, that's probably what happened to me. The bales may not have been far enough forward.

Yep- color me nervous. I've spent almost as much time worrying about scratching this truck as I have spent enjoying it. At least I don't have to worry about that any more...

I've called a dealer in Nashville. I hope to get it to them sometime in the next two weeks. I'm not taking it today, as I'm on vacation next week and out of town. Danged if I'm going on a trip without my truck. I'll just have to make sure the danged tailgate doesn't pop off again.
C1

 

Just received my 04 F-150 Shop manual last week from Helm. The section on tailgates show a plastic bushing in the right hand side(as you are facing the tailgate) pivot point. I would look to be about a 1 inches in diameter and a ½ inch thick. I remember reading in the owner manual that if you lift the tailgate slightly when it at about 42 degrees it will come off of the pivots so it can be removed. Could be the plastic piece broke allowing the tailgate come out or maybe after bucking bales all day you were stronger than you think and lifted a little more out, bring the gate off the pivot. Either way, not a good thing. By the way mine new 04 is a truck too. Hauled firewood last weekend and had several hundred pound of it setting on the tailgate while I was loading it. Your story is cause for concern. I’m going to check my tailgate out before I put any load on it. Best of luck.
04 F150 Rcab 4.6 3.55LS. Love it.

 

Awhile back when i owned my previous truck i had a mcgaurd tailgate lock so theives couldnt snag my tailgate. and with ingenious thinking i wrapped a hose clamp around the right part and tightened it up with a long screwdriver from the bottom with the tailgate closed. this making it impossible to remove unless you had a long enough screw driver and you would have to go through about 2 inches of backing off a hose clamp.

 

If nothing is defective, then my guess is that when you were closing the tailgate, you hit the hay close enough to the "42 degree" angle causing the right to pop off.

good luck with it!

 

The little black clip is called an anti-rattle clip. It slides onto the tailgate ball on the right side. It has nothing to do with holding your tailgate on.

 

So if we keep our tailgate unlocked, anyone could just steal it right off! Crap I am going to lock mine!

 

be careful not to break the cheap meatal clips on the suport cables, I found this out the hard way on my 02 f-150, talgate ended up dragging down the road when I hauled 16 ft 2x4s.
if you do break them, you can fix it with metal banding ( used to strap lumber) and electrical or duct tape.

 

I loaded mine up with mulch and the tailgate fell off. Fortunately the cables held it in place and there was no damage.

Philip

 

Yup, just happened to me as well. I read this thread a while ago and thought it was a rare occurence. I loaded 1-1/2 cu. yards of mulch this weekend and had the same problem. I went to lift the gate to get the mulch off the tailgate and some mulch dropped in the crack between the gate and the bed. One side of the gate popped off. I couldn't close the gate. So I was holding up one side of the gate up with one hand and the other hand digging out the mulch. BTW, our gates are very heavy.

Conservative1, did you have the dealer look into this??

 

Actually, these gates are heavier than the '03s - they just SEEM lighter because of the "tailgate assist" mechanism.