I know a guy with an '05 who said his was weak as well..

Not sure what my Titan tailgate is rated to but it seems to be solidly made. It is HEAVY!!
My '04 has no tailgate lift assist and my wife can barely lift and close it so I added one. My 08 has a built in lift assist..probably aftetr complaints about how heavy they are..I've had alot of trucks but none had a tailgate as heavy as my 04 Titan.
Safe to say the cables are the weak link on the Titan's.

 

Speaking of cables GM did a huge recall on the tailgate cable. My cables let go on my 2002 2500HD with a 150lb person (not me LOL) sitting on the gate.

--------
General Motors is recalling 805,368 Chevrolet Silverado
and GMC Sierra pickup trucks
because of weak tailgate support cables according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

 

Who needs a tailgate?

 

Awesome...I know the top one,never seen the one on the bottom..LMAO..
Reminds me of something I saw recently.. a car being pulled on a tow dolly by a truck..the truck was packed with boxes,the hood on the car was up and there were boxes stacked on the engine and ropes holding everything in. The inside of the car was full of crap to the roof and.....this is the best part..there was a full sized garden tractor stuffed into and hanging out of the trunk with more rope wrapped around it to hold it on...I wish so badly I could have gotten a pic of it..

 

My buddy bent the tailgate on his 04 Ranger while loading a Honda 400 utility. The gate bent right in the middle. Since seeing that I havent tried loading my Sportsmans in my F150 for fear of the same thing happening. I would imagine my gates a little tougher but I'm not taking the chance.

Like others have said the trailer is the way to go. I had an old snowmobile trailer given to me. It was in bad shape but a few pieces of steel, and some new plywood and a paint job and I was ready to go. I gave it to a buddy when I bought my 8'x14'. Having a trailer is so nice, anytime I have to haul anything I take it. It is so much easier to just walk up a ramp to load a couch or a fridge than it is to lift it until the back of a pick-up. My next project for it is to cut the railing from the side in the front to make loading sideways easier. I just run it up on ramps and drop it in now but it is a major PITA to get it out. I'm just waiting for warmer weather to modify it.

 

I had an 03 Tundra; got totaled and then got an 06. I have loaded all types of ATV's in them including a Polaris Sportsman 700 and my Grizzly 700 and have never noticed any damage. People also routinely sat on it. These are pretty robust trucks, but I don't know anything about the newer ones; don't care much for them and canceled an order for one.

I use a trailer exclusively unless one of my sons is with me and they don't want to bother with the trailer and then they load it not me. They are grown men and I won't tell them what to do, but I prefer a trailer either my 5x8 or 6x12.

 

I have bent my tailgate hinges by backing the truck up to a ditch, and driving the atv onto the tailgate. The tailgate was about a foot off of the ground, and the atv pushed the gate in making the climb up in 4wd. Tailgate wouldnt close afterwards and I had to fix the hinges. I have a silverado w. 6.5 foot bed and an x2 which is much longer than the regular sportsman, so I have to leave the gate open. I also have to put a homemade block about 6 inches deep in the front of the bed so I dont bash out the back window. If you dont strap your ramps down you better have it in 4wd and take it easy. I think the accidents happen when you drive up in 2wd, get your front wheels in the bed and hit the gas kicking the ramps out from under you.

 

I had bought a set of ramps at Wally World like the ones in the photo below. They were in the box and I could not see how the attached to the tailgate. They did have saftey straps on them so I thought they would be a good deal. When I pulled them out of the box, it only had a 1" angle to attach to the tailgate. With the weight of the ATV makeing the bed move up and down while loading, I quickly made a dission to return them and find something different. I like the longer Fingers on this set.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: CaptainQuint

My old truck was pretty high off the ground and riding an ATV into the bed was....interesting. I finally bolted an eye into the front of the bed and used a winch to simply winch it into the bed. It was better than falling off ramps or in my case smashing out the rear glass.</end quote></div>

that was a FANTASTIC idea!!!!