I'm currently outfitting my 2025 GMC Sierra. This is my third build now and I'm trying to keep it pretty flexible for two reasons. 1. It's my daily commuter and if I need to take things on/off I can do it fairly quickly 2. I still want to use my truck as a pickup if I need to. I'm running the RealTruck Elevate bed rack raised to 23", OVS 270 awning (driver side) and OVS Bushveld 4 RTT (passenger deploy), Real Truck Ceros roof rack with starlink/openroad 102L rugged case mounted to it. Bakflip MX4 tonneau cover. I've got a pop up shower tent I can move around, but debating if I want to mount one to the Ceros rack.
I've ordered a fridge slide for my Dometic CFX95 from DFG Offroad - still waiting for that to arrive so I can install it in my bed. I'm not sure if anybody has run into this problem before, but when my tailgate is opened and all the way down, it sits up on a very slight angle and is not totally flush with the bed. The fridge slide pulls out 20" and I haven't received it yet to see if its going to work without bottoming out from the tailgate sitting up on an angle. Does anybody know of a solution to get the tailgate to sit completely flush with the bed?
What I'm working with:
I have a Bakflip MX4 tonneau cover installed. The fridge is 18.5 inches tall. The bed slide from where it mounts to the truck is 1" from the slide itself, so I'm at 19.5". From the top of the rib of the bed to the bottom of the tonneau cross bar is 20.5". I can't mount the slide to the rib valley because the distance between the valley's of the ribs don't line up with the width of the slide. I should have enough clearance. The issue is the tailgate. I want to keep my tonneau cover so I have extra dry storage for off road gear and things I want to keep dry like my power station/ac-heater.
What I've researched:
All GMC's apparently have this by design, where the tailgate sits up on a slight angle and one of the tailgate cables has a very tiny bit of slack than the other on purpose from their engineering. I was looking into getting longer cables - can't seem to find any. Any aftermarket cables are OEM length. I was looking into the Decked drop link kit, which could possibly work, but that was designed for older model trucks and from what I've read GM changed the cable bolt up and it won't fit the drop link where it would go into the smooth shoulder of the bolt.
I bought a few quick links from hazardous freight and was going to put the bolt through that to the mount and the cable eye onto the quick link, but that didn't work and the next size up is too big.
I'm considering replacing the cables with chain links instead of working that into the equation somehow so I can make the length exactly what I need.
I've also considering splicing the cable to make it longer, but that seems a little janky to me.
There is a device that would allow me to replace the cables entirely and use a ratcheting arm system to adjust it to 8 levels, but it does not specify the tailgate will sit flush with the bed and from the videos it does not look like it will. It looks like it will only go to the same height as the factory cables would go.
I did buy a heavy duty piece of UHWM 1/4" thick to cut pieces of that and put that under the front mounting points to raise the slide up a little to hopefully clear the tailgate, if the room allows and the fridge doesn't hit the top of the tonneau cover.
Anyway, I'm just trying to gather ideas in advance in case the slide does not open all the way from bottoming out on the tailgate and see if anybody else ran into the issue or has ideas to share. Thanks in advance.
Mike
I've ordered a fridge slide for my Dometic CFX95 from DFG Offroad - still waiting for that to arrive so I can install it in my bed. I'm not sure if anybody has run into this problem before, but when my tailgate is opened and all the way down, it sits up on a very slight angle and is not totally flush with the bed. The fridge slide pulls out 20" and I haven't received it yet to see if its going to work without bottoming out from the tailgate sitting up on an angle. Does anybody know of a solution to get the tailgate to sit completely flush with the bed?
What I'm working with:
I have a Bakflip MX4 tonneau cover installed. The fridge is 18.5 inches tall. The bed slide from where it mounts to the truck is 1" from the slide itself, so I'm at 19.5". From the top of the rib of the bed to the bottom of the tonneau cross bar is 20.5". I can't mount the slide to the rib valley because the distance between the valley's of the ribs don't line up with the width of the slide. I should have enough clearance. The issue is the tailgate. I want to keep my tonneau cover so I have extra dry storage for off road gear and things I want to keep dry like my power station/ac-heater.
What I've researched:
All GMC's apparently have this by design, where the tailgate sits up on a slight angle and one of the tailgate cables has a very tiny bit of slack than the other on purpose from their engineering. I was looking into getting longer cables - can't seem to find any. Any aftermarket cables are OEM length. I was looking into the Decked drop link kit, which could possibly work, but that was designed for older model trucks and from what I've read GM changed the cable bolt up and it won't fit the drop link where it would go into the smooth shoulder of the bolt.
I bought a few quick links from hazardous freight and was going to put the bolt through that to the mount and the cable eye onto the quick link, but that didn't work and the next size up is too big.
I'm considering replacing the cables with chain links instead of working that into the equation somehow so I can make the length exactly what I need.
I've also considering splicing the cable to make it longer, but that seems a little janky to me.
There is a device that would allow me to replace the cables entirely and use a ratcheting arm system to adjust it to 8 levels, but it does not specify the tailgate will sit flush with the bed and from the videos it does not look like it will. It looks like it will only go to the same height as the factory cables would go.
I did buy a heavy duty piece of UHWM 1/4" thick to cut pieces of that and put that under the front mounting points to raise the slide up a little to hopefully clear the tailgate, if the room allows and the fridge doesn't hit the top of the tonneau cover.
Anyway, I'm just trying to gather ideas in advance in case the slide does not open all the way from bottoming out on the tailgate and see if anybody else ran into the issue or has ideas to share. Thanks in advance.
Mike