My wife doesn’t like the tailgate on my truck. She thinks its way too heavy. I think its because she has a gas spring assisted lift gate on her SUV. So I made a spring assist this weekend. I used 1 and 1/2 #4 door springs in series inside 1/2 inch electrical metal conduit. Seems to work very well. I can post dimensions and other pictures.

 

Nice job.

What's with the offset for the bed extender? More room in the stowed position?

 

SafetyPro,
It gives me an extra foot of room in the cargo area without items sliding all the way to the front of the truck box. The size was determined by the length of my arms.

 

I love the scientific approach.

 

I am sure the one shown above works fine, and it looks great. But for anyone less handy with fabricating things, there is an aftermarket part. It,s called the "Tailgrabber", made by Beaver Bed Systems who also make a really nice sliding load floor. I saw both at SEMA last year. I don't see a website listed in the info i have but the number to find a dealer is 888-234-3400. I have no connection to them although they happen to be about 15 miles from me.

 

I did a search on search.com and found their site. It looks pretty close although I'm not sure how they get it around the rear post area. I had to bend mine once to get it out from the side box area and again to line it up with the tailgate. I also put a roller in the end to reduce drag on the cable.


Here is their site:


http://www.beaverbedsystems.com/beav...ailgrabber.asp

 

good point, the one i saw was just on a ranger i think. It is kinda ugly actually, it needs to be better hidden/packaged so it goes through the D-pillar (corner post)