Why I wish I had a tailgate...

So, I was taking my 4 new ebay-score cheap tires to get 'em mounted on rims for my '53 Customline.

I decided that I'd pull the rims and take 'em down to the store in my pickup, as opposed to having the shop guy take his impact and **** up my 50 year old drums (I learned that lesson on a '60 Beetle).

Well, two blocks from my home, I leave a stop, and leave two brand-motherfornicating-new tires on the street.

I get a few blocks away, and a nice lady pulls me over and tells me I dropped two tires.

DAMNIT!!!

Well, I turn around and go back to the scene of the stupidity. And two guys in the 7-11 parking lot ask if I'm looking for a couple tires.

Great, what a relief! Perhaps I'm gonna' get a break!

Then they tell me a guy in a gold pickup stopped and got 'em.

Oh... no break today.

So, I go buy another two tires.

Nobody to blame but myself, I guess.

But if anybody here found two 165SR15 Nankangs on 52nd Ave by 212th in MLT/Lynnwood today, please help a brother out!

Or,if you know who found 'em, please help 'em do the right thing. 'Cause my pickup needs fronts, too (and that's the size she runs), and being unemployed, the $$$ are in rare supply.

And, if you're loading something in your truck, and figure you'll just drive careful to keep it from falling out.... good luck!

-Bill

 

Ouch! I scored a set of cheap 1.5 inch whitewalls that were new. Blew up on the express way on my way to torquefest at 70 miles an hour!! Fishtailed and thought I was gonna roll the damn car. Turns out the guy was honest about them being new... he forgot to mention they were new 15 years ago when Uniroyal discontinued the for carc*** seperation!!!! Also turns out my daddy was right when he said "son, cheap is expensive"

 

rope /chain/volley ball net/???
lets help here!!!

 

I just bought 2 Nankang tires from a couple of guys at 7-11. They're in the back of my gold truck with a tailgate. I'll sell em to ya cheap!

Just kiddin, tough break man, we've all made similar mistakes. Good luck on getting them back.

 

A couple of years ago, I lost a brand new leaf blower the same way, coming out of a Lowe's parking lot. It was gone within a few minutes. $150 down the drain.

 

I dropped a cooler full of beer that way last week.

All survived.

Rich

 

How hard did you leave the light to have 2 tires fall out of your truck? I have run a lot of miles with no tailgate & as long as you don't drive like an animal stuff does not usually fall out.

****s to lose the tires but take it as a lesson learned. keep an eye on your load and if it even might fall out, tie it down. rope is cheap.

 

Last year at the Custom car show at Mason-Dixon dragway, a 48 Chevy coupe, there for the show, left his trunk unlatched. When the green light lit, he left all of the trunk's contents on the starting line. The ice filled cooler and all the sandwiches and snacks spilled out along with his lawn chairs.

 

I dumped 2 out of 5 full beer kegs that way, WITH a tailgate!

Even with a tailgate, it's a good idea to tie down. In the event of an accident, all that **** rolling around can turn into deadly projectiles...OK my public service announcement is over

 

i lost my spare tire due to leaving tailgate down! the stupid thing never slid when gate was closed. but the one time i was lazy. oh yeh that was fun chasin! i was s***tin bricks it was goin to hit someone. then another time i lost my cooler with all food and bevergaes for my camping trip!

 

I guess thats why my old man always said "watch that **** til we get up to speed" It's stuck with me for life.

 

I had a 95 GMC pickup that had a latch problem. I lost 2 tool boxes out the back when it came open when I hit a bump. When I got home I pulled the latch out and machined up a real one. That one still hurt because I had a bunch of tool making tools that I had made over the years.
It is what it is I guess. JC

 

Edited for drama reduction.

I am really down on the woe-is-me posts.

 

I know a guy who lost his expensive Honda lawn mower out the back of his tailgateless pickup bed trailer. by the time he got back around to pick it up 2 guys were already loading it in thier truck.

not only did he not have it tied in, he had it in there so it could roll right out the back, rather than put it in the bed sideways. guess he wasn't really big on thinking.

