Opening power tailgate if truck has dead battery?

[maxx075]

It doesn't have a manual handle on the power tailgates. It is a switch which activate an electric mechanism, so no power means no way to open it.

Lmao that's hilarious, in a terrible way

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[TacoFreak]

Lmao that's hilarious, in a terrible way

Yes, it is pretty stupid, particularly for the hybrids which don't do a good job of charging their 12 volt batteries. My wife's electric Lexus SUV went completely off line after sitting for just two days. She had a jump pack but it was in the hatch, which has the same electric mechanism so we could not get to it. I put a maintainer on it and it started after charging for a while. Now she carries it in the passenger compartment which you can open when your Toyota is dead.

 

[Canufixit]

Pop the tailgate off like the thieves do.

How ??

 

[Canufixit]

Excuse my ignorance as I have a manual tailgate, but you can't open the tailgate if that battery is dead? Like not even with the manual handle?

The Tailgate is normally set to self e lock and must then be unlocked with the E lock. The E lock disengages the physical tailgate latch so ot doe not engage and is useless.

 

[Crazy Mary’s Husband]

You guys get a lot of dead batteries? I never dreamed that there was so much to worry about before I came to this forum. I may need Valium soon.

 

[maxx075]

You guys get a lot of dead batteries? I never dreamed that there was so much to worry about before I came to this forum. I may need Valium soon.

Hybrids have been notorious to ship with faulty (already half dead) batteries. There are a few posts here about it.

 

[Crazy Mary’s Husband]

Hybrids have been notorious to ship with faulty (already half dead) batteries. There are a few posts here about it.

Hybrids aren’t the only ones that have a power tailgate. The point of my post is that people worry too much. I can remember my neighbor telling me, “Go ahead and laugh buddy, you and your fancy new gizmos. Just wait until the belt breaks, You and your fancy power steering will both be stranded and Im gonna drive right past you and we’ll see who’s laughing then”

 

[gpburdell]

You guys get a lot of dead batteries? I never dreamed that there was so much to worry about before I came to this forum. I may need Valium soon.

Sounds like you don't keep vehicles very long.

Batteries are a consumable. They wear out and fail, sometimes without warning. Like drive to lunch, come back out and it's completely dead (internal short). I've had a couple other sudden failures like that over the years, though I can usually discern when a battery is about done.

So the takeaway is don't keep your jump pack in the truck bed if you have a tonneau cover you can't open from outside.

Which is another thing - what happens if the mechanism fails? The Pop-&-Lock (port install option on my 2017) stopped working one day. Used the key to unlock and open it so I could disassemble things to see the cause. Fortunately just needed a clean & lube, but leaves me to wonder how that'd be handled with the power tailgates?

 

[Crazy Mary’s Husband]

Sounds like you don't keep vehicles very long.

Batteries are a consumable. They wear out and fail, sometimes without warning. Like drive to lunch, come back out and it's completely dead (internal short). I've had a couple other sudden failures like that over the years, though I can usually discern when a battery is about done.

So the takeaway is don't keep your jump pack in the truck bed if you have a tonneau cover you can't open from outside.

Which is another thing - what happens if the mechanism fails? The Pop-&-Lock (port install option on my 2017) stopped working one day. Used the key to unlock and open it so I could disassemble things to see the cause. Fortunately just needed a clean & lube, but leaves me to wonder how that'd be handled with the power tailgates?

I get it but I don’t lose sleep over what may happen.

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