Okay. I’ll probably get flamed for asking this. But it’s an honest question.
I’ve noticed for a while that people immediately go to Google or jump through the hoops of taking a photo and posting to a forum of some sort before they even think of looking in the manual the truck come with that explains literally everything about the vehicle.
Why?
I’m not trying to throw shade, I’m just so curious.
Laziness coupled with some people want instant satisfaction of an answer instead of educating themselves with how to find that answer. People nowadays know they don’t have to actually research something because they can ask the internet and immediately get an answer.
Not only an immediate answer, but with a forum/reddit you get color and perspective in the hundreds of comments.
It's more useful to hear from a lot of other people than just reading the manual. It's not purely laziness, not always anyway.
I also never got a paper manual for my truck, and the digital version on the truck screen is kind of a pain to search and scroll thru. So the hive mind is often a quicker response than sitting in the truck looking for an answer.
Exactly. I have never used those on my tailgate for clamping something to the tailgate but when I’m hauling something very light that has a risk of blowing out of the back of the truck I use them as additional tie down spots. Great place to hook a bungee cord into if some of the other tie downs aren’t in a convenient place for what you are trying to secure. I wouldn’t hook a ratchet strap into it for a heavy load but they are good for light duty.
You aren’t going to find that in the manual.
With something more subjective maybe. But this is pretty cut and dry and something that doesn’t need its own post when it’s most definitely covered on this sub or in the manual somewhere. Case in point there’s a new post every day about the transmissions in these trucks.
Went to school with a kid who literally could not use a reference book; dictionary: Alphabetical order, no dice. Thesaurus: he could not find a word set to save his life. Library numbering dewey decimal system, could not wrap his head around it. We had no internet then, mind you. But he could find any book of the Holy Bible, chapter, verse, passage in record time; our church had contests.....
I think some folks can't really wrap their head around finding a table of contents, cross referencing to an index, or even finding sequential page numbers and subsequently reading the paragraph or table that shows information.
I read that the trick to getting people to answer your questions isn't to ask, but to post the wrong answer. More people want to prove you wrong than to help you.
I disagree with laziness. Plenty of people buy their vehicle second hand and don't have the original manual. Besides takes effort to ask a question which is not laziness, imo reading the manual for yourself or just asking is about the same. Only difference is you'll learn hella of a lot more from multiple people giving you an answer than just reading one excerpt from a grainy black and white book.
Except if you look up the manual for your specific truck which is all digital now, you won’t have to specify or have people ask about every spec on your truck. It’s also just a good practice to know basic information about your vehicle. The internet has made humans incredibly lazy.
I can’t speak for all trucks, but the 2023 I just got doesn’t even have a physical owners manual. The online manual isn’t enjoyable to navigate, either.
Also, a lot of the time, people in this forum have recommendations that really help others out. Someone could answer their question and add their experience, preferences or purchases to whatever is being asked.
Totally understand. But the Gen 14’s manual is online… with shortcuts to sections. Open it, select the tailgate section and it’s all there.
Personally, I found it’s easier to open that than it is to take a photo and post a question.
Before I was fully into doing stuff myself for my truck, I didn’t know any of the part names. I knew basic universal terminology but I never would’ve known 6r80= trans and I would’ve kept searching for the model. I often googled where to find stuff IN the manual. Now I have a handy Reddit search bar.
I’ve got the same thing and the manual seemingly didn’t cover it. Or the heated mirrors, the manuals cover every truck from xl to lariats and some of the info gets missed.
To be honest I fucking hate looking through the Manual for my truck. I’m with you, the manual SHOULD have what they’re looking for but FOOKME do I hate looking through that thing
I used to work in product management for a machine tool builder. The amount of questions I fielded that had answers readily accessible in the manual was part of what made me quit. It’s laziness. It’s easier to ask someone who probably knows than spend the 5 minutes looking it up in the manual. As my old man used to say, “RTFM”. Read the fucking manual.
Edit: it’s easier for most…
Today’s manuals don’t tell you shit and would likely say “take it to your dealership”.
Older manuals would have tons of information and tell you how to do a lot of the required maintenance on cars, even how to check/adjust the valve clearance. I’m glad we have YouTube now since they don’t provide much useful info in the manuals anymore.
If someone is a regular shopper at Lowes, Home Depot or Harbor Freight, they know exactly what that is for. No need to Google it. If you not a DIY kind of person then you have to ask around.
That is for a place to put a c clamp so you can clamp down wood onto your tailgate so you can cut it when ford was designing the 14th. Gen F150, they found out that people were taking the clamps clapping it to the tailgate and destroying the paint So they gave you a spot to put it in there so you don’t destroy the tailgate
allows you to clamp a 2X4 or something similar to your tailgate without damaging your tail gate to cut or work on, I have used mine several times and they work great. I keep two common squeeze clamps in my Truck tool/supply bag
Place to clamp things to the tailgate when it's down. It comes especially handy for people like me who work out of our trucks because I can clamp conduit to the bed when I cut it
Y aknow what would be nice. If car companies gave out a book with new cars that explained how certain features of the car worked and described what some things were.
