Customizable midway breaker for Ford Ecosport swinging tailgate by trungtt3

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

Many versions of Ford Ecosport, since 2013, have the swinging tailgate that, once open, will open fully. Full opening of the swinging tailgate requires space behind the car. This space sometimes is a challenge for owner, when accessing the boot in tight parking place.
This midway breaker will help stopping the tailgate midway, so that you can keep the tailgate half open, as in the photograph. Owner can still open the tailgate fully by pushing it open further. The angle at which the tailgate movement get high friction midway can be customized by MidAngle parameter (if you use Customizer, or download the OpenSCAD file to modify).
This breaker has 3 parts, if you use Customizer, select appropriate Mode to generate corresponding part. They are assembled to the boot door hinge as shown in the photographs, by 2 pairs of nut & bold. The nuts & bolts are not printed, you will have to get them elsewhere. The nuts have hexagonal perimeter. The size of nut and bolt can be customized (by BoltRadius, BoltCapRadius, NutMaxRadius parameters). Default models are for bolt of radius 2mm, bolt cap radius 3.5mm, nut hexagonal maximal radius of 3.95mm. You can also download the default models.
After printing, embed the nuts in part 3. Try putting part 1, 2 & 3 together and screw the bolt through, to see if they fit and tight, as shown in the photograph of black breaker. If things seem to be OK, then de-assemble them. Open the tailgate fully. Put part 3 behind the hinge, put part 1 & 2 in front of the hinge, then screw the bolts in, to tightly attach the three parts to the hinge. NOTE: part 1 & 2 are not symmetric, try the best fit orientation. See the photographs for reference.
You should print the parts in ABS, 100% infill, to withstand high temperature under the Sun, and strong force at the hinge. Total printing time should be about 4 hours, more or less.
Some more discussions:
In fact part 1 & part 2 can be merged into one part - this will not create any problem while assembling. However, I find breaking into part 1 & part 2 will ease printing setup. Merging part 1 & part 2 will, I believe, require supports while printing, or, to print without supports, require modifying the parts in some way that make the breaker mechanically less robust. But that is just my thought.