Tailgate Assist Install — 5 Minutes and You’ll Never Slam Your Tailgate Again

If you’ve ever opened a factory tailgate with one hand while holding a toolbox in the other, you already know the problem: the tailgate drops like a guillotine and the cables snap taut with a sound that makes you wince every time. On a half-ton, it’s annoying. On a 2500HD or F-350 with a tailgate that weighs over 50 pounds, the cables, hinges, and your wrist feel every pound of it — and over time, those components take damage you can’t see until something fails.

So how can this be resolved? I hope you will have the answer after reading this article.

What a Tailgate Assist Actually Does

A tailgate assist is a nitrogen-charged dampener — structurally similar to a hood strut or a screen door closer, but valved specifically for the weight and pivot geometry of a pickup tailgate. When you release the tailgate latch, the strut extends under controlled resistance, slowing the tailgate’s descent to a smooth, even rate across the full arc of travel.

Three things change the moment you install one:

1. The tailgate drops slowly and predictably

No guessing how hard it’ll hit. No two-handed operation required when your other hand is full of tools, lumber, or a child. Release the latch, let go, and the tailgate floats down on its own. For anyone who uses their truck bed daily, this is the single biggest quality-of-life improvement you can make for under a hundred dollars.

2. The cables stop absorbing repeated shock loads

Factory tailgate cables are the only thing stopping a 50-plus-pound steel panel from free-falling through a 90-degree arc. When the tailgate slams open, the cable ends experience a spike in tension far beyond the static weight of the gate. Do that twice a day, every day, for three years — that’s over 2,000 impact cycles on hardware that was designed to hold the tailgate flat, not absorb repeated shock loads.

A dampener spreads that same load across 3–4 seconds of controlled travel instead of a quarter-second impact. The cables, hinge pins, and pivot bushings never see the spike.

3. One-handed operation becomes second nature

On job sites, at loading docks, at the lumber yard, at the campground — anywhere you’re carrying something toward the truck bed — a tailgate that opens itself with one hand isn’t a luxury. It’s what you never realized you were missing.

Why Didn’t the Factory Install One?

Cost, full stop. A tailgate assist strut costs the manufacturer roughly $12–15 per unit in volume. On a Silverado, Ram, or Super Duty — trucks that sell by the hundreds of thousands per year — multiplying that part cost across the entire production run adds millions to the bill of materials. When focus groups say the tailgate opens “fine” (translation: it drops hard, but nobody returns the truck over it), the accountants win and the dampener stays on the cutting-room floor.

The aftermarket fills this gap with kits that cost between $30 and $80 and install in minutes. The math makes sense for the owner, just not for the OEM’s margin targets.

What Prolonged Tailgate Slamming Damages

The tailgate hardware that takes the hit isn’t always obvious — and it’s usually not the cables that fail first.

Hinge Bushings

Most tailgate hinges use a plastic or nylon bushing between the hinge pin and the tailgate-side bracket. Repeated impact loading compresses and deforms the bushing material, eventually creating enough play that the tailgate rattles over bumps and doesn’t close cleanly on the striker. Replacing worn hinge bushings on a tailgate is a two-person job and on some trucks requires removing the bedside cap just to access the hinge bolts.

Cable Ends and Anchors

The cables themselves are steel — they rarely snap. What fails instead are the crimped end fittings that attach the cable to the tailgate and bedside anchors. Each hard drop flexes the crimp slightly. After thousands of cycles, the cable pulls free of the crimp, and the tailgate drops past horizontal until the sheet metal corners hit the bumper. 

Tailgate Latch Alignment

The latch striker on the bedside is a fixed point. If the tailgate hinge bushings develop play, the tailgate shifts slightly in its closed position, changing the contact angle between the latch jaws and the striker. You’ll notice it as a tailgate that requires extra force to close, or one that pops open on rough roads — both caused by alignment drift you can trace back to slamming wear.

A tailgate assist doesn’t fix any of these problems once they’ve occurred, but it prevents them from developing in the first place.

Installation: The 5-Minute Process

The installation pattern is nearly identical across Chevy/GM, Ram, and Ford platforms, which is why this is genuinely a five-minute job on all three:

1. Remove the tailgate-side hinge bolt. A T40 or T50 Torx on GM and Ford, or a 13mm to 15mm hex bolt on Ram. The bolt passes through the tailgate hinge bracket and threads into a captive nut in the tailgate shell. Support the tailgate slightly to unload the hinge while you back the bolt out.

2. Install the ball stud in place of the original bolt. The kit supplies a replacement bolt with a spherical ball-stud head machined onto the top. Thread it in by hand to avoid cross-threading, then torque to spec — typically 25–35 ft-lbs. The ball stud is what the strut end snaps onto.

3. Mount the strut body bracket to the bedside. Depending on the platform, this either uses an existing factory hole in the tailgate pocket sheet metal or requires a rivet nut (nutsert) set into a pre-existing dimple, compress the tool to expand it behind the sheet metal, and bolt the bracket on.

4. Snap the strut onto both ball studs. The gas-charged strut has socket-style end fittings that snap over the ball studs with firm hand pressure. Press until you hear the click on both ends.

5. Test the drop. Release the latch and watch the tailgate float down at roughly one-third the speed of a free-fall drop. It should travel smoothly with no binding, hesitation, or sudden acceleration at any point in the arc.

Below are the platform-specific kits, what makes each unique, and any installation nuances worth knowing before you start.

Chevy / GMC

GM tailgates in this era are among the heaviest in the full-size segment — particularly the HD models, where the tailgate shell was reinforced for step-and-grab bed access. A free-falling 2500HD tailgate hits the support cables with enough force to stretch the cable ends and oval-out the nylon hinge bushings over time. 

