It was supposed to be a simple drive home from the dealership, excitement buzzing in the air. We had just picked up my wife’s brand-new Ducati, carefully loaded it into the back of my Tacoma, and were cruising down a city street. My wife was behind the wheel, and I was in the passenger seat, relaxed and happy about the new addition to our garage. Suddenly, my wife’s voice cracked with alarm as she glanced in the rearview mirror. “The bike… it’s getting smaller!”
Panic flared. We pulled over immediately to find a sight that made our hearts sink. The Tacoma’s tailgate had buckled inwards, collapsing under the weight of the Ducati. Incredibly, the bike had high-centered itself on the edge of the truck bed, preventing a complete disaster. We managed to limp home, the image of our precious Ducati nearly tumbling onto the asphalt burned into our minds.
Ford Ranger bed loaded with dirt bikes – Example of securely transporting motorcycles in a pickup truck, contrasting with the Tacoma tailgate failure discussed.
Back home, with trembling hands, I removed the plastic tailgate cover to assess the damage and understand what had gone wrong. What I discovered was truly shocking. Unlike every other pickup truck I had ever encountered, the Tacoma’s tailgate was flimsy, almost laughably so. Instead of a robust, double-walled construction designed to handle substantial loads across its width, it offered minimal support. It was then that the nickname “TACOma” suddenly made a grim kind of sense.
This was during the first year of this Tacoma generation, and as time went on, I began to notice similar stories surfacing online. Other owners were experiencing the same tailgate failures, sharing their own tales of near misses and damaged cargo. A resourceful aftermarket quickly emerged, with people developing and selling reinforcement kits. These kits offered much-needed bracing and solid sheet metal to replace the inadequate factory setup.
Looking back, armed with a bit more knowledge and some welding skills I’ve picked up since, I realize I could have fabricated a reinforcement solution myself. However, at the time, the incident served as a stark realization. “Doing truck stuff,” at least when it came to hauling anything with concentrated weight on the tailgate, was simply beyond the capabilities of this particular Tacoma. Ultimately, the lack of confidence in its load-carrying ability led me to trade it in, seeking a truck that was genuinely built for truck duties.