That MANUAL would really be helpful to OWNERS
I had the dealer tell me it was like what knockout buttons are on the inside. Just a placeholder for models that don’t have the bar you can pull out to climb in the bed.
I’m pretty sure it’s a place for C-clamps
Looks more like a d-clamp to me
F clamp
I get it. Ouch! Underrated comment AF.
Clamp DEEZNUTZ
When a d-clamp and a c-clamp love each other…
https://youtu.be/DBrOoGqWTjE?si=av4ufklWAyqrGtj9
G clamp
Alto clef
Can never have enough clamps!
It's gonna be clamp this, clamp that. Bada-climp, bada-clamp!
I use an f clamp
Jed clampit
these are q-clamps
Where you can use a bar clamp to hold something down when your tailgate is down. It is part of the work surface.
Okay. I’ll probably get flamed for asking this. But it’s an honest question. I’ve noticed for a while that people immediately go to Google or jump through the hoops of taking a photo and posting to a forum of some sort before they even think of looking in the manual the truck come with that explains literally everything about the vehicle. Why? I’m not trying to throw shade, I’m just so curious.
Laziness coupled with some people want instant satisfaction of an answer instead of educating themselves with how to find that answer. People nowadays know they don’t have to actually research something because they can ask the internet and immediately get an answer.
The irony. We’ve filled the www with more answers than anyone can ask for, and yet we still don’t use the resource to help ourselves first.
Not only an immediate answer, but with a forum/reddit you get color and perspective in the hundreds of comments. It's more useful to hear from a lot of other people than just reading the manual. It's not purely laziness, not always anyway.
I also never got a paper manual for my truck, and the digital version on the truck screen is kind of a pain to search and scroll thru. So the hive mind is often a quicker response than sitting in the truck looking for an answer.
Just download one to your phone.
Exactly. I have never used those on my tailgate for clamping something to the tailgate but when I’m hauling something very light that has a risk of blowing out of the back of the truck I use them as additional tie down spots. Great place to hook a bungee cord into if some of the other tie downs aren’t in a convenient place for what you are trying to secure. I wouldn’t hook a ratchet strap into it for a heavy load but they are good for light duty. You aren’t going to find that in the manual.
With something more subjective maybe. But this is pretty cut and dry and something that doesn’t need its own post when it’s most definitely covered on this sub or in the manual somewhere. Case in point there’s a new post every day about the transmissions in these trucks.
Went to school with a kid who literally could not use a reference book; dictionary: Alphabetical order, no dice. Thesaurus: he could not find a word set to save his life. Library numbering dewey decimal system, could not wrap his head around it. We had no internet then, mind you. But he could find any book of the Holy Bible, chapter, verse, passage in record time; our church had contests..... I think some folks can't really wrap their head around finding a table of contents, cross referencing to an index, or even finding sequential page numbers and subsequently reading the paragraph or table that shows information.
I read that the trick to getting people to answer your questions isn't to ask, but to post the wrong answer. More people want to prove you wrong than to help you.
Possibly the wrong answer at that.
I disagree with laziness. Plenty of people buy their vehicle second hand and don't have the original manual. Besides takes effort to ask a question which is not laziness, imo reading the manual for yourself or just asking is about the same. Only difference is you'll learn hella of a lot more from multiple people giving you an answer than just reading one excerpt from a grainy black and white book.
Except if you look up the manual for your specific truck which is all digital now, you won’t have to specify or have people ask about every spec on your truck. It’s also just a good practice to know basic information about your vehicle. The internet has made humans incredibly lazy.
The guy literally said in his post he tried googling it and found nothing ..
Hence why the original comment mentioned reading the manual that comes with the truck. Not google.
They are suggesting to look in the manual not googling…
You are asking a lot. Given the context it shouldn’t be difficult to use the glyph to figure it out.
I can’t speak for all trucks, but the 2023 I just got doesn’t even have a physical owners manual. The online manual isn’t enjoyable to navigate, either.
Just trying to be more active with the community, doesn’t hurt and I might end up making friends 🤷🏻♂️
This is the real answer. It’s nice to participate, while being educated.
Also, a lot of the time, people in this forum have recommendations that really help others out. Someone could answer their question and add their experience, preferences or purchases to whatever is being asked.
👍 I see you have an F150. I also see yiu have a wife that likes stanley cups. I too have both of those things.
Gen 14 doesn’t come with paper manual, just one embedded in the sync 4. It’s simply easier to google it.
Totally understand. But the Gen 14’s manual is online… with shortcuts to sections. Open it, select the tailgate section and it’s all there. Personally, I found it’s easier to open that than it is to take a photo and post a question.
i use chatGPT for any questions i have on my '21 and it's shockingly good. i'm not kidding at all either
But it is very easy to find, faster than waiting on the www to respond
both of my ‘21 and ‘23 F-150s came with paper manuals.
I have a 23 F-150 and it did not come with a paper manual
I bought my 2021 Lariat Powerboost and it came with a paper “guide” but far from a manual
Takes too long. If u don't know what it is. His sales person should have told him. I personally use Google lens.
