By Popular Demand, the $10 Electric Tailgate Lock

127735 Views 171 Replies 73 Participants Last post by zannej, Nov 19, 2018

ChrisM

Discussion Starter · Sep 21, 2006 (Edited)

To those of you who asked for a write up on this long ago, I aplogize. I finally got around to taking pics of my creation tonight. You will not have to do any drilling into your RL. You use the stock holes that are already there. Here is how you make it.

First you will need an electric actuator. This is the one I used.

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=330-010

The price is $4.25.

Now, you will have to go down to Lowes or Home Depot or maybe in your garage and get a set of 3" T brackets.

The price $2.97

You will need to then take one of the T brackets and take off the top leg. I used a pair of pliers and just bent the leg back and forth until it came off. If you want to get fancy, you can use a hacksaw. I didn't.

You then bolt the end that had the predrilled hole to the center hole of the other intact T bracket left in the package. I put 1 little nut in between the 2 bracket parts to make a swivel with enough room to clear the locking mechanism. I then used 2 additional nuts on the end of the bolt that are forced together so that they don't move on the bolt shaft. Here is a pic of the assembled locking mechanism. If you bolt this together correctly, it is EXTREMELY strong.

See the little oddball hole I drilled in the intact bracket on the bottom right side to the upside down T? You will have to drill this as well to line up with the stock hole in the tailgate. You then bolt it down and check for fitment. I didn't line up the holes in the picture very well but you will get the idea when you see it in person. The leg of the intact T bracket has to go under the tailgate locking mechanism as shown in the picture below. Disregard the metal rod in the picture. We havent gotten that far yet.

OK, now you will need brackets to install the lock actuator. I used the metal strip that came with the lock actuator. I used the bend back and forth method to bust it into 2 parts. I then mounted each end to the actuator first and then bent them under as shown in the picture. The screws were included with the actuator.

The trickiest part of the entire install was bending the actuator rod so that it would operate the locking mechanism. This also comes with the actuator. If you look at the last picture, the rod runs under the actuator. I can't really explain it as well as you can see in the picture.

(Continued in next post)

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coolbob

· #161 · Jan 26, 2016

I'm a University photographer by trade and found a tiny kitten on campus outside my office and wanted to give him a photography-related name. Once well-fed, he was a very energetic kitten, so 'Flash' just seemed to fit.

The photo after the one with Flash is the stock lock configuration (the black wire running horizontally above the lock mechanism is the power wire for the tailgate lock).

I consider myself to be above-average mechanically and considered making my own locking mechanism, but one look inside the 'steam-punk mechanical octopus' that lives in the Ridgeline tailgate was enough to convince me to buy the best tailgate lock I could find.

Please shoot lots of photos of your work and share them, can't wait to see how you incapacitate the octopus.

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zannej

· #162 · Jan 27, 2016

coolbob said:
I'm a University photographer by trade and found a tiny kitten on campus outside my office and wanted to give him a photography-related name. Once well-fed, he was a very energetic kitten, so 'Flash' just seemed to fit.

The photo after the one with Flash is the stock lock configuration (the black wire running horizontally above the lock mechanism is the power wire for the tailgate lock).

I consider myself to be above-average mechanically and considered making my own locking mechanism, but one look inside the 'steam-punk mechanical octopus' that lives in the Ridgeline tailgate was enough to convince me to buy the best tailgate lock I could find.

Please shoot lots of photos of your work and share them, can't wait to see how you incapacitate the octopus.

I'm glad you gave the kitty a home. I have 12 kitties.

I'm not very mechanically inclined, so I would have to discuss it with my friend who is good with cars and such. I can do plumbing and he can do electrical. LOL. I'm still debating whether or not I want to mess with the mechanical octopus inside. It's a bit intimidating since I don't know I'm looking at. I wish the pop&lock wasn't so expensive and that the keyhole had a cover. I have a hard enough time keeping my backup camera clean on my road.

Awesome that you're a photographer. I like to take pictures (although I'm not great at it) and I love to look at pictures.

Thanks for the reply!

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zannej

· #163 · Jan 31, 2016

I had some additional thoughts:
The problem with linking the lock to the trunk lock was because the trunk is also linked to the glove compartment to make sure valets can't open the truck. What was the major problem with having the tailgate set up that way too? I probably wouldn't want someone with the valet key to open my tailgate either. Or was it that it was just more difficult to hook up?

