LR4 Tail Gate - Auto Lift

While I love the large, box shaped cargo area of the LR4 and have come to accept the split tail gate, I must admit that I am envious of the SUV's that have an automatic tail gate open feature. I realize this can't easily happen with the bottom half of the LR4 tail gate but it sure would be nice if pushing the tailgate unlock button on the key fob saw the top half actually open fully up. It might require "spring-loaded" struts or some such mechanism (the limit of my techie knowledge).
Has anyone come up with a solution? If so please share.

Other than it not being hands free when you have your hands full, I see it as a much better option compared to auto tailgates. It's almost no effort to move it up, and its fast. I could probably open and close my upper tailgate 5 times in the time it takes the D5 auto tailgate to open on its own.

I prefer the Landy's low tech approach to the rear gates. Granted it can be a pain when I come in hot with a couple of cases of wine to load in the back. But the plastic step cladding on top of the rear bumper is a good place to prop stuff while opening the top gate. And the asymmetrical hatch is also a help because I can prop taller stuff on the left side and it still provides good clearance to open.

I don't think there's a viable/cost-effective way to retrofit an auto-opening feature to our rear gates.

That would be damn near impossible to do, especially with the given space constraints. Even if you were to find a shock/strut/spring that would have enough stored energy to swing the door up, the problem would be restoring that energy into the spring. There is no free lunch. You know, conservation of energy and all. Without power assist, you would need a pretty complex and bulky kinematic assembly to perhaps, with a variable geometry, use leverage at different times to make it work reasonably well.

Bottom line is that LR knew they had a competitive disadvantage and had at least 1 and arguably two major vehicle redesigns/face lifts to implement the feature with technical know how and design freedom far in excess of what is available aftermarket for anyone and still chose to pass and leave it as is.

Personally, I rather open it by hand. I can do it faster. Auto tailgates remind me of my drawer-based microwave oven. I hate waiting the extra 2-3 seconds every time it opens and closes.

Can't say I can argue with the logic that the technical challenges present; but the option to have both a manual as well as an auto open capability would be nice, especially for old farts like me.

I just found this today. I believe it worth a try.

https://m.it.aliexpress.com/item/32847496951.html

This is great. I'll definitely look into it. A question for the LR4 masses, has anyone tried this? If so please share your experience.

I think that if I were the LR4 hatch engineer I might have made it so it opens when unlatched due to strut pressure and then has to be manually closed. Lots of ways that could go badly and probably all of them quite funny!

BikePilot said:

I think that if I were the LR4 hatch engineer I might have made it so it opens when unlatched due to strut pressure and then has to be manually closed. Lots of ways that could go badly and probably all of them quite funny!

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The window of my wife's old Commander was like that and could pop from the key fob, but the main hatch you had to lift. It was really convenient, but that window wouldn't open higher than the roofline thankfully. I still remember a couple of "oh ****" moments when I'd bump the button and cringe at it almost hitting something.