This is a pickup truck tailgate lock, but it's not designed to prevent the theft of what's behind the tailgate.

It's designed to stop theft of the tailgate itself.

It's master locks Model 8253 D a T tailgate lock and once fitted over the hinge point of most full size pickup truck tailgates, it prevents that gate from being lifted out of the hinge and removed.

The packaging shows this a little bit better than I could explain it right here.

In these pictures, the outer shell of the lock is stainless steel, which is good considering the expected exposure to weather and road salt.

However, a rubber seal would have been very nice to protect the pain, even if this is in a rather inconspicuous place.

The mechanism to this lock is ratcheting, which theoretically could be shamed.

However, the spring inside of here is so powerful that I was unable to do so.

In fact, I mangled several shims trying, so let's see what it takes to pick this open.

Normally on this key way, I would use top of the key way tension.

But given the location of this dust cover, I'm going to use bottom of the key way today.

Okay?

I'm going to be using a standard hook in 25 thousands.

Nothing on 1234 is binding.

Gotta click out of four.

Back to the beginning.

Click out of one.

Nothing on two.

Click out of three.

And we opened this up so it felt like four standard pins, which is pretty normal for most master locks.

Let's try this with a rake to see if we can get in any faster.

Just that fast.

We got it open again.

So as you saw, this could be opened relatively quickly with a novice level picking attack.

As such, it shouldn't be viewed as much more than a very basic deterrent.

In any case, that's all I have for you today.

If you do have any questions or comments about this, please put them below.

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And, as always, have a nice day.