How do you beat this $16.00 Modification?

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John Cunningham

I'm Awesome
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vero Beach Florida
A guy goes and buys a new truck for 50k plus. Then he shows you how easy the tailgate goes down and up with 1 finger. Then yo watch the latest Ad from Gm spouting off about their new step in the tail gate.
You get all this for upwards of 65K !

Wow.....well my 97 silverado tailgate my wife lowers and raises with her pinky finger all for a whopping $16.00

Hopkins EASYLIFT Tailgate Easylift Torsion Bar found for 16 bucks at rv upgrades!

Best thing I ever did to my truck as far as bang for the buck...drill 2 3/8 holes...takes all of about 5 minutes!

Now when they show my their tailgate I show them mine!
 

ima93chevyguy

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Yea my problem on new vehicles isn't that the tailgate is hard to lift/lower it's the fact that I'm scared I will blow the latch out by yanking on it too hard.
 

Z71Hobbs

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A guy goes and buys a new truck for 50k plus. Then he shows you how easy the tailgate goes down and up with 1 finger. Then yo watch the latest Ad from Gm spouting off about their new step in the tail gate.
You get all this for upwards of 65K !

Wow.....well my 97 silverado tailgate my wife lowers and raises with her pinky finger all for a whopping $16.00

Hopkins EASYLIFT Tailgate Easylift Torsion Bar found for 16 bucks at rv upgrades!

Best thing I ever did to my truck as far as bang for the buck...drill 2 3/8 holes...takes all of about 5 minutes!

Now when they show my their tailgate I show them mine!
Any installed pics?
 

454cid

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Yea my problem on new vehicles isn't that the tailgate is hard to lift/lower it's the fact that I'm scared I will blow the latch out by yanking on it too hard.

I had mine off for awhile because the original was seizing up, and the Rockauto replacement was made so poorly it didn't work any better. Eventually I soaked the pivot area with Evaporust and then re-installed it. The handle itself works fine now, but the tailgate doesn't quite line up the way it should, and I have to push the left side in while working the handle, so it actually releases. Newer tailgates, like on my sisters Nissan work much more smoothly. I think my dad's 2008 Silverado works much smoother too. I've never looked at those latch mechanisms so I have no idea how they're different.

I've tried adjusting my tailgate, but apparently I don't know enough to make it work better.
 
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