Patent filings might show Ford’s secret weapon in the tailgate wars

The drawings show off a three-part truck tailgate with the middle section opening like a side-hinged door

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If you hadn’t noticed, the truck tailgate wars are heating up, with each of the Detroit Three offering their own innovate takes on how to make that metal panel closing off the bed open, split, or fold. Recent submissions from Ford to the U.S. Patent Office suggest the Blue Oval’s next attack may be to release a tailgate with three separate sections, the middle one opening up side-hinge-style.

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Ram’s split barn-door style tailgate option is a pretty trick truck feature, and General Motors’ multi-function tailgate has so many hinges in it, it looks like a Transformer when fully opened. But the biggest innovation Ford’s made to its tailgates so far is to embed a ruler and other tools into the lowered gate’s top surface; and the “Man Step” handle it’d fitted to F-150s to help owners up into the bed.

These new patent drawings, dug up by CarBuzz , suggest the automaker may consider riffing off of Ram’s side-hinged tailgate idea, but instead of splitting the tailgate in half, it’s broken it up into three sections, with the middle piece folding out sideways.

That’s not the only new tech Ford’s looking to patent: there’s also a built-in step that folds from the load sill just below the tailgate. That’s right, Ford’s roping bumpers into its plan of attack, here.

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Finally, the drawings also suggest the trick tri-section gate may be able to be opened remotely from the cab at the touch of a button—both the full gate and just the central piece on its own.

Of course, just because Ford’s taken out a patent on something doesn’t mean the tech will make it to market. But CarBuzz said it’s heard rumours within the Blue Oval that it’s tired of GM and Stellantis having all the fun with their trucks’ multifunction tailgates and wants in on the action. Yeah—with the tailgate wars heating up the way they are, we’ll be keeping our eyes open for this feature on an F-150 coming soon.