The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop The bed is on, but............

I spent the last couple of days installing the bed on my truck. I think it turned out pretty good considering I had to wing it. I hit a couple of snags like having the wrong rear crossmember and having to make custom mounts. But by far my biggest disappointment has been the tailgate. It just dosen't fit! As you can see here and here, there is about a 1" gap on both sides. For the life of me I can't remember where I bought it otherwise I'd be fussing to someone right now! I suppose I can fix it but for once I wish "bolt on" really was!

Did you measure the front of the bed from side wall to side wall? It looks like the bed sides are leaning out at the top.

I can't imagine that the tailgate is too small. You might have fabricated the rear cross member too wide.

Frank

Just a suggestion. If you had a stick (story stick) that represented the inside measure of the box up front you could double check & compare the measurement at the back where the tailgate is supposed to fit. As countilaw mentioned this would help determine if the crossmember is the problem before having to modify your tailgate. Good luck.

Robert,
Your bedsides seem not to be vertical while your tailgate is. I agree with Frank and vickraft. That crossmember may be the problem.

Also you might get more responses over on the Paint and Body forum.

Robert,
from yur pics it sure looks like the rear end of your bed is flared out bought 2" to wide buy the tailgate hinges and your bedsides are leanin out.
Just took a quick measure on mine ..me bedsides at the rear are exactly 50" wide inside and my tailgate fits great.
Hope this helps.
Tim

I measured the front as I was getting it squared up. if I remember correctly it was around 50" of so. The rear sill is from a 1/2 ton that I just had to fab some different mounts. The bedsides do appear to be leaning in the photos because I had loosened the bolts on the sill.

Mine measures 50" also. What are the tailgate measurements?

The top of my tailgate where it is rolled is 49 7/8" wide.
Tim

Mine is only 49 1/8"

this is about the same problem i'm having and thought i could un-tighten all the bed bolts and pull the rear bed sides in an inch
https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthread...;Main=63797&Number=461071#Post461071

Then you have a problem. I hope you can remember where you bought it and exchange it I believe making it wider would be difficult, could you bring the bed sides in 1/2 inch on each side??

I'm going to take another crack fitting it this weekend. I dont think modifying it will be very difficult. I believe I can have someone weld a 1/2" strip to both sides and 1/2" pipe to the mounts and it should fit.

I would agree with the previous posts. Most of these things are always solved with a "simple" or "obvious" problem. Your tailgate being 1 or 2 inches too small is just not the usual answer. I would put a square in the bottom corners of the bed just in front of the tailgate. I would be willing to bed your bed sides are not square to the bottom. You could also check this by taking your measurement on top of the tailgate and then checking to see if that is the same as at the bottom. I would double/triple check before welding on some metal to make it work...chances are you have got it off by just a little.

The actually fit of these trucks are NOT the greatest. But you should get the tail gate to fit withing 1/4 inch on each side if you square the side walls.

Once you get the floor boards in, you should be pretty close to getting the tail gate to fit.

Frank

I honestly believe the tailgate is too short. I double checked the panels and they're all square. When I try to mount the gate and shift it from side to side it fall off the mounts.

It seems your gate is 3/4" shorter than others. That is weird!
That means you have a gap of 0.375 on each side.

Yep, thats about right. I'm trying to decide if I should try to modify this one or just buy another.

If you haven't finished the bed (boards) I would do that before I did anything, just in case there is another reason it doesn't fit besides the size of the gate.

Just bought this one on Ebay. I like the flat black & pin stripes. I had been seriously considering going with a flat black look anyway.

Did the new one fit? How are things up north?

Sorry for the delay. I haven't put it on yet but when I stand them side by side there is a noticable difference in height so it should fit great. Anybody want to buy a gate?