if you have bigger than stock keep it off the gate

 

The weld nuts can be difficult to break loose, but they will come off. It is more like trying to break a piece of wire by bending it back and forth until it gets warm, and snaps than actually trying to break them with force. It takes some time, but if you wiggle them back and forth, up and down, they will break loose. I'm sorry to hear you decided not to install the kit. Will you be reselling it?

 

X2. I purchased the kit, and after seeing how hard the lower four mounting nuts came off, I did not remove the upper four factory nuts. I had to finish removing the last nut by sticking a solid rod through the nut, since both bolts supplied in the kit fatiqued. I understand the concept of wiggling back and forth to brake a weld, but the instructions act like it can be done easily. There is no doing it by hand, you must pound with a hammer hard to get movement. I controlled the movement without trying to bend too far in any direction, but by the time a nut gives way, the bolt is fatiqued. I got by by cutting its end off (thus lowering the moment arm I know) after each nut. After four, I said enough! Sorry for the bad report, but this was my experience.

 

This is a fair product at a fair price and I think your company makes some great stuff. No I won't resell it. I am modifying the brackets to use it with the factory nuts without drilling into the tailgate by welding a steel tube and nut on so the whole thing will go right over the stock nuts.

 

Good to hear you're going to adapt it to make it work. If you have any suggestions to improve upon our design, I'd be happy to pass any info along to our design team. Hope it works well for you!

 

My experience was almost identical to this. I had to use a rubber mallet to move the bolt, but eventually I broke the welds. How someone could do that with their fingers is beyond me.

Also, I found that screwing the bolt in "a few turns" as stated in the instructions is a good way to strip the threads on the nut and get nowhere. You really need to thread it in untli you can feel the end of the bolt is flush with the end of the nut.