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Remote Tailgate Lock On The AV

XRover

Charter Member
SM 2003
Full Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2002
Messages
1,610
Location
Los Angeles, California
I finally did it.

After 8 hours of tedious labor, I now have a fully functional auto lock/unlock tailgate. It is wired into the Keyless entry system ?so when I choose to unlock the passenger doors the Tailgate unlocks and when I lock the doors, the tailgate locks.

I paid $20.00 for the power door lock actuator. ?It is neccessary to make minor modifications to the inside of the tailgate and getting to the inside is more then half the battle.

The tailgate is comprised of 2 parts. The outer skin which is the painted portion of the gate and the gate assembly itself. In order to install the actuator, I had to remove the outer skin. Very Very time consuming.... The outer skin is attached to the gate assembly with rivets and a lot of double sided tape. ?I ?have photos on my website.

It is imperitive to have a nice work area to lay the Tailgate on while removing the Skin and installing the Actuator. The Actuator is a basic 2 wire door lock unit. Since this was a first time for me, I ended up removing components that I did not need to remove.

The only components that need to be removed are as follows:

1. Remove Gate from vehicle (see owners manual)
2. Remove Grey plastic Key lock/handle cover (2 long bolts located on backside of gate)
3. Remove top gate spoiler piece by using 3M spray adhesive remover (citrus based). The flat top portion of the spoiler has a lot of double sided tape so take your time getting the adhesive to soften up. The bottom portion of the spoiler is held to the gate skin by angled hooks and will be released when the spoiler is pulled back.
4. Drill out the 6 rivets on the top portion of the Gate Skin and the 6 rivets on the bottom of the gate skin. Use as small a drill bit as possible. Once drilled you will be able to push the rivet through the hole and retrieve it later.
5. Aplly Adhesive remover to both sides of the gate in between the Gate Assembly and the Painted Gate Skin.
This takes time and will free the Gate from the Gate Skin.

You do not need to remove the hardware bolted to either side of the Gate assembly or the handle assembly nor do you need to remove the grey plastic panel on the bottom of the Gate Skin (has Avalanche Logo on it)


How I ran the wires from the factory keyless entry to the tailgate I am not going to post for security reasons. If you are a registered member and want some help doing it, Send me a private message and I will help you in tapping into and wiring to the keyless entry.

I just wanted to let you all know that it is 100% do able with factory type results. (even though the factory didn't do it)

Inside the gate with actuator installed
 
Hey xrover...is there anything you can't do!....You'll have that thing wired to NASA before all is said and done.. :p ;D ;D
 
Congrats Xrover

Once you get rested up, you know I'm going to be bugging you for details. This has been one of my biggest pet peeves with the AV.

Again, great job...

Shawn
 
Innovators like you sure do keep the people at Chevy busy trying to keep up. Have you thought about applying to the design brainstorm teams?

Legend
 
xrover, when a back or front door is open you cannot lock the av. How about now when the tailgate is open, can you still lock the truck? I was wondering if the tailgate mod would incorporate the lock prevention when open also. Tom
 
Well done good and faithul servent.

This is great news, of course we are waiting with great anticipation for the detailed write up and pics.

Hey here is a good topic for the next news letter.

Cheers,
Dennis
 
You guy's are great, Thanks for the Kudos.

Doc Toss, The vehicle can be locked with the gate up or down because there is no light switch on the gate to tell the vehicle if the gate is open or not.

The idea was simple and adaptable to the current configuration. I am sure GM will incorporate it in time. In the mean time HA HA General..... I did it 1'st
 
XROVER!!!!

If I leave Indianapolis within the hour how long will it take for me to get to where you are at... and if so, can we get the parts nearby.... ;D

Kidding... NICE WORK, now where is that contact sheet for GM... let's see... Human Resources - Engineers, Chevy Av.... :cool:

 
Very nice work . . . and a feature that should have been part of the Av from the start . .

Yet another neat mod to add to the list of things to do in my spare time - you know - the last 6 hours of my 30 hour days

 
Outstanding Xrover, another coup. ;D

A couple of questions:

1. Given that many of us have had the tailgate drop when not latched properly, would this increase the risk?

2. Wonder if there is a different kind of key fob that would have an extra button that would allow the tailgate to be opened independently.

3. An lastly, are you going to do the side boxes, quicker way to get to the iced beer ;D
 
I would be paranoid that I would forget to disconnect it when I removed the gate and would drop the gate as well as rip the wires out. Did you add a connector?
 
Great job!!!!

I normally wouldn't tackle a job like this but this makes so much sense I'm going to have to try it.
 
