Ram Trucks Reinvent the Tailgate

There is nothing that is so basic and simple that it can’t lend itself to being reinvented or improved upon, and the venerable pickup truck tailgate is no exception. Ram is taking a fresh look at tailgate technology and they have come up with a great new take. Their “Multi-Functional Tailgate” design has the potential to add a new level of convenience and functionality to pickup truck loading, unloading, and transporting.

Basically, they have designed a touchpad-actuated split tailgate whose sections can open independently, as either a traditional tailgate, or swing out like the rear doors on a traditional van. The two sections can also be opened together as a single tailgate.

The advantages of this design are immediately apparent if you’ve ever struggled to control a heavy, unwieldy, full-sized-truck tailgate while trying to load an item. Dealing with only half of a tailgate would ease the process considerably. Other advantages of the new split tailgate design include easier entrance when you’re climbing into the box. With the tailgate operating more like a van door, getting in and out should me much less problematic.

When you’re in a position of having to haul a lengthy object which won’t completely fit into the box of your truck, you’ve had only two choices in the past; stick the end of the object up over the top of the tailgate, or drop the tailgate and chance losing other objects you happen to be hauling at the same time. This new option will allow you to keep half of the tailgate down to accommodate the long object, while keeping the other half closed to keep the other items secured. One other consideration is that, by opening the twin tailgates as doors, it will allow a truck to get much closer to a loading dock, facilitating loading and unloading operations.

Since this is all still in the design and patent phase, it’s not known exactly when this new tailgate option will become available on Ram models or how much the option may add to the cost of the vehicle, but if you value convenience, it will be worth the wait and the extra expense. We suspect that this new tailgate will appear on the refresh of the Ram Trucks when they get refreshed in 2015 and 2016.