Damn!! Tailgate was stolen last night.

15 bucks, worries be gone, just sayin

 

That must really work for such a low price.

 

It works better than u might imagine, its 3/16s steel, in fact its stronger than the tailgate hinge itself. I dont make any money on them, 10 or 12 bucks to ship, that only leaves 3 to 5 bucks for material, so u can see that I dont even charge for my labor, I do it because I hate thief's and tweekers

 

I think he was referring to using threadlocker on both of the tailgate hinge bolts (left and right side hinges).

 

O that makes sense

 

Like this one better, the

Gate Keeper Tailgate Protection Tacoma 2005-2015 Trucks

Gate Keeper is made of 12 gage steel. Not sure if it can be bent back like this one as there is an addition .078 thickness on the material. When I bought my truck I was not satisfied with anything on the market to protect my tailgate so I designed my own. It is fun to make stuff and to help fellow Tacoma owners keep the thief's from stealing their tailgate. It is rewarding to see people post that it saved their tailgate, one in the forums and one on amazon.

Use to get many questions why ours was better than a hose clamp, or the cheaper options. If people feel good with the hose clamp I would think again. Not sure how long you will maintain the $15 price tag though but looks like a nice product. you should start a post in the marketplace.

 

Sorry to hear of your loss, there are a few options out there besides ours. I used JB Weld Steel Stick in all my hinge bolts and cable bolts, works great. Also did the cable mod with some spare hard drive washers. I did not get a locking handle as I do not like the look. As for getting a new tailgate, you will be buying someone else's if it is less than $1700.

 

My fix cost nothing if you have the materials. Add a thin washer to the cable on each side and cut a end piece of the white pvc pipe. You have to remove the holding bracket to install which is a pain in the ass but a tweeker isn’t going to spend an hour to remove your tailgate.

 

All of these are good ideas. Maybe it's just me but I don't mind paying some bucks to a fellow TW member for a product that they took the time to design and produce.
Thanks again @christian06

 

Ideally states would let you fire on thieves just for being thieves, but I don't see that happening. It's $15 worth of happiness if I can ruin one thief's day.

 

When I started practicing law many years ago, there was an Eastern Kentucky judge who said, "I've seen men needed killin' but never saw nothin' needed stealin'.

 

Thx

 

Not really sure what ur trying to say, your (like this one) will not come through. That being said, the gate keeper is .081 k, my anti tweeker device is ..180k it's actually stronger than the hinge itself. Plus the gatekeeper is $26 plus 6.95 shipping, yes it is fun fabbing stuff, been doing it for over 30 yrs.

 

Laughing at “anti tweaked device”

 

There is a reason why i have a hose clamp on the open side with the clamp faced in such a way that it takes a solid 5 min of 1/10th of a turn of a wrench at a time to get it undone. I have also added washers on the top cables so you cant unclip them off.

 

I to had a hose clamp for the longest time, but hated the look so I made my anti tweeker device. Although a hose clamp is an effective route to go

 

Obviously in OP's situation it didnt help but the quest was how was it faced. If it was faced up so a simple screwdriver could get to it then ya, hoseclamp doesnt do much.

Like stated mine is faced down so its a PITA to get undone. Then you need a torx bit to undo the top screws of the cables due to the washers not allowing you to just pop the cables off.

 

I did as u and faced it down, I never had a tailgate stolen, and I e had dozens of trucks. I just got tired of looking at the hose clamp, although they have some really nice black ones now.

 

sorry about your tailgate. Mine was scratched bad on my 2008 and after close to 300 dollars to repair, I got a gate keeper and the older style pop an lock tailgate handle, the one that comes with a small key that keeps the handle from moving. Feel good about it staying on the truck now.

 

Pop and lock was really easy to install.

My tailgate was stolen about a year ago and never recovered, I waited so long cuz I didn’t want to pay a thief $500 + to buy my tailgate back lol
Finally found someone that sold me one for $200
Installed pop and lock handle AND pop and lock tailgate clamp (basically like a hose clamp but with a key) the next day.
Just looked it up on YouTube I was done in 15 minutes if that