Tailgate assist retrofit for 100 series (?)

[CloudCity]

It would seem that moving the whole damper unit to the passenger side would possibly work since it is flat to the right side of that hinge and no spring to the right either. Keeping the damper to the right side of the hinge. Plausible?

 

[Red Beard]

I am so interested in this. It seems like it would be awesome to have. But from these photos, it does seem like a long shot though.

 

[daohaus]

I am so interested in this. It seems like it would be awesome to have. But from these photos, it does seem like a long shot though.

If you throw enough money at something you can get it to work lol. I wanted this as well

 

[Red Beard]

I finally read through the 200 thread. I’m surprised the amount of work the 200 LC guys had to do to get it on. I would have thought it would have been plug n play.

It seems we would need to drill a hole and tap it with threads, unless you wanted to cut open the tailgate and attach a nut.

 

[daohaus]

I finally read through the 200 thread. I’m surprised the amount of work the 200 LC guys had to do to get it on. I would have thought it would have been plug n play.

It seems we would need to drill a hole and tap it with threads, unless you wanted to cut open the tailgate and attach a nut.

Or do like some of the fabricators do and do one of them stick nuts or find some comparable unit from another Toyota vehicle and adapt it?

There's this for the Tacoma Soft open

 

[theferg]

It would seem that moving the whole damper unit to the passenger side would possibly work since it is flat to the right side of that hinge and no spring to the right either. Keeping the damper to the right side of the hinge. Plausible?

Did anybody actually purchase the parts and look further into this?

I think @CloudCity seems to have a good idea here about putting it on the RH side on the 100...

 

[archerwolf]

I just looked at the tailgate on my 99 LC. There are humps in the mounting surface on both sides of both DS and PS hinges. There doesn’t seem to be an easy way to mount the damper.

 

[Red Beard]

Looks like we'd likely have to use the "Left hinge", which means the damper will be to the right of the hinge. I'm not even sure if the 200 hinge is even compatible with our hinges.

Here are the required parts from that thread:

LX Left Hinge - 66120-60021
Damper - 67028-60010 (Ebay Japan $40 plus $20 shipping) See previous posted link
Bolt for Damper - 91673-A0622

Here are some comparisons from their part photos on PartSouq

200 Hinge:

HINGE ASSY TAIL 6612060021 | Toyota Parts | PartSouq

Quality parts for Toyota auto with fast delivery here! For a fast search using the part number 6612060021 - HINGE ASSY TAIL

partsouq.com

2006 LC Hinge:

HINGE ASSY, TAIL GATE, LH 6612060010 | Toyota Parts | PartSouq

Quality parts for Toyota auto with fast delivery here! For a fast search using the part number 6612060010 - HINGE ASSY, TAIL GATE, LH

partsouq.com

 

[Red Beard]

It looks like the 200 hinge "triad" of holes for the body side look bigger and closer together than the 100 series version which could make things tricky.
Plus, theres a riveted-on bolt for the 100 series?

 

[GTV]

I am all for fitting factory mods if possible but this one would require some amount cutting and welding to fit it on a 100.

There is this idea, no clue if there's enough real estate in there or not.

DeeZee E-Commerce

www.deezee.com

A little assistance to lift it back up would be nice once I get around to installing my storage lid and filling the gate up. I thought there was a lift strut available as well but I can't seem to find it (would one strut of each type achieve this goal or would they cancel each other out?). Is a stronger torsion spring possible or is there a way to put more tension on it?

 

[theferg]

It looks like the 200 hinge "triad" of holes for the body side look bigger and closer together than the 100 series version which could make things tricky.
Plus, theres a riveted-on bolt for the 100 series?

Those pics are def helpful. You can def see the hole sizing and spacing differences on the body side of the hinge. My initial thought is to oval out the holes on it to match the 100 spacing, but there might not be enough hinge width there--Hard to tell. And ovaling out the holes also opens up issues with alignment and movement.

Also hard to tell how close the holes are on tailgate side... earlier in this thread the hole spacing was measured and they are the same. But are the angles of the hinge body close enough? Hard to determine without side-by-side comparison or more measurements.

So, what about swapping out one side of the hinge? Or just the pin itself? I've never messed with taking apart a hinge like that... seems possible, but what is holding the pin in? Is there a retainer of some sort? Is the "bottom" of the hinge pin slightly mushroomed over or something? Or it's just press fit in?

 

[SemperRex]

Looks like we'd likely have to use the "Left hinge", which means the damper will be to the right of the hinge. I'm not even sure if the 200 hinge is even compatible with our hinges.

It looks like the 200 hinge "triad" of holes for the body side look bigger and closer together than the 100 series version which could make things tricky.
Plus, theres a riveted-on bolt for the 100 series?

Those pics are def helpful. You can def see the hole sizing and spacing differences on the body side of the hinge. My initial thought is to oval out the holes on it to match the 100 spacing, but there might not be enough hinge width there--Hard to tell. And ovaling out the holes also opens up issues with alignment and movement.

