Bracket between tailgate and bed

dwleib

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Hi, I’m new here, I guess mainly because I wasn’t aware there was a dedicated AT4 forum. But I’m glad to see there is.

I have a quick question. Does anybody know what this bracket is for? It’s between the tailgate and the bed. The teeth only appear to line up when the tailgate is closed. I thought maybe it was to ensure the tailgate didn’t have much play from side to side, but that seems unlikely to me. My next though was it was an anti theft thing, but I took the tailgate off and put it back in place with it installed. I’m at a loss. It’s in the way of a light bar I’d like to install, but I don’t want to remove this if it serves some purpose. Thanks for your help!

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I looked through these a few days ago too. The parts diagrams don’t even show the bracket on the bottom of the tailgate nor the one on the face of the bed.

If anyone gets a chance, can you verify if you have this on your truck? The one of the bottom of the tailgate is painted, so I assume everyone has that. The black one on the face of the bed doesn’t seem like it belongs. Like maybe it’s to assist during installation and line up at the factory but then gets removed.

Kind of grasping at straws at this point…
 

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Here’s ol’ blue, with a bunch of white on her. I can’t really get a zoomed out photo of that bracket. It’s too tight of a spot that doesn’t show on my phone. Basically, with the tailgate down, it’s about 12” from the left taillight looking down into the gap.
 

You ever figure out what the bracket is?
Not definitively. I believe it’s simply for alignment with a slim chance it could help with anti-theft if aligned properly. It does absolutely nothing when the tailgate is down as the teeth aren’t interlocked at that point. I tried to push the tailgate side to side to evaluate the play and there is none, whether the tailgate is up or down. I removed it for my Putco blade install. I see no adverse effects from doing so.
 

Not definitively. I believe it’s simply for alignment with a slim chance it could help with anti-theft if aligned properly. It does absolutely nothing when the tailgate is down as the teeth aren’t interlocked at that point. I tried to push the tailgate side to side to evaluate the play and there is none, whether the tailgate is up or down. I removed it for my Putco blade install. I see no adverse effects from doing so.
Yeah, probably an anti-theft feature. Tailgate theft is common and tailgates aren't cheap.
 

I was looking at mine and can't see any rhyme or reason for it either. What I did notice is that to take the tail gate off isn’t going to be easy. My old truck had simple release cable to get the gate off that I would use when shoving out mulch or topsoil. I suppose with al the electronics in the gate, this isn’t possible and or recommended any more.
 

I’m pretty sure they are used to stabilize and align the aluminum tailgate with all of irs different function.

The 2011-2019 GM trucks also had issues with the soft open system. The tailgate would shift inside the hinge, brake the bushings, and easily fall off during open/close. It was an expensive “known” warranty fix bc they replaced the entire soft open system on the passenger side of the tailgate.
There is not much difference between the 1500 and the HD's. The 1500's don't have that contraption. I will be removing mine on the AT4HD, come spring, when it warms up to install the putco bar.

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Hi, I’m new here, I guess mainly because I wasn’t aware there was a dedicated AT4 forum. But I’m glad to see there is.

I have a quick question. Does anybody know what this bracket is for? It’s between the tailgate and the bed. The teeth only appear to line up when the tailgate is closed. I thought maybe it was to ensure the tailgate didn’t have much play from side to side, but that seems unlikely to me. My next though was it was an anti theft thing, but I took the tailgate off and put it back in place with it installed. I’m at a loss. It’s in the way of a light bar I’d like to install, but I don’t want to remove this if it serves some purpose. Thanks for your help!

View attachment 1065

View attachment 1066
Did you ever find a solution for this? Having the same exact issue. Thanks.
 

Hi, I’m new here, I guess mainly because I wasn’t aware there was a dedicated AT4 forum. But I’m glad to see there is.

I have a quick question. Does anybody know what this bracket is for? It’s between the tailgate and the bed. The teeth only appear to line up when the tailgate is closed. I thought maybe it was to ensure the tailgate didn’t have much play from side to side, but that seems unlikely to me. My next though was it was an anti theft thing, but I took the tailgate off and put it back in place with it installed. I’m at a loss. It’s in the way of a light bar I’d like to install, but I don’t want to remove this if it serves some purpose. Thanks for your help!

View attachment 1065

View attachment 1066
Did you ever find an answer to this? Having the same issue. Thanks.
 

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