Patent ID: 7458624

Claim:
A tailgate for a pickup truck with a cargo bay formed by its truck bed and opposed sidewalls, said truck bed having a specific length and each of said sidewalls having a rear end, said rear ends of said sidewalls and said truck bed defining a rear tailgate opening for loading and unloading items into and out of said cargo bay, each of said rear ends having an inwardly facing vertical recess adapted to mount and securably receive a conventional generally planar tailgate, said tailgate comprising: a unibody frame having a pivot bar, side risers, and a plurality of bowed lateral beams, said frame being selectively rotatable between open and closed positions; said pivot bar being generally linear and planar to said truck bed and having opposed ends, each opposed end being pivotally secured in one of the recesses of the sidewalls; each of said linear vertical risers extending normally from one of said ends of said pivot bar, said risers being received by said vertical recesses when in said closed position and extending rearwardly when in said open position; said plurality of bowed lateral beams including an end beam and an intermediate beam, each bowed lateral beam having arcuate side sections and a linear midsection, each side section extending normally from its said riser and normally to said pivot bar, and said linear midsection being offset from and generally parallel to said pivot bar; a fixed central ramp extending linearly between said pivot bar and said linear midsection of said end beam; and, wherein said offset midsections of said bowed lateral beams extend the length of the cargo bay when in said closed position, and position said fixed central ramp below said truck bed when in said open position.