Locking EZ-Lift Tailgate

[JoeDB]

Hi to everyone , This is my first post in this forum.
I bought a 2013 GMC 1500 Sierra SLE last week and it was supposed to have an EZ-Lift tailgate on it. The tailgate raises and lowers just like the old ones. I took it to the dealership's service department and the service attendant looked at it and called one of the mechanics to come over and look at it. Both said it didn't have the right cables on it for an EZ-Lift tailgate. The service attendant told me she would have to make some calls to find out how to handle this," I never ran across this problem before, this is a manufacturing mistake and I will call you as soon as I found out how to handle it." She called me about an hour later and told me the tailgate that is on my truck is the right one, there is a torsion bar in the bottom of the tailgate that acts as a spring when you open it and assists you when you close it.
There is a rod that I can see going into the bottom left side of the tailgate but if there is tension on this rod when I lower the tailgate I sure can't feel it and when I raise it, it's like raising a standard tailgate.
Does anyone in this forum have one of these tailgates? And if so, could you tell me if this is normal?

 

[hacksaw]

Hi JoeDB, this is my first post as well. I recently purchased this same truck and noticed the tailgate seemed to work the same as any I've owned in the past. I did notice tho that it does seem to be a much lighter tailgate, so I assumed that must be their gimmick. After reading your post, I thought back to last weekend when I installed my backup camera. I had to drill a hole in the center bottom of the tailgate, and when I did, I noticed that rod running horizontally across the inside bottom. Maybe that is helping to make it feel lighter. It even felt lighter when I removed the tailgate. So my guess is that a lighter tailgate + torsion bar = EZ Lift.

 

[JoeDB]

Thanks for responding hacksaw,
From what I was told it is the right tailgate. I had Topper World ( a Truck Shop ) install a few items on the truck including a sprayed-in-bedliner Thursday, that's the main reason for making sure it was the right tailgate. Once he sprayed it I wasn't sure the dealership would replace it. The guy that sprayed it said the same thing as you. So I'm happy with it.

Thanks again,
Joe