Here Is What THEY Say About It



Converts your existing tail gate from a swing out to a fold down design.

Will not interfere with your factory hard top or soft top.

Tailgate will remain lockable, and rattle free.

Kit is 100% complete with hinges, cables, brackets, fastener's, & instructions.

All brackets are laser cut out of 3/16" or 3/8" steel and formed on a press break.

All exterior bolts are stainless steel with powder coated hinges.

Installs with minimal shop tools, and no welding required.

A fold down tail gate has many ideal uses, dinning room table, work bench, changing table, beer holder, cutting board, and increased room for 3rd row seating.



Supports 260 lbs

This is the only kit of its kind , other people have used Jeep CJ tailgates to perform a similar function, they however...are not compatible with your hard top, not lockable, at least 20 year old sheet metal, the color will not match, you have to refurbish, and or replace deteriorated parts, drill new holes with no guarantee that you know what you are doing......do I need to go on?





Here Is What WE Say About It

What kind of items make it to the Equipment Review Seciton of Jeep Expeditions website? Obviously items that we find necessary for our trips, items that make life in the boondocks a little more comfortable and upgrades for our Jeeps to make them better and to give them more utility.

They also have to be a quality product from a manufacturer, distributor or dealer that has a good reputation and good customer service. Reputations are made good and bad over time and newer products from little known companies deserve a chance. Customer service is obvious from your 1st encounter with the person at the other end of the phone or email you are talking with.

We have been approached to to reviews on a number of items and some never make it to these pages......and some do.

The Swag Off-Road swing down tailgate conversion might be from a little known company but the kit itself looked to be a good design made of quality materials by a fellow Jeep enthusiast. Sometimes the best ideas come from one of our own and a swing down tailgate on my TJ using my existing tailgate is of great interest to me and others. While Swag Off-Road does not have the reputation established yet, you get a sense of pride, honesty and just a plain old good feeling when talking to him. That certainly takes care of the customer service part. And now, we will see how the rest goes below.

There are two things I miss on my TJ (or my YJ) that I liked on my CJ.

1. The classic dash panel. (It gives you more leg room than the TJ in my opinion too)

2. The swing down tailgate that had all kinds of uses for including planting my butt on for a rest.

I had seen and read about a few conversion using CJ tailgates and up until now considered going that route.

Unfortunately, using a CJ tail gate had its drawbacks:

The main problem with a hard top is that they cannot be locked or unlocked from the outside and crawling back to unlock them from the inside was not an option.
Without being able to securly lock it tight, your rear window and tailgate probably will not be weather proof and will more than likely rattle.
The other problem with not being able to lock it is the potential for theft of your stuff inside the Jeep.
And when was the last time you found a pristine CJ tailgate in a junkyard ? One without rust and in nice condition. The kind that if you do find one the owner will want $100 for.
You could buy one of the cheap OMIX replacements but the 1st time you sit on it you risk it collapsing in the middle due to the thinner metal.
And then comes the next problem, can you even find a CJ tailgate in the same color as your TJ or YJ? Doubtful.

Now when you take the potential cost of a CJ tailgate conversion ($100 for the tailgate, $100-$300 for professional paint match, cables to suppport it $40 and new CJ factory hinges $20+ online-more if you want stainless) you could have a small forture invested. All of that cash and you still cannot lock it securely.

Sometimes when you are surfing he web, you get lucky and a few weeks ago I had a lucky day. I stumbled upon, completely by accident a company called Swag Off-Road. It looks like someone found a way to make a TJ/YJ tailgate swing down like a CJ tailgate while keeping it rattle free and lockable from the outside. Not only that, they made a kit for both the TJ and YJ for $169.99, far less than what I figured the total cost of using a CJ tailgate and maintaining the security factor that I was concerned with.

Now I am the type that never gets a new product until I ask a bunch of questions or I know someone personally who has used it so I emailed Troy at Swag Off-Road and asked a few questions. Satisfied with the quality of this product and that it would be a good investment for people like me who like the advantages of a drop down tail gate I told Troy I would take one and he said it would be UPS'd to me on Monday.

Here is the review as published in JPFreek Adventure Magazine

Over the years I have owned a number of CJ Jeeps from a CJ5, 3 CJ7’s, and 2 Scramblers. As CJ production ended in 1986 we were introduced to the new YJ Wrangler and as things would have it two of them eventually made it into my stable. Enter 1997 and Jeep unveiled the TJ bringing back round headlights and among other things a modern suspension system. With all the “improvements” touted on the CJ successors, one thing that they lacked, and I missed the most was a tailgate.