Or, what if I just wanted to have a separate little keyless entry remote just for the tailgate (I know it would be one more thing to carry with me, but if it meant I didn't have to dismantle panels inside the cab, it might be worth it). Any idea how to hook that up?

How difficult would it be to modify this design to also work with a key just in case?

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GoFASTER

· #164 · Mar 10, 2016

Did this mod today. Thought I would share some pics.

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Heli ATP

· #165 · Oct 28, 2016 (Edited)

I have done the DIY tailgate lock twice. Once on my '11 RTS which now resides somewhere in NJ, and the second time on my '14 SE.
This week the actuator on my '14 failed, and luckily I had ran an emergency cable that comes out by the side release handle. It took me about 15 minutes of fishing for the release cable before I was able to open my tailgate. Not a major convenience considering the added security the locked tailgate offered.
I made a little handle that I will keep in my glove-box should the new actuator fail in the future. The emergency release cable is green in the pics and I added some stainless wire to which the handle can be attached.

It took about one hour to replace the actuator and I learned something that gave me a chuckle. To remove the tailgate cap your remove four screws and tap it with a rubber mallet to the right and it slides off of some clips. When I re-installed the cap in the past I lined up all the clips in the tailgate and slid the cap back on, usually taking three or four attempts to get it just right.
Well today I installed all the clips in the cap and it just snapped in place.
Yeah, that's how it's supposed to be done, pretty simple really...

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FauxTrk

· #166 · Oct 30, 2016

So for those of you who are newer G1 owners or never got the guts to do this and "build" your own, I MAY have found a "pre made" actuator that will work to lock the tailgate, and most parts retailers sell them with a lifetime warranty. Having the ability to search an entire parts catalog by attributes comes in handy.

I ordered one in and will be taking the tailgate plate off and playing around this week to see if there is clearance to mount this bad boy in the proper spot and if it will work! Wish me luck.

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Heli ATP

· #167 · Oct 30, 2016

FauxTrk said:
So for those of you who are newer G1 owners or never got the guts to do this and "build" your own, I MAY have found a "pre made" actuator that will work to lock the tailgate, and most parts retailers sell them with a lifetime warranty.
Wish me luck.

I'd like to see that. Be sure to take some pics and update us. In the meantime what is the Part/Model# ?
Oh...... and Good Luck!

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markshoreline

· #168 · Oct 31, 2016

I'm definitely interested in a tailgate lock option!
Looking forward to your post.

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FauxTrk

· #169 · Oct 31, 2016

746-020 from Dorman. A bit more expensive than a universal eBay one, but will also look a lot more clean and OE than the current options.

It's a rear window lock actuator for an S-10 Blazer. It appears to be small enough to fit where it will need to on the latch assembly from what I've seen in pictures, my only concern is the arm may not be long enough, which should be easy enough to swap out. I'm sure it will require some minor modification, but I think I like the idea of this more.

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FauxTrk

· #170 · Nov 1, 2016

Can anyone tell me how the current actuators work electronically? Like what happens when 12v is applied/removed or how the circuits we are tapping function, etc. I was messing around testing this one and appeared to have confused myself or this switch isn't intended to function how I had assumed.

Thanks in advance!

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Untold

· #171 · Feb 4, 2017

Just tackled this today. Toughest part for me was fishing the wiring up through the bottom and into the cab. And getting enough room to splice into the wiring harness. There wasn't much room to work with and the wires were pretty taut.

Thanks to all that went before me and posted their experience.

A short video of it in action:

https://youtu.be/dORKXuRC0dU

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zannej

· #172 · Nov 19, 2018

FauxTrk said:
So for those of you who are newer G1 owners or never got the guts to do this and "build" your own, I MAY have found a "pre made" actuator that will work to lock the tailgate, and most parts retailers sell them with a lifetime warranty. Having the ability to search an entire parts catalog by attributes comes in handy.

I ordered one in and will be taking the tailgate plate off and playing around this week to see if there is clearance to mount this bad boy in the proper spot and if it will work! Wish me luck.

Did you ever get it working? If so, do you have any pictures or instructions on how you made it work? Is it powerful enough to work for the tailgate?

Has anyone done a DIY keyed and powered combo?

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By Popular Demand, the $10 Electric Tailgate Lock

ChrisM

coolbob

zannej

zannej

GoFASTER

Heli ATP

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