Folding bed extender installed

I picked this guy up used and finally got around to installing it. As others may have said on here, older versions had the pivot bolt screw into a threaded hole in the bed.

For newer models, you have to remove the tail light and put the bolt through the hole and attach the nut.

Pretty straight forward, two 8mm bolts and then the light assembly pops out of two clips. The pivot bolt is a T50 torx.

There is a bushing above and below the bolt. If you have a spray in bed liner, you may need to remove some of the liner for them to fit. I actually should have removed a bit more, so the bushing is against metal. It's a bit of a tight fit for the locking pin.

If you have the work surface tail gate, there is an indent where you are supposed to drill a hole for a locking pin. I haven't done that yet.

Other than that, easy install and seems like a solid design, although, I have seen vids of people complaining about the locking knobs that lock the two sides together. Apparently, they can wear out and just spin around. I will have to wait and see. Might be more of an issue in the summer heat.

You lose about 6" or so per side.

PSA, make sure you have all the parts. Mine was missing the four bushings and they are $13 dollars a piece. The Ford guy knocked a couple of bucks off each for me.

Looks cool! Can you still get 4 foot sheets in there?

Yes, I just checked. Where the two sides bow out, when stowed, you have 48".

Hey I have this installed on my truck with the same tailgate (work surface & step) and I noticed that my tailgate bounces a lot when I go over bumps. On my last truck that didn’t really happen so much. Have you had a chance to drive around with it opened yet and test it out?

Forgot to mention I also have the power tailgate up and down

Does this block access to the power panel in the bed? Looks like it might. Other than that, looks like a nice mod!

Vakatack said:

Hey I have this installed on my truck with the same tailgate (work surface & step) and I noticed that my tailgate bounces a lot when I go over bumps. On my last truck that didn’t really happen so much. Have you had a chance to drive around with it opened yet and test it out?

Forgot to mention I also have the power tailgate up and down

Click to expand...

seen this happen on other threads. going to test this out this weekend, but i believe its the power tailgate that is the issue. going to test to see if i turn the power tailgate feature off, and see if that fixes the bouncing issue. feel free to try and turning on the power tailgate in the infotainment screen settings and see if that helps.

Vakatack said:

Hey I have this installed on my truck with the same tailgate (work surface & step) and I noticed that my tailgate bounces a lot when I go over bumps. On my last truck that didn’t really happen so much. Have you had a chance to drive around with it opened yet and test it out?

Forgot to mention I also have the power tailgate up and down

Click to expand...

I haven't driven it yet with the tailgate down, but it does have a locking pin on each side which goes into the wall of the bed. I think that will limit the bounce.

mq019 said:

Does this block access to the power panel in the bed? Looks like it might. Other than that, looks like a nice mod!

Click to expand...

Yes, it will block the power panel, but you can rotate 90 degrees (or 180) for access. I think it might be a bit cumbersome, especially with a topper, in that you may need to reach up and over the extender to use the plugs.

I'll try it today and see how it goes.

It will also block the storage box on the other side of the bed, if you have one of those.

Vakatack said:

Hey I have this installed on my truck with the same tailgate (work surface & step) and I noticed that my tailgate bounces a lot when I go over bumps. On my last truck that didn’t really happen so much. Have you had a chance to drive around with it opened yet and test it out?

Forgot to mention I also have the power tailgate up and down

Click to expand...

You have to lock the side pins into the folded down position holes to keep the bounce to a minimum. And even then the tailgate might move a bit if you don't have any weight on it.

Also, I didn't drill the hole in my work surface panel since I really just don't like putting unnecessary holes into things. But the tailgate normally stays put pretty well if you lock the side pins in the holes when you use that extender.

I have the locks in they just don’t hold very snug and the tailgate bounces a lot even with a good amount of weight on it.

mq019 said:

Does this block access to the power panel in the bed? Looks like it might. Other than that, looks like a nice mod!

Click to expand...

When it's folded and not in use it partially blocks the panel...so what you would do if you wanted to use the panel while driving is rotate the left side up a bit...run your cord to the panel and then rotate the left side back down...there's space between the power panel and the folded left side extender that it shouldn’t prevent you actually using the panel when in motion.

Vakatack said:

I have the locks in they just don’t hold very snug and the tailgate bounces a lot even with a good amount of weight on it.

Click to expand...

Well, even drilling the hole in the work surface panel and dropping that center pin down to further secure things isn't going to prevent the bounce entirely.

The other thing is the bed extender came with different sets of "feet"...the round caps that go on the bottom of those two nubs on the bottom of the extender sides.....if you use the shorter rubber feet caps then there's going to be more bounce because it leaves a larger gap. That's why they provided different height caps so you could size it to match your specific situation.

Mike G said:

Well, even drilling the hole in the work surface panel and dropping that center pin down to further secure things isn't going to prevent the bounce entirely.

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I think that pin is more of an added safety for front/back loads on the extender, as opposed to the up/down of the tailgait.

I wonder if you made an additional pin for the other side holes, if that would help lessen the bounce.
Something like a hex wrench or just bend a piece into an “L”.
As long as the bushing held it in place, it might add additional rigidity, maybe? Thoughts?