 

Those tailgates are great for initiating 1 and half gainers for refrigerators jumping out the back!
10.....10.....10.....9

 

Back when I was driving tow-trucks, I picked up thousands of dollars worth of "free" stuff off the highways and by-ways here in AZ. Usually because said "free stuff" had caused a collision or damaged a vehicle in some way. Tailgates aren't going to hold heavy loads or contain anything if you have to stomp on the binders or if someone hits your ride. Straps are much less expensive then replacing whatever it is you're transporting and certainly less head-ache then dealing with Johnny Law and the insurance companies when something does manage to find its way off your rig...

 

The only real problem with using anything like a ratcheting strap, is it'd probably fold that truck's ****ty old bed...

I tell ya', it's pathetic. But, at least I can look and see if my driveshaft and mufflers are still there.

Rich, now THAT'S alcohol abuse!

Much more gently than you'd think. I'd have sworn there was NO way that I coulda' pitched anything out the back.

Thanks for the sympathy; I found the word in the dictionary between **** and syphilis... Ain't saying it's ANYBODY'S fault but mine. I thought some of the way I described it would strike people funny. At least I'm hopin' it did.

Of course, nobody MADE you read it.

Oh, and if it gets the word to the right guys, I sure as hell could use the tires back!



Thanks for the kind words (well, from most of y'all); it does make it sting a little less.

-Bill

 

Watch your **** man! And drink less beer before leaving the house!!

 

Even with a tailgate I still tie stuff down in the bed of my truck. I work too hard for my money.

Several weeks ago I was hung up in traffic, a s****per took off too quick and lost his tailgate in the middle of an intersection, he never stopped. Looked like it was a nice gate just before the semi rolled over it.

 

I found a tool box, a 2 and 1/2 ton Walker floor jack ( that I still use ) and a nice pair of jack stands on a long, lonely country road on the way home from my favorite junk yard, a couple years ago. The tool box had at least 500 dollars ( used price ) worth of Snap-On and Mac tools. No foreign junk tools at all.

I looked for a name or intials on the tools and the box but to no avail. The jack did have " KILLER " hand painted on it ...

But I knew of no one named KILLER ...
I watched the paper in the LOST/FOUND and after about 6 weeks
I just cleaned all the tools and started using them.



Bad for the previous owner ... GOOD for me.

 

who knew it was so cool to not have a tailgate, you kids these days and your fads.

 

re: unsecured loads. If anything you're transporting in a vehicle gets loose and becomes jetsam or flotsam - any damage or injuries can provide more grief for you and your insurance company than a few lengths of decent line/rope/cable/bungees etc would cost. Take the time....

dj

 

Of course you are correct, no one forces me to read anything. On the flipside, you didn't have to post it either. The only reason I read this thread was for the vague ***le and the possible hot rod related content inside.

I'd be glad to give a thumbs up on a post you could do on how you built your own tailgate or nifty tie down system. There are those of us that use our hot rod trucks for more than parking lot posing, restraining our gear is essential.

I really should spend less time providing tech help and showing of hot rod content here on the HAMB instead of adding to the drama.

Cheers and carry on.

 

I always have a tailgate on my truck, even if I have to build them myself.

Look at your loss as a learning experance, the more costly the experance, the better you remember it.

 

to late now but a piece of rope and a couple knots would have saved you some tires and rope is cheap

 

I found two new good year tires in the middle of the road a couple of years ago, now I know why.

 

I friend had a junk engine in his truck and hit a pothole causing the engine to skip and slide out. He pushed it to the side of the road, and went back home to get something to lift it back into the truck with. When he returned the engine was gone.

Someone prolly got a hernia, as well as a junk engine

 

Thats a shame .Invest in a tailgate ....................

 

I found a brand new radiator in the box and it worked for my DODGE , thanks someone

 

Run you an ad in the lost and found part of the paper.Someone may be waiting for one to appear.I always look for an ad whenever I find something on the road.I figure I would hate to lose it if it came out of my truck so I always try to find an owner before I consider it found stuff.