Sorta DIY Tailgate Ladder

[quangdog]

A few weeks ago I saw a thread about a nice tailgate ladder that looked really sturdy... but I choked when I saw how much it cost. I'd like to have a ladder on the tailgate, as I have a bum leg/foot due to a recent surgery that is going to take a long time to heal. I did a bit of digging, and found what looked like a "good enough" solution from Traxion, and the ladder itself only cost $49, including shipping. So I rolled the dice and ordered one.

To be clear, this ladder is not a custom fit for the ranger. It's a relatively sturdy ladder, with a nice fold-over-the-side design, and comes with a universal mount plate. It requires you to drill holes into the tailgate inner door, but I found a way to put all the holes only into the removable access panel on the inner tailgate. The kit also comes with some pretty crappy mounting hardware - they essentially just say to use self-tappers... but I wanted something more sturdy. Also I've been looking for an excuse to pick up a nutzert (or rivnut) tool, and this was a perfect project to push me to buy one.

The ladder also comes with a little nylon strap to secure it to the tailgate so it does not rattle around... but I didn't want to use this for 2 reasons: first, it's not going to be very secure. The last thing I want is to stop hard and have this ladder go swinging out into the bed of my truck and possibly damage something back there. Second, in order to mount that nylon strap I would have had to drill into the tailgate itself, rather than just into the access panel - which I wanted to avoid. So instead, I drilled through the center(ish) of one of the rungs on the ladder and use a threaded knob to secure the ladder in place. I also added rubber feet to the end of the ladder (to match the bumpers that come with the kit on the hinge end). The ladder stows very securely, and only takes a few seconds to deploy when I need it. If I need the ladder out of the truck, it's easy to pop it off with the included locking pins. If I ever need the mount plate out, just a few bolts and it's completely out of the way, leaving just a few stainless-steel rivnuts on the surface of the tailgate. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out:



Here are some pictures of more details parts of the installation. These first three show which holes I decided to use in the mounting plate:

I used a paint marker to mark the hole locations, then drilled them out. The aluminum of this access panel is actually decently thick:

Initially I was going to just use simple nuts and bolts to secure the mount plate - so I picked up a bunch of stainless steel fasteners:

However, I realized after a test fit that this would not work, because it prevents access to the 2 factory screws that sit underneath the access panels' outer edge, and the access panel would tend to flex up a bit when the ladder is in use. The factory fasteners are under this edge, blocked by the plate. This forced me to change to rivnuts:

If you've never seen a rivnut, they are just about the coolest way I've ever seen to secure something to sheet metal. It's a little insert that you put into a hole, then use a tool to squish it. It deforms in such a way that it locks itself into the sheet metal, with a lip above and below the surface. Here are a few pictures of when I was testing my new rivnut tool:

I picked up some stainless steel rivnuts for this project, so I would not have to worry about rust:

Here are the little bumpers I added to the bottom of the ladder, which allows for a nice snug fit with the threaded knob without digging into the surface of the tailgate:

And a few shots of the finished install:

Ok - bring on the feedback! Is this install a great or terrible idea? Or is there something I could have done better/differently?

Thanks for coming to my ted talk.

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[NotBudule]

redo the video without the flip flops...

a quicker latch / unlatch would be my only grip... I've been scratching my head trying to figure a way to do one like the F150's... love that ...

 

[quangdog]

redo the video without the flip flops...

a quicker latch / unlatch would be my only grip...

Temp is over 100F in the garage. Flip flops are practically required when it’s that hot…though I admit flip flops and ladders don’t mix…

I also wish there was a faster latching mechanism. I do have a larger handle on order, which should at least spin out faster/easier.

 

[ranger 2020]

Looks pretty nice to me. Thought about one but the price turned me off. Went to a hdwe store & bought a 4 step ladder on sale for $30.