There is much to be said about the utility of a tailgate. You can use it as a table or prep area for your trail lunch or you can just use it as a place to sit on. It can be a work bench for trail repairs or like a truck can be used to haul longer loads from the local Home Depot to home (providing you somehow secure your swing away tire carrier). No matter what, I was determined to somehow put a tailgate on my TJ.

I was surprised to find a number of write-ups online on grafting a CJ tailgate to a Wrangler. As things would have it, a CJ tailgate in excellent condition came my way via a friend. Article after article, my pros and cons list began to take shape. The cost seemed a little bit up there. A good CJ tailgate will set you back around $100 and a body shop quoted me $225 to paint it to match my TJ. Add a few dollars more for some misc hardware and a few hours time and presto, tailgate on your TJ. To me, it was have been worth the $325-$350 costs for the convenience.

Now for the big problem, my hard top. Due to the design of the Wrangler rear lift window, there is no real way of “locking” a CJ tailgate to keep it closed tight to avoid both weather and rattles. I considered replacing my Wrangler rear window gate with a CJ one but after making some visual comparisons it didn’t seem possible. In any case, if your Wrangler wears a soft top year round, you are in business.

But what about me and others with hard tops? As luck would have it I stumbled accidentally on a conversion kit. A kit that would convert my TJ rear door to a real pull down tailgate. No having to look for nice CJ tailgate, no buying a cheap aftermarket CJ tailgate, no expense for a body shop to make it look like it belongs on your Jeep.

For little more than the price of a nice CJ tailgate, Troy from SWAG Off-Road will send you a custom kit to convert your TJ or YJ rear door to a swing down tailgate. One that not only looks good but will lock and not rattle. For you JK owners, he has a kit for you too. What you get is a box full of parts and hardware with detailed instructions on the conversion. I liked what I saw, the price is within any Jeepers budget so naturally I I ordered one.

The design and quality was impressive. The laser cut steel that would become a part of my Jeep had a very cool spider web design. The steel is unpainted so you can either paint to match or as I did, buy a can of my favorite, Rustoleum Hammered paint in black. It will look good with the stainless steel bolts that come with the kit and blend in with my body armor on the corners.

My parts painted it’s time to get started with the conversion. The instructions tell you what tools you would need. A quick check of my toolbox for everything I need and the clock starts.

This is what you get with the kit

Now as my fiancée says, being the typical guy I browse over instructions and tear into a project. This one is no different. The first thing I did was to drill and tap the holes in the right side of the tailgate for the right side hinge. It wasn’t the 1st step in the instructions but I had to see how this was going to work. Actually it works just fine, there are two layers of thick metal in that area and you get several threads tapped for the bolts that secure the hinge to the tailgate. While the instructions don’t mention it, I used some Loctite Blue to make sure the bolts would stay secure. Now the instructions show you that there are two holes under the body of the Jeep that can be accessed easily if you already have a body lift or if you want to remove the body mount bolts in the rear so you can raise the body but being one who likes to take short cuts, I use a hole saw to put 1" holes on either side of the rear panel which took me all of a minute. It works pretty good and the "nut bar" that is included with the kit has a sturdy wire welded to it for easy placement for the lower hinge bolts. So far I have about 30 minutes invested and my 1st hinge and “spider plate” are already attached to the tailgate. The left side of the conversion is basically done.

My next step is to remove the factory hinges and replace them with the provided steel plates. This sounds easy enough and the new steel plates screw into the existing holes using the stainless steel bolts provided in the kit will fit in well with my black corner protectors. Well maybe not so easy. My 1st try at getting one of the hinge bolts out met with complete failure as my made in China torx bit snapped off in the bolt. Guess I am going to have to drill that one out, meanwhile off to the parts store for a HD impact bit.

Ready to start the project

Two new bits in hand, sold as impact bits I go for the next bolt on the lowest setting of my impact wrench. Bang, it broke off ! Now it comes to me, my Sahara hinges came painted the same color as the body from the factory. Perhaps I should have burned the paint away and heated the bolts up with a torch 1st but now my main problem is getting the two out that have hardened bits stuck in them.

Well 3 drill bits later I have managed to remove the two bolts that had had the broken torx bits in them and I have managed to get all the other bolt removed from the factory hinges. Hooray!

Broke my cheap Asian Torx bits, a testament