Tailgate weight capacity

I would consider each ass cheek a point load, especially since PL/4 generally beats wL^2/8 when all things are equal, but I'll let you run with your own engineering judgement here

 

by “sled” you mean snowmobile? Any pictures of how that thing was loaded?

working on ways to get a 2021 RMK into my 2022 TRD Sport Short Bed Double Cab

 

The second gen tailgates were notorious for bending. Supposedly they made the third gen tailgates stronger.

I know this guy who is an engineer. He has some rather rotund inlaws. As in some are 500 pounders with the lighter ones being 350+ pounders. And yes they all wear those foam slip on shoe things they sell at Walmart. Except of course there is that one husband who is a little tiny guy who never speaks a word. Anyway, one year his wife tells him her whole family is going to come over for Thanksgiving. This engineer did a full blown engineering study on his floors and his outside wood deck. Like as in a major engineering study you might do for a shopping mall or industrial facility.

They all met at Ryan's Steakhouse and Buffet for Thanksgiving. His wife never knew he had done the math.

 

For reference, this has done a cross country trip no problem. Only smooth paved roads in summer, not bumpy winter off-roading.

 

As a structural engineer myself I find this hilarious. Point loads from obese people are things that I've considered in past designs, only to find the distributed loading scenario usually wins out. Fortunately code minimum design loads consider things like obese people or equipment and usually overestimate weight by a significant factor. Ladder design loads + factors are a good example of the kind of forethought ASCE puts into load development.

I know this is an old post. Couldn't help myself from chiming in lol

 

Old thread but timely for me as I had an empty 209 pound tool chest on my tailgate during unloading today. No problems.

 

I routinely sit my 180-pound-in-2000 ass(inflation's a bitch!) on the tailgate. No problems.

 

I've had 500-ish lbs on it and it held, but I didn't feel good about it

 

There are too many variables to rate the tailgate with one number, but we can do a napkin guestimate. Let's assume the two cables are the weakest point and that the all of the weight is concentrated directly above where the cables attach to the tailgate.

I don't have the truck in front of me, but I think the cables might be 1/4" steel rope. Looking online I see a 1100 lb safe load for such a cable.

https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/wire-rope-strength-d_1518.html

The cables are at about a 45 degree angle I think. Again, I'm not looking at the truck. A 45 degree angle reduces the safe load to 1/sqrt(2) ~ 0.7.

Therefore, my guestimate static safe load is 2 * 1100lb * 0.7 = 1540lb.

A better guesstimate would be to assume the weight is evenly distributed over the tailgate, but I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader.

 

FWIW- I weigh just under 300lbs and I’ve slowly ridden my ~500lb SkiDoo up a 10ft ramp (resting on my tailgate) and into my box on a few occasions....

 

I saw a drawing of the tailgate parts and without the plastic the tailgate looks flimsy. If I ever drive my 450 Yamaha Grizzly on it I will probably put a piece of plywood on it.

 

I know this is an old thread but I'm glad that I had clicked on it, for this post in particular.

Well done!