Lots of weight on Tailgate

[Randy Hinebaugh]

I hauled two dirtbikes, mine weighing about 250lbs and my buddies weighing about 230lbs on a trip about 320 miles round trip. Some of it was on fire service roads, dirt and far from smooth, so the bikes did quite a bit of bouncing around. I haven't notice any damage to the bed, other than maybe the plastic tailgate cover shows a touch of distortion, trust me I fretted over this a long time. The rear tire on my bike was right on the edge of the tailgate. I should have taken a picture. Keep in mind that when you winch down the front of the bike, it takes weight off the back tire, but it does tend to bounce around a little. I would suggest trying to put it in at an angle, so that the rear tire is not at the center of the tailgate (it's highest bending moment point). That will also help to move some of the weight toward the hinge. As far as momentary strength of the tailgate, I (240 lbs) stood on the tailgate with both dirtbikes loaded without a problem, I just didn't spend too much time on it.



If you go with the wood, make sure you fix it so it won't slide around. It doesn't take much for the rear of a bike to slide around, and wood on the relatively smooth bed of an ST will definitely slide around. I take a nylon strap and wrap around the rear tire and tie to the inner bed hooks on either side to keep rear of my bike from 'dancing'



I do have a picture of one of my bikes loaded straight in, the bikes I was refering to earlier are 3-4" longer, so rear tire was that much closer to the edge. Check my library for the pic.