If you hang ramps off your tailgate and roll heavy items up there with any regularity, the DG Manufacturing Tailgate Support Bars might be a sensible addition to the factory cables.
These support bars click into the tailgate locking hardware on one end. On the other, they slip over the closure bolt on the truck bed. The steel bar the support is made from relieves the pressure on the cables with basically unbreakable strength. Take ‘em off and close the gate.
Or, for stuff that sticks out past the end of the truck bed a little—lawn tractor, dirt bike, stump grinder, portable hydraulic auger maybe—DG makes two shorter bars that enable you to partially close the tailgate. A hole drilled in the support offers another anchor point for ropes or ratchet straps.
If you have kids (or ride yourself) and have piled bikes in your truck bed with whatever else, you may find DG’s bike support to be genius. Just clamp it to the truck bed and strap the bike in.
The Tailgate Support Bars are $60 a pair. That’s cheaper than busted cables and a crumpled tailgate, that’s for sure.