Also hard to tell how close the holes are on tailgate side... earlier in this thread the hole spacing was measured and they are the same. But are the angles of the hinge body close enough? Hard to determine without side-by-side comparison or more measurements.

So, what about swapping out one side of the hinge? Or just the pin itself? I've never messed with taking apart a hinge like that... seems possible, but what is holding the pin in? Is there a retainer of some sort? Is the "bottom" of the hinge pin slightly mushroomed over or something? Or it's just press fit in?

If you look at the first picture in post 16, you'll see that it's not just that the body-side holes aren't the same. The 200 series body side arm is much longer thus you can't just swap hinges. It'd require basic fabrication (cutting and welding). Whether it's easier/better to cut the body side arm or just add the rotary damper assembly to the stock 100 hinge, or cut and clearance the 100 tailgate, I can't say... I can comfortably say that it's doable with reasonable fab skills.

It's 100% NOT a bolt-on mod

 

[savirc]

Subscribed! I've been looking for something like this for my pregnant TrailTailor drop-down gate.

 

[theferg]

Ok. So just went out and looked at mine. 2005 LX470. Passenger side is no better of a spot. It looked like maybe from the pics earlier in this thread, but looking at mine, the passenger side doesnt have any better of a flat surface area on the right side. So I think, regardless of hinge differences, you're still back to cut-n-fab on the tailgate to get the necessary flat surface area. Edit: though on second thought, there is less "stuff" in the way on the right side of the passenger side hinge--so if you're fabbin a flat spot, that'd be easier.

Passenger side:

Drivers side:

 

[theferg]

If you look at the first picture in post 16, you'll see that it's not just that the body-side holes aren't the same. The 200 series body side arm is much longer thus you can't just swap hinges. It'd require basic fabrication (cutting and welding). Whether it's easier/better to cut the body side arm or just add the rotary damper assembly to the stock 100 hinge, or cut and clearance the 100 tailgate, I can't say... I can comfortably say that it's doable with reasonable fab skills.

It's 100% NOT a bolt-on mod

Agree, not 100% bolt-on. But still perhaps:

So, what about swapping out one side of the hinge? Or just the pin itself? I've never messed with taking apart a hinge like that... seems possible, but what is holding the pin in? Is there a retainer of some sort? Is the "bottom" of the hinge pin slightly mushroomed over or something? Or it's just press fit in?

 

[Red Beard]

Yeah, I think the 200 damper is really cool, but might be harder to fit on our setup.

Gas struts might be the ticket. If they can figure it out for truck bed tailgates, we should be able to apply the same idea. Although, DeeZee's solution has a custom fab mounting point for the shock and stay.

McMaster Carr stuff:

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

 

[daohaus]

now i have to go out and look at the tailgate assembly to see if a strut would work. this would be something owl or trail tailor can craft up some brackets that would allow us to bolt on

 

[theferg]

Yeah, I think the 200 damper is really cool, but might be harder to fit on our setup.

Gas struts might be the ticket. If they can figure it out for truck bed tailgates, we should be able to apply the same idea. Although, DeeZee's solution has a custom fab mounting point for the shock and stay.

As far as ease of installation/application, I think you might be right. If the 200 damper is going to require fabbin on the tailgate, vs if you can just perhaps add a bracket or two and install a strut, thats a no-brainer to just go with the strut. I'm going to have to go out to the garage and poke around the LX some more as well.

 

[CloudCity]

I am all for fitting factory mods if possible but this one would require some amount cutting and welding to fit it on a 100.

There is this idea, no clue if there's enough real estate in there or not.

DeeZee E-Commerce

www.deezee.com

A little assistance to lift it back up would be nice once I get around to installing my storage lid and filling the gate up. I thought there was a lift strut available as well but I can't seem to find it (would one strut of each type achieve this goal or would they cancel each other out?). Is a stronger torsion spring possible or is there a way to put more tension on it?

I’m not sure there’s a “lift” vs “close” strut if that’s what you mean, like how a spring compressed in only one direction. If there are and you were to match them perfectly then it would likely allow you to position the unit in any spot and it would stay there rather than lift or close by itself. Note that you could also achieve this by balancing one strut perfectly to the weight of the gate itself as that would also “cancel” one another out and allow you to place the gate at any position and be held there. It’s like some fancy cars have, a friend’s Aston Martin ha doors like this that I can open to any spot and they stay put rather than having to hit the 2 or 3 bumps that hold it.

 

[savirc]

Yeah, I think the 200 damper is really cool, but might be harder to fit on our setup.

Gas struts might be the ticket. If they can figure it out for truck bed tailgates, we should be able to apply the same idea. Although, DeeZee's solution has a custom fab mounting point for the shock and stay.

View attachment 2906866

View attachment 2906870


McMaster Carr stuff:

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

View attachment 2906867

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

View attachment 2906868

I tried this, it's more difficult to fit on the 100 than it looks, because of the space between the gate and body.