 

[DonB]

A few weeks ago I saw a thread about a nice tailgate ladder that looked really sturdy... but I choked when I saw how much it cost. I'd like to have a ladder on the tailgate, as I have a bum leg/foot due to a recent surgery that is going to take a long time to heal. I did a bit of digging, and found what looked like a "good enough" solution from Traxion, and the ladder itself only cost $49, including shipping. So I rolled the dice and ordered one.

To be clear, this ladder is not a custom fit for the ranger. It's a relatively sturdy ladder, with a nice fold-over-the-side design, and comes with a universal mount plate. It requires you to drill holes into the tailgate inner door, but I found a way to put all the holes only into the removable access panel on the inner tailgate. The kit also comes with some pretty crappy mounting hardware - they essentially just say to use self-tappers... but I wanted something more sturdy. Also I've been looking for an excuse to pick up a nutzert (or rivnut) tool, and this was a perfect project to push me to buy one.

The ladder also comes with a little nylon strap to secure it to the tailgate so it does not rattle around... but I didn't want to use this for 2 reasons: first, it's not going to be very secure. The last thing I want is to stop hard and have this ladder go swinging out into the bed of my truck and possibly damage something back there. Second, in order to mount that nylon strap I would have had to drill into the tailgate itself, rather than just into the access panel - which I wanted to avoid. So instead, I drilled through the center(ish) of one of the rungs on the ladder and use a threaded knob to secure the ladder in place. I also added rubber feet to the end of the ladder (to match the bumpers that come with the kit on the hinge end). The ladder stows very securely, and only takes a few seconds to deploy when I need it. If I need the ladder out of the truck, it's easy to pop it off with the included locking pins. If I ever need the mount plate out, just a few bolts and it's completely out of the way, leaving just a few stainless-steel rivnuts on the surface of the tailgate. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out:



Here are some pictures of more details parts of the installation. These first three show which holes I decided to use in the mounting plate:

I used a paint marker to mark the hole locations, then drilled them out. The aluminum of this access panel is actually decently thick:

Initially I was going to just use simple nuts and bolts to secure the mount plate - so I picked up a bunch of stainless steel fasteners:

However, I realized after a test fit that this would not work, because it prevents access to the 2 factory screws that sit underneath the access panels' outer edge, and the access panel would tend to flex up a bit when the ladder is in use. The factory fasteners are under this edge, blocked by the plate. This forced me to change to rivnuts:

If you've never seen a rivnut, they are just about the coolest way I've ever seen to secure something to sheet metal. It's a little insert that you put into a hole, then use a tool to squish it. It deforms in such a way that it locks itself into the sheet metal, with a lip above and below the surface. Here are a few pictures of when I was testing my new rivnut tool:

I picked up some stainless steel rivnuts for this project, so I would not have to worry about rust:

Here are the little bumpers I added to the bottom of the ladder, which allows for a nice snug fit with the threaded knob without digging into the surface of the tailgate:

And a few shots of the finished install:

Ok - bring on the feedback! Is this install a great or terrible idea? Or is there something I could have done better/differently?

Thanks for coming to my ted talk.

Had this ladder on my last pickup. Won't do it again. Too flimsy.

 

[puckdodger]

nice idea but suspect footwear LOL. My dad would likely appreciate this on his fullsize truck, I recently put a BedStep on it because he carried a little two step kitchen ladder everywhere.

 

[NotBudule]

There is one I saw called "Flip Step" that I liked, 400 freaking dollars though , I fear anything bolted to the tailgate is just gona hang and catch stuff , F150 pullout style would be the only acceptable kind for me ... Ranger tailgate looks thick enough to hold one ...

 

[stringbreaker]

I have this same ladder and the straps have never come loose during hard braking. I like your idea though a very sanitary looking install

 

[Sariandan]

Nice idea! Thanks! In the past, I was flexible enough to just take that big step up onto the tailgate of trucks. A bit older and a lot rounder, I can't really do that any more. Although it's extremely fun(ny) to watch me try.

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