Alright, yall got me to wantin to drill holes in my Jeep over this one. Here's mine.

First, before I do ANY kinda work on hinges and the like on ANY vehicle, I level her up.


Then, I transferred the bracket bolt pattern to the inside of the tub. I placed it as far up as possible, to use the strength of the 90 degree bend at the top, and as far back as possible, to get into the area where the tub is double walled and spot welded, so that I'd be into TWO layers of sheet metal.


Marks transferred to the tailgate.


The finished product.


Now, I got the 40 pound shock. It does not open the gate all by itself. I think it is best this way. It does however, HOLD it open very well, and I think that was the intent. This is a good mod that oughtta be thought about doin from the factory.

 

This looks like an awesome solution...just ordered my parts from McMaster!!!

 

I'm "The Guy" who cut the hole =) and started the thread. Still works awesome and Im glad to see that everyone rethought it out and improved on it.

Then again- I wrote alot of write ups and you guys are making your own versions.

Its good to see everyones version. Makes me redo mine or rethink why I didnt think of it the first time.

While the warm weather is coming I have more write ups on the way.

Glad to see you guys still refering to my write ups

Mike

 

Great idea DBB888! I just completed this install using the West Marine parts with the 40lb shock. I picked up the blind nut rivet kit from Harbor Freight. Wow, i was amazed at their prices. It wasn't a bad install.

I had a little trouble with drilling the holes in the tailgate though. If you look in the picture, where I chose to mount the bracket was a poor choice. One hole was through one piece of sheet metal and the other 2 holes were through 1.5 pieces. The drill bit only made contact with the second piece on about 1/2 the bit causing it to want to "walk" (notice the crooked bracket on my door). Just be careful if you try mounting yours as high as I did mine.

I would recommend picking up a different ball bracket than the West Marine ones though since putting in a spacer is a minor hassle. I believe that the McMaster parts are a bit more forgiving in this aspect.



I'm not sure if I like the 40lb shock though. The door slams open for me too. It does it with such force that the whole vehicle shakes. I'm going to try a 30lb to see if that will do the trick.

 

Even if you drop down to a 30# shock, you ought to restrain the tailgate so it doesn't swing out under its own power. I used a 30# shock and the gate bounces at the end of its travel if I forget to ease it out slowly. The weight of the tire still creates a fair amount of stress on the bracket rivets that could cause the brackets to loosen over time if the gate is allowed to swing out freely most of the time.

It's hard to understand how your drill bit walked on you, unless you didn't punch the metal first and drill a pilot hole, but it appears that you went out of your way to mount the bracket on the gate in a place (high, near the bend) that was likely to bite you.

 

gonna do this on my tj when i get a chance!

 

that is great work Woods!!! looks stock. I would like to thank you for giving me more work to do, cause I have to do this mod now.

 

I just installed the JK Tailgate Gas Strut Kit from Cool Tech, LLC Inc. Excellent hardware.
Clean installation. Works great! Price was very good also. Look here.. http://www.cooltechllc.com/servlet/Detail?no=25


Something I posted after I did the install...
https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/jk-write-ups-39/gas-strut-kit-cool-tech-llc-install-40871/



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just wondering were you got the green paint, its pretty close to factory

 

thanks alot