Fixed - tailgate latch not working and hard tri-fold closed.

[Dougstdig]

Well thread name pretty much says it all.

I returned to N Florida from an AL off roading trip. Around noon Saturday I attempted to get in the bed to unload some things and the handle had no resistance. The bedcover is a BakFlip MX4 that has the cable pulls on both sides of each of the 3 panels.

Without destroying the cover or tailgate are there any recommendations on how to get into the bed?

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[Caveman]

I have a Rough Country hard tri-fold cover. I think I could get into mine using a thin plastic putty knife to wedge up the trailing edge of the cover a bit and then fishing around with a bent wire coat hanger. You could always wrap the coat hanger in electrical tape if worried about scratches. But the RC cover has a much longer run of exposed cable on each side than yours, so mine would be less of a pinpoint operation. Mind you, I've not yet had to try this, so it is just a speculative suggestion.

 

[Janster]

Isn‘t this the 2nd post about this?

Get a coat hanger with a hook bent on the end….and run it back to grab the cable……

 

[Dougstdig]

Isn‘t this the 2nd post about this?

Get a coat hanger with a hook bent on the end….and run it back to grab the cable……

I mentioned it in another post and didn’t get any recommendations, so I elected to make a specific post on it.

Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[Dougstdig]

I have a Rough Country hard tri-fold cover. I think I could get into mine using a thin plastic putty knife to wedge up the trailing edge of the cover a bit and then fishing around with a bent wire coat hanger. You could always wrap the coat hanger in electrical tape if worried about scratches. But the RC cover has a much longer run of exposed cable on each side than yours, so mine would be less of a pinpoint operation. Mind you, I've not yet had to try this, so it is just a speculative suggestion.

I’ll give it a try! Thanks and will let you know.

 

[Dougstdig]

Worked like a charm!!! Now to take the tailgate apart and fix the connection.

 

[Dougstdig]

The rod that goes to the tailgate handle came undone from the white clip. I’m guessing this is only a guess cause I’m usually pretty thorough that the clip didn’t fully engage when I was tracking down the bad third brake light connection.. either way it’s reattached and working fine again thanks for the help.

 

[Caveman]

Glad to hear it! Wow, they haven't changed that rod system from the time of my 1994 YJ! Looks the same...

 

[SamJ3]

FYI, . there was a recall on the tailgate controller. This might be useful information:

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2023/MC-10236892-9999.pdf

(Unfortunately, this doesn't tell you how to break in your locked tailgate.)

 

[nas4a]

Also, for posterity sake - if anyone has this issue and had bed liner applied (Line-X in my opinion) - overspray can get into the tailgate mechanism and cause issues. I had to take the access covers off and use a pick and scraper to clean off some overspray from the latching mechanism and the release components. Before doing that, my tailgate would some times not latch fully and/or would stick when opening.

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