Not sure if this goes in this section, but here goes. Does anyone know how much the tailgate can hold on my truck? The reason I am asking is I want to haul my Yamaha Rhino in the back but the back wheels will be resting on the tailgate, as I have a shortbox. I can lift the back of the rhino off the ground a little bit so it cant be that much weight. The whole machine only weighs about 1200 pounds. If its too much weight I was thinking I could add some removeable chains to help out the cables. Any thoughts?

 

I am not sure about weight in the open position. I can say they are strong closed. Mine held my 36 foot 5th wheel when it slid out of the hitch. It only bent the top a little and bowed the tailgate a little. It still shuts fine, covered the dent with a spoiler.

 

A while back there was a thread on broken tailgate straps. Many more than I would have thought.... mostly farmers. problem seems to be cumulative wear & tear..... many loads over time. The weak spot appears to be the bend in the cables which fray after a while.
I often load 800 - 1200 lb pallets in my bed.... having to rest the pallet on the gate and push it forward with a fork lift.... often while someone is standing on the gate guiding it. So I know the tail gate is strong.

I don't travel with the weight on the gate...so I'm not really answering you.... but I feel if you keep an eye on your tailgate cables, and replace as needed...you'll be fine.
I recently replaced mine from here.....LMCtruck.com

RJ

 

I would think you should be ok with that setup. I would make sure the back is resting on the tailgate... you could also drive it up onto some 2x8s placed lengthwise to sit under the front and back tires of each side to spread the load out if you were worried about it.

 

Thank you everybody for the thoughts. I remeber that thread with all of the broken cables now that you mention it. I remember reading that those guys lived in pretty wet climates and the cables would get water in them. I should be OK on account of where I live we get about 1/2" of rain annually.
" What is this weird water falling from the sky??!!!"

 

I agree with him. Or even put down a long piece of thick plywood to help distribute the weight, and run the Rhino on top of it. The tailgates are pretty strong but I wouldn't want that much weight resting on it going down the road.

 

3-4 of my buddy sit on the tailgate of my truck and that has to be at least 800lbs and if we go to work and we shoot the S out back the boys at the station weigh in at 250-300lbs and there is 3 of them on the gate at once. I dont thing that rhino is going to hurt it.

 

RE: tailgate cables. G.M. issued a recall on their cables 4 or 5 yrs. ago. The cables were so bad if you went down the road with the tailgate open, hit a bump, tailgate flew up a little, came down snapped the cables. And if that wasnt bad enough usually the tailgate fell right off in the street. Frank

 

I agree with both of em,'cept I would not be too worryed about it,if you are though then the 2X8s should ease your mind

 

I don't trust them.

 

Hey doznfire, how long is that bed? I know it looks like they stole bed space for cab space on those megacabs! From the pic it looks like you removed your tailgate and made a custom little mount.

 

I think it is 6'2" or 3" inside the bed. After having the bigger cab I'll never downgrade to a smaller cab. Took the tailgate off and built a rack, it works awesome. Here is a picture when I was trying to figure out where I needed to drill the hole for the hitch pin. I wanted to make sure the rhino was going to sit far enough away from the front window

 

3/16" wire rope has around 3,000 lb breaking strength. Using a 50% load rate means 3,000 lb for a pair. I think the crimped ends will fail before the cable UNLESS
Mine rusted after the vinyl coating failed from repeated flex. In MN cold winters the tailgate latch often does not ... latch. One of the cables snapped when the tailgate fell open.

What was wrong with the good old hinged straps? I bowed many a tailgate from excess load, but the hinged straps never failed.

 

Here's my two cents worth on the subject. If you are worried about the cables breaking, then make a set of solid straps to replace the cable when you are hauling loads on the gate. Snap off cables & replace with said straps . .

BTW. fueling around . . I agree about the hinged straps . . my tail gate came apart before the straps ever failed . . .

 

For temporary use I use a small ratchet strap on each side of the tailgate and hook it to the latches on the gate and the latch bolts on the bed. Then I merely take up the tension so that the load is spread between the factory cables and the ratchet straps.