3rd gen tailgate on a 2nd gen?

Is someone lucky enough to own both models? If so, would it be possible for you to test a 3rd gen tailgate on the 2nd gen? Mine was damage in a parking lot when someone backed into me so I'm trying to turn an unfortunate incident into a possible upgrade.

 

That'd probably not work. The 3rd gen bed...and probably the tailgate with it...is deeper than the 2nd gen. Your lines would be all whacked.

 

Like lanestaco said, the beds on the 3rd gens are deeper than the 2nd gens. Would be cool though. I like the way the metal is actually stamped TACOMA like the tundras.

 

Bed swap time!

 

Bed swap would be the only way. Even then, I'm not sure it'd look right. But I'd be interested in seeing it!

 

Probably MORE than a bed swap, it is my understanding the bed itself is exactly the same as 2nd gens, it's the fenders adding the extra height that have changed.

 

When you say deeper do you mean lower as the bed the ground?

Agree, the stamped Tacoma does highlight the rear of Thundra

That would be awesome, some Photoshop would help to see the overall picture.

 

Deeper as in more depth inside the bed (from the bottom of the bed to the top rail). There's actually a pic in the 3rd gen section somewhere with a 2nd gen parked next to a 3rd gen, showing the bed comparison.

 

The hinges are different as well. I'm trying to figure out (without having a 3rd gen to physically inspect) if the hinge from the 3rd gens can be mounted to the 2nd gens. My main concern is the passenger side hinge since it has the easy-down "shock" in it.

 

So has anyone put a 3rd gen bed (as in bedsides,tailgate,bumper) on a second gen Tacoma? I am
Interested in the idea. I have a 14' dclb trd sport. I looked at a 3rd gen at the dealership today and it seemed nearly identical. Any help would be great!

 

The rear over fenders are also different and might look kind of strange/out of place on a second gen.

 

Body lines don't match. Would look like shit.

 

I debated this but since the cab is the same I think it'll look good. Maybe do some trimming to the fronts to help match or even fiberglass fronts to lose the 2nd gen flare. I'm going to look into it. If I can get all the parts and get them painted for less than like 3k, I'm strongly debating it.

 

everything is possible...........

 

With enough time and money! Who has that however? Ha

 

Best of luck! Keep us posted if you do!

 

I don't know how he did it, but a guy driving a beater 1st gen Tacoma passed me on the road last week with a mid 90's era F-150 tailgate on his truck.

 

I took a look at the tailgate on the 3rd gen because I wanted the easy-down hinge (rather than the after market shock style). The 3rd gen hinge is the opposite of the 2nd gen. The hinges have 2 sides, I'll call one side the "cup" and the other side the "peg". On the 2nd gen, the peg is part of the bed and the cup is bolted to the tailgate. On the 3rd gen, the cup has the easy down mechanism in it, and is attached to the bed while the peg is bolted to the tailgate.

So, as far as getting the easy down hinge, it would require some modding as the part of the hinge that's connected to the bed has a different mount between the two. If you're just trying to swap gates, you can take the tailgate side of the hinge off your 2nd gen and bolt it to the 3rd gen. I didn't take exact measurements, but eyeing it looked like the bolts lined up. Then you'd need to make sure the latches line up and the dimensions make sense.

Whew.

If anyone can get more details on getting the 3rd gen hinge onto the 2nd gen bed, I'd love to give it a try and add the easy down feature to my 2nd gen.

 

Someone else would have had to do that mod and have the same idea, which is unlikely since it's significantly harder to do what you want to do than to add a couple of struts, which lots of guys have done for not much money.

If you really want to do that, I'd try and source the part you need, look at it in your hand and figure it out from there. I'd be surprised if 10 years from now there's a write up on how to do what you're asking about, that certainly will be extremely uncommon of a mod.

 

Check below link out. The owner to this truck or McNeil should be able to answer some questions on rear end. The truck pictured in link appears to have McNeill 2016+ 6ft bed bedsides, 16 tail lights but no tailgate, no rear bumper. So I Imagine there was some issues in rear or hopefully he just didn't install.

I have a 2nd and 3rd gen. I will attempt tailgate swap and post my results. Wish me luck.

I'm seriously thinking of converting my 2nd gen to 3rd gen. The front end is pretty much figured out by mcneil. The only negative, it's sold with their fiberglass hood with no hood scoop. I prefer a OEM scooped hood.

https://www.mcneilracinginc.com/products/05-15-toyota-tacoma-conversion-2016