Frozen Tailgate

[OneTraveler]

Had a bad blizzard a few days ago, and now we've been hovering around 2ºF (sub zero over night) for a few days now. Was going to unload some left over firewood from a camping trip (cut short by the blizzard) today to find my tailgate completely frozen shut. First thought it was locked, but after a confirmed unlock, the gate was still sealed shut. Gave it many very hard tugs (stopped short from what I feared would damage it). Finally took it to a garage bay at work and let the whole vehicle thaw out for a few hours. After that, the gate opened easily. Wiped the contact points dry to prevent a future freeze. Checked misc. sites on the internet and found a few suggestions (for other vehicles, of course) to lightly lube contact points for future prevention. Just wondering if anyone else had experience with this (my first truck in years) and maybe suggested products and application points?

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[ZTMAN]

My tailgate was frozen to the tonneau. Once I got it opened, sprayed top of tailgate and bottom lip of cover with silicone. Seems to have worked so far.

 

[WXman]

Yeah you could hit the latches good with lithium grease spray and maybe even wipe some on the tailgate edges where it meets the bed. It would probably at least help some.

 

[Ghostwave]

Use some PAM! Joe Dirte style.

 

[OneTraveler]

My tailgate was frozen to the tonneau. Once I got it opened, sprayed top of tailgate and bottom lip of cover with silicone. Seems to have worked so far.

Yeah, I'm thinking the gate was frozen to the tonneau. Looks like a good low temp silicon is on my list to find today. Thanks!

 

[Rocksalt]

have had mine in single digit temps no garage.. never had anything freeze shut

 

[ShadowsPapa]

We have rain, snow, sun, snow, rain, cold, what a mix - and mine froze to the cover as well. I used Armoral. (sp) It's got silicone and I've used it on door seals and such for years.

 

[OneTraveler]

Grabbed some silicone today and will
Be applying it tonight. I was surprised how solid it froze to the cover. Thanks all!

 

[IamPro2A]

So, this just happened to me for the 2nd time this winter. This was especially aggravating today since I had stacked a pile of boxes by my front door to load into the truck this morning before work, and couldn't get the tailgate open. As we've all figured out, the tailgate freezes to the seal on the tonneau cover. After I gave up, I thought about it on the drive to work. We had rain yesterday, followed by snow, followed by the current single digit temps.
The top of the tailgate is not flat, it's slightly angled, maybe to give some downforce at high speeds, lol. Seriously though, the rest of the vehicle has the aerodynamics of a cinderblock, so I doubt it's related to air turbulence. Just styling. In any case, when you have a tonneau cover that actually seals decently, it traps the water there, and if it gets cold it freezes. I poured a cup of warm water into the gap once I got to work, and it unfroze the tailgate in about 5 seconds. Now to find some silicone or armor-all or something and see if that helps, but if not a little warm water did the trick. Just don't forget to dry it right off before it freezes again.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

So, this just happened to me for the 2nd time this winter. This was especially aggravating today since I had stacked a pile of boxes by my front door to load into the truck this morning before work, and couldn't get the tailgate open. As we've all figured out, the tailgate freezes to the seal on the tonneau cover. After I gave up, I thought about it on the drive to work. We had rain yesterday, followed by snow, followed by the current single digit temps.
The top of the tailgate is not flat, it's slightly angled, maybe to give some downforce at high speeds, lol. Seriously though, the rest of the vehicle has the aerodynamics of a cinderblock, so I doubt it's related to air turbulence. Just styling. In any case, when you have a tonneau cover that actually seals decently, it traps the water there, and if it gets cold it freezes. I poured a cup of warm water into the gap once I got to work, and it unfroze the tailgate in about 5 seconds. Now to find some silicone or armor-all or something and see if that helps, but if not a little warm water did the trick. Just don't forget to dry it right off before it freezes again.

Yes, those vinyl protectants will help. I usually wipe some around all door seals, tailgate and back edge of tonneau - that seal.

It's tapered so that when you close the tailgate the seal conforms to the tailgate and allows it to move to and away from the seal like the old muscle car hard top seals used to be. You close the cover then the tail gate and the seal is shaped to allow the top of the tailgate to sort of wedge into the seal.

This seal for a hardtop car is made so the glass can settle into it when down and rolled up with door closed, or with glass up when closing the door, thus the angled shape and ability to deform and shape around the edge of the glass.

 

[JustinLentz]

Hearing all of this cold weather talk and frozen vehicle parts makes me really happy that today's high here is 28 and it's the lowest high temp we have had in over 4 years. I'm in NC btw.

 

[Aonarch]

I've used this for years:

https://www.nextzettusa.com/gummi-pflege-rubber-care-stick/

Owning old German cars it is an absolute must, especially convertibles.

I highly recommend it.

 

[aprez27]

Same crap happened to me last night. Glad I had nothing in there as I was trying load my bass and my amp. Threw them in the back seat instead, got to the studio and the tailgate was opened. Ooops.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I've used this for years:

https://www.nextzettusa.com/gummi-pflege-rubber-care-stick/

Owning old German cars it is an absolute must, especially convertibles.

I highly recommend it.

Looks like an interesting product, and made specifically for such seals and parts (good price, too)
German engineering..............hard to beat it.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Same crap happened to me last night. Glad I had nothing in there as I was trying load my bass and my amp. Threw them in the back seat instead, got to the studio and the tailgate was opened. Ooops.

We often have freezing rain ahead of snows. Then a day later the temperature takes a dump. Minus 8 when I got up. I think it might reach 0 today, hoping for a little bit more.

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