Tailgate fills with rain water!

[ToyHaulin]

My tailgate really filled with rainwater when I left it down during a rain storm. When I raised the tailgate, a avalanche of water poured out.

Since I often leave the tailgate down with cargo tied down, does anyone have any ideas on waterproofing the tailgate?

 

[RedneckHippy]

Take off the access panels and seal them?

 

[mikeru]

I don't think it's possible to completely seal the tailgate. All you can do is minimize how much water gets inside. RedneckHippy's suggestion was a good one, and should eliminate most of it. I'd probably try to make a gasket of some kind, or use some kind of weatherstripping. But I would avoid using RTV to seal it. You might need to get inside the tailgate in the future.

On the plus side, it won't rust out since the tailgate is made of aluminum. Although I have no idea if there is any steel inside it, like for bracing or mounting electrical components.

 

[mlrtimemach]

Mine is sprayed with Bullet Liner an it still gets water in it But I think I figured it out though.
I had a cooler full of a deer on ice bleeding out. I had the cooker tilted so the melting ice would remove the blood from the cooler as it came out of the drain plug. As the ice melted an came out of the drain plug it ran along the edge of the tailgate to the handle of the tailgate. When I closed the tailgate needless to say I had a ****** mess runnin out of the corner of the tailgate. It also ran out of the handle. Needless to say I also had streaks of water/blood run from the handle down the tailgate.
I'll also note that the cooler was almost dead center between the handle an the end of the tailgate an it still got in there.
The handle compartment is a water magnet when the tailgate is left down.


Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[tidefan1967]

I don't think it's possible to completely seal the tailgate. All you can do is minimize how much water gets inside. RedneckHippy's suggestion was a good one, and should eliminate most of it. I'd probably try to make a gasket of some kind, or use some kind of weatherstripping. But I would avoid using RTV to seal it. You might need to get inside the tailgate in the future.

On the plus side, it won't rust out since the tailgate is made of aluminum. Although I have no idea if there is any steel inside it, like for bracing or mounting electrical components.

So the tailgates on the 5th gen are made out of aluminum now? I always wondered why my buddies tailgate on his 2019 Laramie was so much lighter than mine and now I know.

 

[ToyHaulin]

ok, I see the drain slots at the bottom of the tailgate act like scoops then the tailgate is left down in the rain. It looks like simple weather stripping will block the rain from going in, but allow water to drain out.