I’m at the Detroit Auto Show looking at hardware, something I desperately miss doing since I moved to Los Angeles, where my life largely revolves around figuring out what to order from Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop ghost kitchen. Anyway, expect some engineering geekiness soon, with the first little installment being this brief look at the new Ford F-150 Pro Access Tailgate, which is comprised of two “20 percent” pieces on the outside and a swinging “60 percent” section in the middle, with the two 20-percenters attached to one another via a steel member at their base. Here, let me show you.
The Pro Access Tailgate promises to make grabbing the gear in your bed easier, without having to lean over a tailgate or without dropping the gate onto a trailer hitch.
It’s unclear who other than me gives a damn about how the new Ford F-150 Pro Access tailgate is put together, but IÂ need to know these things or I won’t be able to sleep at night. So let’s just get into it.
The short of it is that two “20 percent” sections of tailgates make up the outboard pieces of the Pro Access design; they have steel structural elements, but the sheetmetal is aluminum. Connecting those two pieces at their bases is an extremely stiff steel structural member. Here’s a closer look at that member pointed out in the image above — a member whose welds are clearly visible when the swing gate is open. Ford notes that this is a preproduction unit, by the way:
You’ll notice that there’s a striker on top of the stiff member:
That striker is joined by two additional strikers (of different lengths) on the driver’s side “20 percent” piece:
You’ll also notice that at the ends of the strikers are rubber stoppers to help the swing gate close quietly. The tailgate itself also has rubber stops, as you’d expect with any tailgate:
Here’s the latch on the bottom of the swinging door:
Here’s a look at the latches on side of the swinging door:
Edit: as reader PL71 Enthusiast points out, the bottom one is more of a guide and not a latch:
Per F-150 Product Manager Klaus Mello, these strikers work together to keep that center swinging door constrained to reduce NVH and to ensure durability. It’s still not clear to me why the two latches have different depths (and why the strikers are different lengths), but maybe it has to do with increasing torsional stiffness when the swinging door is latched? Or maybe it’s just about offering two latch positions? Perhaps one of you in the comments has an idea.
As for the hinges attached to the passenger’s side “20 percent,” those are cast parts connected by a vertical bar, presumably to add stiffness:
You’ll notice in the image above the linkage that creates the three detents in the Pro Access tailgate’s opening motion. Here’s a closer look; it’s fairly conventional:
You’ll also see a plastic piece; that’s a conduit for the wiring that goes from the truck, along the stiff horizontal member, and into the passenger’s side 20 percent section. 
When the tailgate is open, the back side of the stiff member has a plastic piece connected to it; that hides the wire that goes from the bed to the passenger’s side “20 percent” piece and to the swing gate.
As for sealing, the way it’s set up is: There’s a big plastic trim piece on the back side of each “20 percent” section. That trim is torx-screwed to each section, and a seal is attached to the trim via some plastic clips.
One thing I haven’t quite figured out is why there’s an pyramidal plastic piece between the horizontal member and the base of the driver’s side “20 percent” section of the tailgate:
I think it covers up a bracket that’s meant to stiffen the interface between the horizontal member and the driver’s side 20 percent, but I’m not entirely sure.
Anyway, now you’ve had a close F-150 Pro Access tailgate’s hardware. Ford is always looking for ways to up its game in the Pickup Truck Arms Race, so we’ll see how customers respond to this—to say nothing of the Detroit competition.
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Ford thought tailgates needed more tailgates so they tried to out-tailgate the competitions’ tailgates but now they’re just tailgating with this dumb tailgate…
What problem is this intended to solve, in consideration of all the problems it creates at great expense?
Lowering the tailgate while towing.
But does the whole tailgate assembly have a damper? The Ranger did not come with one, and there were some pretty entertaining Damper Wars on the Ranger forum between those that added one after market and those who thought you had to be soft to use one.
I should have watched the video first since it answers my question.
Thanks for getting into the details of the tailgate!
How strong is that 60% door when you drive a motorcycle over the top of it? At least it appears the bumper prevents the door from being accidentally opened when the tailgate is down. That just looks like a gimmick to sell lifestyle image trucks to people who don’t need them… oh wait, just answered my own question.
I’m betting it’s a trick to help with aligment of everything. Notice how the guide one is deeper, so the striker is going to hit that first, slide into the correct spot even if the actual alignment is slightly off, then help guide the other one into the perfect place. I 3d printed a trombone a while back and did something similar. The two sides of the inner slide are slightly different lengths so I can line one up, and then just slide it onto the other. Much easier than trying to perfectly align two things at once.
Bad! Very bad! When 3D printer stop, trombone solo start!
all this contortionism of tailgates wouldn’t be as needed if the trucks and beds weren’t so high in the first place. Have no troubles grabbing gear from 20+ older truck beds. But let’s just overcomplicate on top of disfunction. Also wondering how much gravel it’ll take to bust that open….
If the gravel is going to break that little door open, the entire tailgate is gone. It’s going to be about as strong as any other component of it.
Absolutely no reason for trucks to be as absurdly tall as they are now
wow, fresh take. relevant, too.
Penises
“strikers work together”
Yes. Yes, they do. Much more effective that way.
I sincerely hope there’s something preventing people from attempting to open the tailgate proper while the little door is open, because otherwise that bumper’s getting crunched.
Well considering the opening mechanism is on the now swung out door, its not too much of a limb to go out on to assume it is not functional when the door is in the open or unlatched position…..
Also if someone is dumb enough to try, let them.
This seems like a desperate attempt. “Everyone is doing fancy tailgates and all we have is a stick you can hold on to, hurry up team, come up with something the competition hasn’t already beat us to”.
Excellent article, BTW.
But will they have some fancy marketing campaign for the fancy tailgate featuring fancy Kristen?
