general problems of the 2003 Ford Ranger

While using ramps to load lawn equipment into the bed of my 2003 Ford Ranger pickup, both of the tailgate limit cables broke simultaneously. Examination of the failed cabled indicated they both broke at the same location, roughly the midpoint of the cable where it is folded when the tailgate is in the up position. It would appear that water might have entered the cable sheath and rusted the cable. This failure resulted in the tailgate dropping approximately six inched and nearly causing two persons plus heavy equipment to fall to the ground. This could have resulted in serious injury. This appears to be a classic design flaw. I tried to get new cables from Ford, but they are on backorder pending re-design (according to the parts department at the Ford dealer I went to). This seems to indicate that Ford is aware of the problem but has not notified its customers.

The steel cables that support the tail gate of my 2003 Ford Ranger failed without warning. The tailgate dropped and it the bumper. Had I been standing on the tail gate or had a load placed on it I would have fallen to the ground or the load would have dropped which either would have caused injury. The cables failed due to corrosion. They are covered by a plastic sleeve with open ends which allows water to enter the cable assembly and become trapped causing the cable to corroded prematurely.