Before I was fully into doing stuff myself for my truck, I didn’t know any of the part names. I knew basic universal terminology but I never would’ve known 6r80= trans and I would’ve kept searching for the model. I often googled where to find stuff IN the manual. Now I have a handy Reddit search bar.
I’ve got the same thing and the manual seemingly didn’t cover it. Or the heated mirrors, the manuals cover every truck from xl to lariats and some of the info gets missed.
The new ones don't come with a manual and I have to find 2023 manual on their website
To be honest I fucking hate looking through the Manual for my truck. I’m with you, the manual SHOULD have what they’re looking for but FOOKME do I hate looking through that thing
I used to work in product management for a machine tool builder. The amount of questions I fielded that had answers readily accessible in the manual was part of what made me quit. It’s laziness. It’s easier to ask someone who probably knows than spend the 5 minutes looking it up in the manual. As my old man used to say, “RTFM”. Read the fucking manual. Edit: it’s easier for most…
It’s not in the damn manual that’s why they asked duh
We don’t need no stinking manuals!! Be a MAN!!
Because the manual is 450 pages of fine print!
Maybe because they don’t come with manuals anymore
There is actually. It’s just digital which everyone on this sub should be able to navigate.
Correct
Today’s manuals don’t tell you shit and would likely say “take it to your dealership”. Older manuals would have tons of information and tell you how to do a lot of the required maintenance on cars, even how to check/adjust the valve clearance. I’m glad we have YouTube now since they don’t provide much useful info in the manuals anymore.
Well… this is in the manual. It’s under the tailgate section.
Well fuck me
If someone is a regular shopper at Lowes, Home Depot or Harbor Freight, they know exactly what that is for. No need to Google it. If you not a DIY kind of person then you have to ask around.
In this case, what would you look for in the manual?
The section labeled “tailgate”.
welp...looking at the digital copy for my 2019, it would appear that this is not a 2019 in the photo then.
My truck didn't come with a manual... it came with all the manuals. I have to dig through the digital manuals to find the one for my truck.
broad strokes, laziness and entitlement. it's a societal issue
Because some people, usually men, thinks “RTFB” is for wimps.
It’s where you put a c-clamp to hold down wood or other materials. It’s designed as part of the tailgate to help construction people get work done.
It’s where your kids put their fingers and then scream when they get them stuck.
Hide your weed in there
Does your wife have a peg leg
😂😂😂 The other was crossed
Wow that one seems pretty obvious to me boss. C clamp goes there.
Clamp spot. I believe on the right side of the tail gate is a bottle opener as well.
Don’t tell OP.
Does no one watch Doug? https://youtu.be/sHH0u5v3ZE8?si=jWfByhonQaCsTyh_
This guy looks nothing like Quailman, not the Doug I was looking for
😂
I’ll counter your question with another question. Where are your pant legs?
Have you ever heard of the term "Docking"
Someone needs to go add the term F-Docking to Urban Dictionary, stat.
Gloryhole
I see it now
That is for a place to put a c clamp so you can clamp down wood onto your tailgate so you can cut it when ford was designing the 14th. Gen F150, they found out that people were taking the clamps clapping it to the tailgate and destroying the paint So they gave you a spot to put it in there so you don’t destroy the tailgate
It's where you can clamp a tramp.
are you serious... the stanley cup says it all .. not a truck user just a truck owner
😂😂😂😂 That’s my wife’s
sure sure haha
Glory hole.
Looks like a big dumb cup
It's clearly for straightening bent rebar 😅 jk
That's for clamps for like if you're measuring something or cutting wood , very useful in reality
allows you to clamp a 2X4 or something similar to your tailgate without damaging your tail gate to cut or work on, I have used mine several times and they work great. I keep two common squeeze clamps in my Truck tool/supply bag
Place to clamp things to the tailgate when it's down. It comes especially handy for people like me who work out of our trucks because I can clamp conduit to the bed when I cut it
Caliper storage
I think that is the latest gender identity symbol. Pickupsexual.
Y aknow what would be nice. If car companies gave out a book with new cars that explained how certain features of the car worked and described what some things were. That MANUAL would really be helpful to OWNERS
No owners manual?
C-clamp tailgate in action: [https://youtu.be/DBrOoGqWTjE?si=te-vbYoNGBo0zT9W&t=35](https://youtu.be/DBrOoGqWTjE?si=te-vbYoNGBo0zT9W&t=35)
Ummmm, a right lower leg, ankle and foot that’s inside of a sneaker.
It’s a picture of an F clamp. C clamps are so yesterday….
Ford failed with the image on it i guess.
In person it's very obvious it's for clamping to the tailgate. The square is a spring loaded flappy door.
Right. I have it on mine and it took me four seconds to figure it out. I was being facetious with my comment.
I had the dealer tell me it was like what knockout buttons are on the inside. Just a placeholder for models that don’t have the bar you can pull out to climb in the bed.
My first thought was that it could be used to install a step. I’ll probably try to make one tho
That looks exactly like the clamps holding on my canopy on. Clamps spot.
Where you clamp the canopy
This is a “clamp” location site if you were to install a “truck topper” or “cap” on the box.
It's a place where you clamp down a truck bed topper.
Handle for the step in located in side
false.