I'm taking a trip to Florida for Bike Week and the family is leaching along too. So the ride there and back is now a drive. OK I can deal with SpongeBob videos and Cheetah Girls CDs for 15 hours; so long as Grandma is ready for me and Mamma to hit the streets and leave them heading toUniversal Studios.

Big question is what kind of weight can the tailgate withstand while loading a Heritage Softail? The truck is a1/2 ton Ford CrewCab, so the back tire will be on the tail gate when traveling too. I'm getting a 3/4 ton Ford Crew Cab this summer, got any ideas about how well that tail gate holds up to the weight?

I'm not really interested in a trailer...yet. I have been looking at the Diamond Deck foldingtrailer for $1495but having a hard time justifying one. I've ridden all over the country, but that was solo,before there were any family ties.

 

I tried to put my Custom in the back of my 2001 Ranger and it sits on the tailgate too.
Now I know a Ranger is a smaller truck, but the tin they make the tailgates from is the same stuff. The Rangers might even be a touch stronger because they use the same hinges but it’s a bit narrower. So I would put a steel plate on there because the one time I put my bike in the back you could see it was bending the inside panel. I figure that given a few good bumps that nice big 200mm tire would eventually put a major and permanent dent in it.

Another thing is that about a year and a half agoI accidentally let the tailgate slip out of control and it dropped down to the cables limits.
You can imagine my surprise when the tailgate hit the ends of the cable and both of them SNAPPED!!!!
Fortunately the gate didn't hit anything so there was no damage past the broken cables. But when I examined them I discovered that they had basically rotted thru from the inside out from all the road salts. The plastic coating made them look normal on the outside, but I think it probably worked against them by trapping water and road salt inside.
So you can understand why I refuse totrust them to hold up 400+ pounds of $20K Harley any farther than I can throw the truck.
I plan to fabricate a set of replacement steel bars so I don't have to worry about that happening. If you just need it for occasional hauling. You can make a pair offlat steel bars a bit longer than the cables. Then if you clamp them together you can drill the holes for the cable bolts and they will be exactly the same. Using the bars to hold the tailgate up would be a lot safer for your bike than trusting it to the cables.

 

Why not put a big piece of thick plywood in the bed? Wouldn't that distribute the weight more evenly?
Tom

 

That would work, but plywood over 1/2" thick that large is a pain toleave laying around just to move your bike and costs more thana couple of pieces of 3/16" X 1"flat bar stock.
A smaller piece cut to fit the tailgate should work fine for that part. I have access to scrap steel plate, so I would rather use it instead.

 

If you have a trailer hitch you can get an extension "T" for it and then use your imagination as to what material to use to put on the "T" to the actual bed of the truck this will distribute the weight of the rear tire[/align]

Here is an ugly drawing of the ext I'm talking about





[IMG]local://upfiles/3362/7FBC6184C2764DA0A58436F78F80420C.jpg[/IMG]

 

I use a 2' X 2' piece of diamond plate under my rear wheel. I don't have to worry about those flimsy cables, like Ford uses on their tailgates, breaking. My truck has metal hinges straps.

 

I have a 6 ft bed on my 2000 chevy and the bike fits in the bed, I can't close the tailgate, but the weight of the bike does not ride on the gate for me. I don't know how much longer the Heratage is than the Springer but I don't think it's that long. Unless you have a truck box in the bed.

 

Or the OL can drive the spongebob truck and follow you on the scoot.

 

Citoriplus, you are a friggin genious. I'm going out to the shop and cutting the stainless flatbar tonight. Too dang simple. I had forgot all about the flat bar supports we used to have when trucks were trucks. Now if Ford would just start using the old chains again...?

 

Very clever, I hadn't though of scanning a drawing in. I like the idea too, but it would take a bit more work to get a ramp to hang off it.

Now using your bright idea for posting a drawing, I scribbled this and scanned this drawing of what I was thinking of makingas areplacement tailgate.



Sorry it didn't come out as nice as I had wanted. Next time when I have the time I'll do a better job. Gotta remeber not to use the back of a piece of scrap paper. That way you don'tsee shadows from what's on the other side.
Its probably a bit over engineered, but I like things that way and it will hold upany bike or with two flat plates a quad. If you can weldit right it should be stronger thanthe truck body. The only load limits would be the body's mounting points, if anything fails it will happen there first.