Remove tailgate of pickup truck to save labor

A simple way to reduce the labor of handling gravel, firewood, rock or other heavy items in a pickup truck , is to remove the tailgate. This saves a whole lot of reaching over the gate, when the truck is loaded and unloaded and it saves having to dig loose material from the crack between the gate at the back of the truck.
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I was at the gravel mart yesterday, and when I remove the gate , a guy came up and marvelled at what he had just seen. Somehow this fellow had made it into his thirties without realizing how easy it is to remove a tailgate.

If I'm driving a short distance , on smooth roads, I don't replace it for the drive. Sometimes I leave it home. A makeshift gate can be made from a piece of lumber. This can be easily removed once a load of loose material reaches the destination.

If you do remove the tailgate, also remove the ball hitch from the receiver!

R Scott wrote:If you do remove the tailgate, also remove the ball hitch from the receiver!

yes the key to saving your shins. for got to do this a few times.

The 'tailgate' on my truck is hinged to hang essentially straight down, which I find much superior to the standard design. No removal required. It does have cables which can hold it at the normal 'open' position if you need to use it as a bed-extender, but I can't recall ever doing so...


Given this, I had no idea that tailgates on standard pickup boxes were easily removable; definitely worth keeping in mind next time I'm working with a loaner truck.