How does your tailgate open? Is this common?

[kirkster89]

If I close the tailgate normally (no excessive force) the tailgate doesn't sit flush against the body/taillight on the passenger side, the handle is easy to open, the sound of it unlatching seems normal as well.

If I firmly close it or slam it shut the tailgate sits fairly flush to the body but when you go to open it the handle doesn't engage until it is basically lifted all the way up to the max and given a decent squeeze. When it finally does unlatch it makes a nice loud pop. It feels almost like I'm opening an old worn out tailgate from 2005...

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[JimG]

Something is not properly adjusted. Mine closes like your second picture. And is smooth without slamming. Ford should be able to fix that easily unless something is tweaked.

 

[AugPal]

Something is not properly adjusted. Mine closes like your second picture. And is smooth without slamming. Ford should be able to fix that easily unless something is tweaked.

Ditto. Mine closes with no slamming. Dealer should fix that

 

[kirkster89]

Something is not properly adjusted. Mine closes like your second picture. And is smooth without slamming. Ford should be able to fix that easily unless something is tweaked.

I figured so... I'll get them to look at it at our first service. Trucks about a month old less than 3000km (1800miles). My list is growing lol...

Thanks!!

 

[kirkster89]

Something is not properly adjusted. Mine closes like your second picture. And is smooth without slamming. Ford should be able to fix that easily unless something is tweaked.

Thanks! I figured it couldn't be proper I can see it now.. 2 years from now i'd have to be giving people instructions on how to get it to open "you have to push it in then pull"

 

[stuartmunto]

Do you have a roller shutter? I find if the roller shutter is closed you need to slam the tail gate to get it to fully latch. If the shutter is open it latches with ease and very little effort.

 

[kirkster89]

Do you have a roller shutter? I find if the roller shutter is closed you need to slam the tail gate to get it to fully latch. If the shutter is open it latches with ease and very little effort.

Just a soft tri fold tonneau cover, but same results with it open or closed

 

[superj]

my son's does that too. he noticed it the first time he closed my tailgate. he told me about his and i told him to take it to the dealership, or we could adjust it ourselves, though i would do dealership since the truck is not even a year old. i guess he took it to them because we never messed with it.

he lives in omaha so i don't get to see him regularly to remember to ask about this

 

[alrashid2]

If I close the tailgate normally (no excessive force) the tailgate doesn't sit flush against the body/taillight on the passenger side, the handle is easy to open, the sound of it unlatching seems normal as well.

If I firmly close it or slam it shut the tailgate sits fairly flush to the body but when you go to open it the handle doesn't engage until it is basically lifted all the way up to the max and given a decent squeeze. When it finally does unlatch it makes a nice loud pop. It feels almost like I'm opening an old worn out tailgate from 2005...

Mine doing the EXACT same thing as yours! Did you ever figure this out?

 

[kirkster89]

Mine doing the EXACT same thing as yours! Did you ever figure this out?

According to the dealership it was bent.

I noticed this pretty soon after getting the truck so maybe it was like that from the factory. If it was me who bent it these tailgates must be very fragile.The heaviest thing would probably be a 210lb person sitting on it

Apparently they bent it back, the gap on the passenger side is still sort of there but the latch is smooth now

 

[alrashid2]

According to the dealership it was bent.

I noticed this pretty soon after getting the truck so maybe it was like that from the factory. If it was me who bent it these tailgates must be very fragile.The heaviest thing would probably be a 210lb person sitting on it

Apparently they bent it back, the gap on the passenger side is still sort of there but the latch is smooth now

Thanks for reporting back.

I got tinkering in the last 15 min and fixed mine too mostly.

What I could see is, from inside the bed, that when you slow close it, the latch was not fully latching. Only partially! Like you, if I slammed it, it'd go flush and the latch would fully latch, but then you'd get that terrible pop. I also noticed metal wear on the stud the latch grabs.

I loosened the metal stud with a large torx bit and found that is adjustable! I played around with it a bit and moved it forward a bit - you can see in my photo where the circular paint mark is where it originally sat.

The tailgate is slightly not flush still on passenger side, but now it doesn't clunk when opening, latches fully, and is consistent when opening and closing.

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