This reminds me of the front gate to my old college for some reason:
https://images.app.goo.gl/wSYQxJ4RBEwg1iAAA
Thought this was just a gimmick at first, but can actually see the purpose of it after thinking about it. Wonder how much it costs…
Ultimately, I think it’s a good idea – but probably not worth whatever they’re trying to charge for it.
That’s just about as unimpressively engineered as the Ram’s MFTG.
Pretty confident the lower latch is not a latch, it is a locating track. It makes sure the other latch is lined up with the striker. It is longer so it engages first. I have seen this somewhere else (possibly on one of my vehicles at some point?) but I can’t remember where.
Oh, and my best guess to why they are separated is because there isn’t enough linear space to have them both use the same striker.
I like clever engineering and whiz-bang features but as I got wiser, I ask myself what is the cost per use of a feature over 5 years.
What are you doing that the towing package might save your life? Towing with a vehicle that can’t tow?
Well yes. Towing my heavy trailer is dangerous so getting the factory hitch, controller, monitoring system seems like a good way to keep me and my truck safer. But yes, you can do it all piecemeal or skip some of the bits.
I’d wager the “typical” pick up buyer would use this more than the normal tailgate since it would save them from having to reach over the tailgate itself to grab groceries, bags of hockey equipment…
If I had a tonneau, the baby-gate would be a great feature. Mostly I use the back seat area for stuff that would go into a car trunk. My truck bed is reserved for trucky things (car parts, building supplies, lawn cuttings, moving things), so a regular tailgate works just fine for me. YMMV
Continuing to make trucks more carlike for people who don’t need trucks but own them anyway.
Yes, but cars are sold on what they CAN do and not necessarily what they are actually used for. That, and people want a safe, comfortable, and roomy ride. Even luxury cars today don’t ride as well as a well spec’d pickup on crappy pavement, etc.
BIG QUESTION!!! Why the right handed opening Why have the tailgate swing toward the curb so things have to be carried AROUND the gate instead of the gate swining driver side so loading and unloading is easier????
Road crown helping it stay open, Gate swinging into traffic? too many right handed people???
I have the same issue with my jeep JK tailgate. I want it to open the other direction.
LOOK at the ridgeline tailgate it opens the other direction making loading from the curb SO much easier.
Anybody have a link to an article that explains the actual reasons for left or right tailgate opening?
All anecdotal but I can’t remember the last time I parallel parked, let alone loaded things from the curb side. Opening from the driver side is far more convenient since that’s where I get in and out of the vehicle. Think of having a trailer hooked on as well, opening on the driver’s side means I could simply open the gate and grab what I need, a passenger side opening means I either have to hop over the trailer tongue, open the gate, grab stuff, close the gate then hop back over with stuff in hand, or go around the truck or trailer. Driver’s side opening is the correct choice IMO.
When I see cool new(-ish) stuff like this I wonder how it will handle many years of upper midwest winters and road salt.
Also, Will all this tailgate war stuff mean there will be fewer used pick up trucks without tailgates in the future?
As these trucks age in to the 3rd owner/beater phase I suspect most of them will have had the fancy tailgate replaced with a basic one from the junkyard, or that they just won’t have a tailgate anymore. There are lots of seams and openings on this design where corrosion will do its thing.
And a low speed rear impact may add up to thousands of bucks to repair.
Magic does often happen when a stiff member is involved.
Is that comment related to Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop?
There is no way I can make a “Goop” joke that isn’t 20x worse than just the “stiff member” joke so…
I, uh, am not the target market for Gwenyth Paltrow’s Goop in multiple senses of the term.
I’m glad that I’m not the only one who tee-hee’d as David kept using that term.
And cringing when he talked about the striker on the stiff member. I don’t kink shame, but don’t strike my stiff member!
“Per F-150 Product Manager Klaus Mello, these strikers work together to keep that center swinging door constrained to reduce NVH”… Those are the only strikers who will be working soon…
I like the idea of a station wagon type door and steps into the tailgate as I get old.
Side note: If this had an Autopian TV video, where would I find the link?
What happens when two or three Bubbas sit on the tailgate (in the “normal” horizontal position) at a drive-in, the lake, or a football game? Will the sag be irreversible?!
The Honda Ridgeline’s Two-way “magic doorgate” seems like a much more elegant and durable solution, as well as a proven design from the station wagons of the ’70s and ’80s.
I eagerly await the “Ford’s Tailgate Fails!” YouTube videos.
I am a full fledged adult. I have kids, a mortgage, and a stable career.
Must… not… make… juvenile “member” comments.
So I’ll just say that this is an interesting look in what it takes to make a simple part of a vehicle and differentiate it from the competition. But this is really a Goldblum moment. They were too busy figuring out if they could to ask if they should.
We’ll see what the take rate is, and even though this isn’t THAT complicated, I can’t help but look at Ford’s recent roll-out difficulties. If I’m buying a new F150, it’s gonna be a no from me.
Regardless of how many stiff, vertical, or horizontal members it has.
Those look like some shitty ass welds, or is this typical Ford quality. Screw UAW raises, they should get pay cuts for welds like that.
That’s the first thing I noticed. If it’s a viewable part of the truck, at least make it look nice or at least a continuous weld
I don’t think those are welds. Someone else mentioned the tailgate is made of aluminum. If so, I bet that’s adhesive. Doesn’t make it look any better, though.
DT said it’s preproduction
So this is better than Ford production line quality…
Thanks for prompting a smile.
Moonlighting in retail, I had an interesting customer who wore a New Year’s Eve gold lamé hat & drove an 83(?) Thunderbird with QLTY JB1 on the tag. Seems she had worked in the plant that built it for decades and was quite serious. I’m too polite to argue the point—but that’s what I think of anytime I see a comment like yours