The inside of your tail gate is made different from mine.
You cells are rectangular, mine are triangels.
But you installed yours the same way I did mine.
I guess great minds think alike.
Oh I figured out a way to do the side bin too that I think will work real well and be easy to do also.
 
I would agree with gandolphxx. I would like to see if someone can take a key fob from a camaro/firebird that has the third button for the rear hatch. ;D Then have a extra button just to open the tail gate. That would keep it locked all the time.

The other thing is if the lock is hooked up to the doors then when you put the truck in drive it should lock the tail gate right. So you would just need to make sure you close the tail gate right. Then you would not have to worry about it opening up


gandolphxx said:
Outstanding Xrover, another coup. ;D

A couple of questions:

1. Given that many of us have had the tailgate drop when not latched properly, would this increase the risk?

2. Wonder if there is a different kind of key fob that would have an extra button that would allow the tailgate to be opened independently.

;D
 
I thought I read on the Edmunds site some months ago that a guy did the same thing without removing the skin. Is this possible. If I remember, he had to fish the wires through the gate inerds (from the Ozarks) and it took a long time. This is a VERY good and useful mod that I would love but have no time or patience for. I wonder if a car stereo shop that does after market keyfobs might be able to follow your instructions and get the same results?
 
X-man, glad to see you've gotten over another hurdle that Chevy sould have done. But my only question, is now that you have it all wired in, what if you need to remove the tailgate? I had to remove mine to install the line of fire and also when I do some serious cleaning.
 
Nice Job xrover.., pretty neat ;) Dam this two side tape stuff..., I can see Im going to have Fun when I go to Smooth, and Paint my rear sail cladding :mad:
 
Nice job Xrover! Now that you have done this once, it shouldn't take you very long to do mine!!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;)

helmet
 
I forgot to mention that I installed a connector under the bed so if I want to remove the gate I can unplug the wires.

I personally chose to have my remote entry system work so that when I push unlock one time it only unlocks the drivers door. If I push the Unlock button 2x it unlocks all doors. I wired the gate into the rear door lock solonoid so the the gate will only unlock with the passanger doors. Of course it locks whenever the Lock button is pressed on the remote. It also works with the manual lock/unlock switch on the front doors.

As for it affecting the problem of the gate inadvertently falling open, that is a problem of the gate latch adjustment on either side of the cargo bed.
Because there is a rear seal on the rear cargo panel, the gate might not be able to fully latch/lock in place because it is being stopped by that rear seal on the cargo panel. By moving the latch post on both sides of the cargo bed you can adjust when the gate is actually fully latched. Make sense ?

In order to have a different key fob with a button for trunk/hatch, I think that you would need a different alarm system or maybe the one we have is capable of the additional channel. The Tailgate lock solonoid can be hooked up to any lock/unlock type alrm circuit.

As far as being able to do this mod without removing the gate skin or cutting a large hole in the gate, I don't see how it is possible on the Avalanche.

Hey Carrierdealer, Do you have pictures ?
 
I did not take picture.
Sorry.
I also put a connector on mine and tie to the rear door lock as you did.
I dont see how you could do this either without removing the skin.
The only way would be to mount the accruator on the outside of th einterior of the tailgate. Then make an S braket that would go into the lock assemble.
But I would think this would look bad and might get broken easily.
If you remove the 2 screws from the inside of tailgate you can remove the outside cover and you will see the arm that locks and unlocks the tailgate, and you will see how it is in an inclosed cell with no way to fish anything into there.
If you do this make you line it all back up properly, so it will lock and unlock right.
 
Just so you all know.

The Tailgate lock is a false sense of security. Just because you locked it doesn't mean it can't be opened.

I will not post why but if you own an Avalanche go insert the key in the gate and lock and unlock it while looking where you think you should be looking.

You will then see what I mean.....

The actuator install does not change this in case you are wondering.

Sorry to be so vague about the security issue but I am not interested in telling non owners about it.

I am upset the GM didn't install a block off plate.
I believe that is another mod that we can all fabricate or have made.

I will look into it.

If you are unable to find the security issue on your Av, then email me and if you are a regular member I will email you back a photo of it.
 
I must admit this has been on my mind also.
I will see what i can come up with in a few days.
I think something like the second pic down out of 18 guage metal would work.
 
Anyone know how to program a key fob?? When I bought my Av they only gave me one key fob and had to go back later to the service department to get the key fob programed. It was easy and he showed me how to do it but I don't remember.

The reason I say this is cause I have a 00 trans am that has the 3 button key fob. If someone can tell me how to program it I can try to see if it will work with the Av system. That would only tell us if the 3 buttom key fob would work. I would think that all the GM alarms would be the same. There is only one way to find out ;D
 
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