Tailgate latch stuck

This happened last night. Can’t get it open now and with my tonneau cover I can’t access the bed. thoughts?

 

Might be able to use a section of steel pallet banding material to craft yourself a slim tool for releasing bed cover. A hacksaw blade might also work if long enough.

 

If the previous reply doesn’t work, it looks like you’re going to have to replace the handle anyway so might as well get rough with it… maybe spray some lubricant, heat it up, spray compressed air or a power washer into it, bang it, and if all else fails just drill or grind through it.

You might order the replacement part first so you can immediately swap it out.

 

When mine did that it was broken.
and they are 106 bucks from everywhere but Amazon (you can find them for $76) dollars.
You need to destructively remove it from the outside in.

Good luck. Sorry this happened to you. It happened to me when it froze but the tonneau was off thankfully to access mine.

 

My handle/latch was frozen the other morning. Couldn't get into the bed.

Luckily, I didnt really NEED to get in there and it just thawed and became useable later that day.

I'll definitely remember not to force it, if/when it happens again.

Seems to be the only major drawback to a tonneau cover. They dont seem to like ice.

 

Good news is I got the handle down, bad news is it’s no longer attached to the truck.

 

Use a rigid long flat tip screwdriver to push the tail gate catches in on both sides. Try not to scrape the paint on your tail gate. Make sure it is thawed out also your tonneau cover probably is frozen to the top of the tailgate has happened multiple times to me.

 

Success!

Is it a hard tonneau cover? The first time this happened was when I was getting the tires swapped and they yanks on it and snap...but I (rather uncomfortably, mind you) was able to peel back the velcro on the side of my (soft) tonneau cover and squeeze my hand in there to release the latch. It's a tight fit and not as easy as regular access, but I did it.

The handles can be had cheaply on Amazon and Ebay. I don't think (IMO) the OEM handles are any better than the cheap ones you'll find online, and they offer them with the camera hole as well so you should be able to get a replacement for $30-40. Between my two Tundras, I've replaced 3 broken tailgate handles. I actually bought an extra last time so I have one on hand. Also - pushing the tailgate IN slightly before you pull helps immensely to remove a lot of the tension the tailgate is under and minimizes the chance of breaking the handle.

 

Doh! Can you open it now at least?

 

Protip

 

Learned the hard way from experience

Although the couple times I've let other people use my truck, you might be surprised how difficult it is to actually explain that to people.

"No...push it in a little before you pull it out."

 

Same here. I've broken 2 of them before I learned. And yeah I agree with buying the "cheapies"....one instance where buying OEM for double the price isn't warranted.

 

No

 

Luckily, my wife doesn’t have sausage fingers like me and she was able to squeeze her hand between the tonneau cover and tailgate and pull the cord. So now the cover is open but tailgate is still stuck closed.

 

Remove the panel on inside of the tailgate.