Opening tailgate from inside bed - Possible?

I just mounted up a Bestop and am looking forward to using it for camping, but I'm still not sure what the best way to close and open the tailgate once I'm inside is. I thought that I'd seen a tailgate handle flip kit, as in the handle mounted on the inside, before, but now can't seem to find it. The design of the Bestop rear window doesn't allow for access through it, though I could probably work up some sort of velcroed opening over the handle if I needed to. Any of yall have any other suggestions?

EDIT - I ended up rigging up a couple straps. The discription and pics are in post #8.

 

Take your cover off your tailgate and look at the rods and how they move. I had an s10 pickup that I filled the tailgate handle in. What i did was cut 2 slots on both sides of the inside of the gate and attached to small pieces of rod with a little ball on the end for a handle through the slots to the rod hook ups you had to use both hands to open it and pull towards the center of the gate to open it. Sorry I don't have pictures was a long time ago but should work on our trucks.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. I think adding the little actuators on the inside is going to work best for me because I don't want to lose the handle on the outside, I just want to add the ability to open from inside the bed. I may do the handle flip at some point if I get a hard shell, now that I know how easy it is, but I would hate for someone to cut my top because they couldn't break in from the tailgate.

 

Even with the factory handle on the inside, it will be very hard to keep the tailgate from slamming down in the open position when dealing with it from the inside. It's heavy and you're going at it from the wrong direction (physics and gravity working against you). If you don't care about that, then go for it. It's also awkward and heavy to lift up to a closed position from inside the truck bed.

I realize that I didn't give you a solution...just more problems. Sorry about that!

 

Oh I did mean remove your factory handle. I'm not sure what the inside of our tailgates look like but if you can access the rods that run to each latch you could possibly weld a nut to each rod . Then cut a slot in the composite cover and thread a bolt into each nut. That way you can take them out to make the tailgate flat if need be. To open the gate slide each bolt toward the center of the tailgate. The outside handle is still there and works the same. If the inside is like I think.

 

Here's a link to a thread where a TW member explains how he reinforced his tailgate. There are a few photos showing the rods aaron referenced.

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/78315-my-tailgate-reinforce-project.html

I would probably make a detachable handle/key to fit the rotating mechanism through a hole drilled through the inside skin of the tailgate.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the help guys. I ended up rigging a couple straps on the inside of the tailgate that I think will do the job for me.

For the opener I attached one end to the lower (when raised) rod tab on the inside of the handle. I then cut a slot in the tailgate liner to feed the strap through. I put the slot on the edge of a raised rib so when the force is applied it slides on the smooth, inside surface of the liner and not the edge of the slot. The loop is to make pulling easier and to make it harder for it to accidentally feed back inside.

The second strap is for raising and lowering the tailgate. I fed it under the liner first, then over and put the plastic top trim on before screwing it in. That way the screw goes through it twice so the leverage is on the screw and liner, and not on the flimsy plastic threaded insert.

I like this setup because I don't have to worry about catching things on them like I would solid tabs, or worry about keeping up with detachable ones. There is the possibility of snagging the loop when putting things into the bed, but the extra tenth of a second it'll take to make sure that doesn't happen will be worth the convenience, IMO.