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District 1 tailgate extender/stabilizer solves common problem

Because the tailgates swing out from the underside of the trucks, ITD's maintenance forces were consistently hampered by branches and similar materials getting lodged underneath. And because the dump bed only has an opening the size of the tailgate, that created a bottleneck, or worse, an impasse.

So, District 1's Dave Palmer (pictured right), Coeur d'Alene South and East foreman, came up with an easy-to-install innovation that extends and stabilizes the tailgate, allowing much longer items to be hauled and dumped, and also allows for higher loads to be transported.

"The tailgates on our large trucks, when tipped down, had to be chained to have them lay flat," explained Palmer. "It was very time consuming and unsafe, as the chains would come lose and we couldn't get them tight enough because of the links."

Palmer's tensioned cable, with connectors, keeps the tailgate level and immovable. The cable fastener — made with steel cable and shakles (round eye hook) pinned in with tailgate pins — also makes it safer for employees to drop the tailgates to haul items, and eliminates the need for chains and that hour-long process.