Greetings, I was over to a friends house the other day and as he was hooking up to his fifth wheel, I noticed that he had his tailgate on. I asked him about it and he said he always leaves it on. When I told him I take mine off and leave it in the garage, he looked at me like I had two heads. To me, the tailgate is a pain so leaving it in the garage works best for us. The space from the hitch to the bumper is empty and can not think of anything I would put there that could not be stored either in front of the hitch secured, or in a compartment in the unit. Two years ago while enjoying a nice quiet time at the campground, our neighbor was unhitching. I heard a very loud crash
, he had forgotten to lower his tailgate and put a big "V" in it and distorted his fenders too. Bad day at the campground. Just wanted to see what others here do with this issue.