Ram's new tailgate design

webslave wrote:

Hybridhunter wrote:

spoon059 wrote:

Bigfoot affair wrote:
Thats a selling feature? Would hate loading a quad etc on a tailgate like that...

I think most, if not all, manufacturers recommend removing the tailgate to load a quad or bike in the bed. If you had a tailgate that swung open like this, you wouldn't need to remove and store the tailgate...

And out in the real world, no one removes the tailgate exclusively to load a quad, and many use the tailgate as part of the parking spot, as many quads are larger than truck boxes.
This gimmick REDUCES the functionality, as opposed to increasing it!

Not sure about it reducing the functionality... When both halves are dropped down, it is a regular tailgate. On a regular tailgate the entire tailgate takes the load...on this split design each half would take half the load and until the figures are out for the load that it supports, it may not be any different than a regular tailgate. I'm sure that the engineers aren't going to produce a tailgate that would collapse under most uses, and they certainly know that, despite warning to the contrary, most of us overload our tailgates. I would certainly like being able to load lumber directly to the bed without having to reach across a high tailgate in order to do it. Picking up 6 or 8 bags of ready mix concrete? Swing the tailgate out of the way and stack them up. No need to stack them on the tailgate, climb up and move them off the tailgate into the bed. Neat idea...

I agree the new tailgate should be structurally solid.
But adding a seam right in the middle of the gate most likely effects the integrity of the gate. Is it enough to make a difference hopefully not.
But when a pallet of tile slides back and hist the tailgate I don't want it bowing, separating or flexing in the middle. I imagine there is some structural compromise for convenience sake in the design.
But again we are talking half ton trucks that generally do not have to meet the same demands of their HD counterparts. So any loss of structural integrity will not be noticed.