2007-2018 Chevy Silverado GMC Sierra 1500 2500 3500 Tailgate Assist Shock Kit

The TruckTok Tailgate Assist Shock Kit for 2007–2018 Silverado and Sierra is valved specifically for the weight and pivot geometry of these GM tailgates. It includes a nutsert system and installation tool for a solid, riveted mounting point in the bed-side pocket — no self-tapping screws into single-layer sheet metal, no hardware-store improvisation. A protective Mylar sheet is included to prevent scratches during installation, a thoughtful touch for trucks where the bedside paint is still clean. The step-by-step install guide walks through bolt removal, nutsert placement, and strut snap-on in under ten steps.

Platform notes: The 1500 and HD models use the same tailgate hinge geometry for these model years, so one kit covers the full range. The 2019+ Silverado and Sierra (T1 platform) use a different tailgate design and are not compatible. Multi-Pro / Multi-Flex tailgates are also on a different hinge system entirely.

Ram

Ram tailgates have a slightly different pivot geometry than GM or Ford — the hinge axis sits further inboard relative to the bedside, which changes how the mechanical advantage varies through the travel arc. A generic strut not valved for this geometry either slows the tailgate inconsistently or doesn’t provide enough resistance in the bottom third of travel, where the leverage ratio peaks and cable impact is hardest.

The TruckTok Tailgate Assist Shock Kit uses factory mounting locations and includes a dedicated cable management clip that keeps the tailgate support cables properly positioned through the entire arc of travel.

On the Ram, the cable routing path runs close to the hinge area, and without a management clip the cable can interfere with the strut body at certain angles. This clip is Ram-specific and eliminates that interference. The heavy-duty steel brackets are built for years of daily job-site cycles. The full install guide covers the bolt swap, bracket mounting, and strut attachment in five minutes flat.

Platform notes: The 2019+ new-body Ram 1500 (DT platform) uses a different tailgate hinge design and requires a different kit.

Ford

Super Duty tailgates take the weight crown. The F-450’s gate alone is over 60 pounds before you factor in the integrated step and assist pole. Every hard drop loads the hinge pins, pivot bushings, and cable anchors with dynamic forces well in excess of 100 pounds — and on a truck that might see 20 tailgate cycles a day on an active job site, those cycles add up fast.

2017-2024 Ford F250 F350 F450 Tailgate Assist Shock Kit

The Tailgate Assist Shock Kit is a bolt-on system that uses factory mounting points exclusively — no drilling, no cutting, no permanent modifications to the truck. The high-strength steel strut body and bracket are built for the repeated cycles of a work truck, and the nitrogen-charged dampener is valved to handle the Super Duty’s heavier gate without binding at the top of travel or rushing through the bottom third. The install guide covers the complete process with factory bolt locations clearly identified for each model year.

Platform notes: This kit fits 2017–2024 aluminum-body Super Duty models, including all cab configurations and bed lengths. The F-150 (2015–2024 aluminum body) uses a different tailgate hinge architecture and requires a different kit — the F-150 tailgate is notably lighter and the hinge geometry does not match the Super Duty. The 2023+ Super Duty refresh retained the same tailgate design as 2017–2022, so this kit fits through 2024.

Quick Comparison

Conclusion

A tailgate assist is the kind of upgrade that sounds small until you use it — and then you wonder why every truck doesn’t leave the factory with one. Five minutes, a single strut, and the tailgate goes from a 50-pound guillotine to a controlled, one-hand operation. It costs less than a tank of diesel and protects hinge bushings, cable ends, latch alignment, and your wrist from thousands of unnecessary impact cycles over the life of the truck.

TruckTok carries platform-specific kits for GM, Ram, and Ford trucks — each valved for the actual weight and hinge geometry of that truck, not a one-size-fits-all strut with a bracket adapter. Every kit ships with the hardware and tools needed to finish the install in one sitting.

Q1: Will a tailgate assist affect how the tailgate latch works?

A1: No. The tailgate assist mounts at the hinge — a completely separate location from the latch mechanism, the locking actuator, and the tailgate handle. The tailgate opens, closes, locks, and latches exactly as it did from the factory. The only change is the speed of the descent.

Q2: Does the tailgate still open fully flat?

A2: Yes. The strut is designed to cover the full travel arc of the tailgate from closed to fully horizontal. When the tailgate is flat, the strut is at its maximum designed extension — it does not bottom out early, does not prevent the tailgate from reaching horizontal, and does not put upward pressure on the gate in the open position.

Q3: Do I need to drill into my truck?

A3: On Ram and Ford applications, no — both use existing factory mounting points in the bed-side sheet metal exclusively. The Chevy/GMC kit uses a nutsert (rivet nut) installed into a factory dimple that already exists in the bedside pocket, but this does not involve enlarging or cutting any holes. The nutsert is set with the included hand tool and creates a threaded mounting point in the dimple — no drill touches the truck.

Q4: Can I install this by myself or do I need a helper?

A4:While it is possible to install solo on GM and Ram trucks by propping the tailgate up with a prop-rod or towel-covered box, we highly recommend having a helper. For Ford Super Duty applications, because the dampener is a hidden system that requires replacing the passenger-side hinge pivot, you must completely remove the tailgate to install it.

Q5: How long does the strut last?

A5: A quality nitrogen-charged tailgate strut should last 5–8 years under normal use, or roughly 50,000–100,000 open/close cycles. The strut is a sealed, maintenance-free unit with no fluid to top off and no adjustment required. When it eventually loses charge — you’ll notice the tailgate dropping faster than it used to — replacement takes the same five minutes as the initial install and requires no new hardware.