toyforfrank
New Member
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2007
- Posts
- 3
I bought a 2024 F350 XL, 4WD, extended cab, snowplow package last year and love the truck....except that in order to remove the tailgate to load my 2013 CampLite 10, I had to crawl under and pull the 2 tail light plugs from the tailgate and put the pigtail supplied with the truck to keep the tail lights working....and to pull the tailgate camera plug out and replace it with a dummy plug to keep the electical connections clean. The plugs are a rubics cube of difficult levers and gordian knots of things that require you to figure out how to disconnect dirty filthy plugs without driving little screwdrivers thru your hand. Before going any further, I could eat multi colored wires and plugs and poop out a better electronic design for just being able to remove the tailgate without crawling under in ALL weather conditions. Ok, I feel better now....What I do is to leave the one foot pigtail (in the glove box) in all the time. Then I took the tail gate camera plug out, and cut the 5 wire feed, and spliced another foot of 5 wire in. Put the frame camera line plug back in the frame and leave it. Then I cut the 5 wire about 8" from the tailgate, and put a male and female 5 pin boat trailer plug, matching up the colored wires to the correct colors going to the frame mounted plug. I let the extension from the frame mounted plug to go thru the bed opening and fasten it out of the way of the camper supports, under my truck bed mat. So, I just pull the simple camera/5 pin boat trailer plug, and as quick as Bobs your Uncle, that is all I need to do to take off the tailgate without crawling under two times taking it off and putting it back on. The only thing I lose is the electric tailgate lock, which I can live with. Ford has some 22 year old pimply engineering student or bean counter who made this so difficult. Oh, don't forget to use some zip ties to keep the frame light wiring from flapping around. Ford did forget. Sigh......
