The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed Did You Know Your Tailgate Could Do This?

Maybe this should be posted in the Who Uses His Truck As A Truck? thread but I'm starting a new thread anyway.

You guys probably already know this and will probably laugh your butts off but I just learned something new about AD trucks.

I was using the bed as a work bench to fix a leaking gas tank on a blower. As usual I lowered the tailgate all the way down to rest on the top of the rear bumper. I then looked at it and decided to see if the chains could be hooked into the gate to keep it sticking straight out when open.

They can and do! The original chains are the exact length required to hold the tailgate perfectly level with the bed like modern trucks. I never knew that and maybe other people never knew that, either. For all I know it tells you that in the owner's manual but I don't have one of those.

Works great as a table for grilling or a fish fry!
Sports fans call that tail gaiting before a game.

Don

I just never thought about it with this truck. I just unhooked the chains and dropped the gate to the bumper.

Don't overload it.... Don't ask me how I know...

City boys ...

Spent many hours as kids sitting on that…. swinging our legs.

I had a shipmate who owned a WW2 Dodge M37. I remember 3 heavy guys were sitting on the tailgate and ever so slowly the cheap hardware store hooks were straightening out! Suddenly with no warning it dropped all three like a dunking booth on their tails flat on the pavement (the tailgate hangs straight down without the chains).

Great memories…

Yep, that's it... Ask PaPa Joe..

What did you think the chains were there for before your recent moment of enlightenment?

In '52, the pickups did not come with bumpers, very likely due to Korean War efforts.
GM's selling point in their sales literature highlighted the benefit of not having a bumper, why, you can drop the tailgate all the way down now so that you can back all the way back to loading dock for easier loading.

I hadn't really thought about it. I just thought the gate was supposed to drop all the way down for easy access. In hindsight it does seem that if they were only meant to keep the gate up, they'd have been shorter.

Ya all my other trucks stay flat when you open them.

I wonder how many otherwise good condition tailgates have a trailer hitch ball sized dent right in the middle?
Jerry

6-1/2’ bed plus tailgate on chains= 8’+-….. always been…..
Sometimes the obvious just escapes us….( speaking for myself there)

Chuck

There's a limit to have many people can sit on a tailgate. If you want to know how many ask Tut...or me and about 4 others😊

Alvin ... Maybe that's God's way of suggesting to you that you might want to consider laying off the hush puppies ...

Just sayin'

Gee...that's the way I was taught and if you didn't fasten it with the chains somebody was going to holler at you. I figured a large part of the reason why was it gave you extra room to put in a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood.

I did see a guy back into a garage door with the gate down once, but he was always doing something like that so it wasn't a surprise.

Ya, these trucks were already long out of regular use by the time I came along in the world. Nobody ever opens them at car shows, of course. On restored trucks I imagine the hooks will scratch up the gate when put through the holes so it's rarely done.

That guy who backed into the garage door was you, wasn't it?

What did you think the chains were for?

Maybe to retain the hooks so Otto wouldn't lose them.

Just be really careful that you use BOTH chains. I was having new glass installed on my truck, both front and rear. Working on the rear window they dropped the tailgate but used only one chain. One of the guys climbing on the truck stepped on the corner without the chain ( unbeknownst to me). It broke both of the opposite corners and warped the gate. At least I got a new tailgate out it.