Is there a way to prevent the Durango rear power tailgate to open by mistake when the vehicle is parked too close to a garage door or any other obstruction. I looked at the Durango manual and could not find an answer.

I was hoping that the ParkSense ultrasonic sensing technology assists (used in slowly backing up your vehicle or during parking maneuvers) would "detect" that the garage door or any other object is too close for the tailgate to fully open. I believe the tail gate will reverse direction after hitting the garage door, but by that time, you will have a big scracth or dent on your tailgate and garage door.

I tried the other day and purposely parked close to the garage door and hit the fob remote after placing some foam on the garage door. As I suspected, the Durango tailgate made contact with the garage door.

 

Only way I have found so far is to catch it on its way up, then hold it on its way down, and its will give up and become limp.
Otherwise Im in the same boat...
Would be great to shut off while inside the garage and just go manual...

 

The Durango does not, but do you know of any vehicle that does? I don't know of any and I didn't have it on my Yukon either.

It does reverse as soon as it meets resistance, but nothing prevents it from attempting to open on command.

 

The new Ford Escape, Explorer, and Edge, have a feature that you can set your liftgates height to avoid this problem.

 

He's not talking the end opening height; he means that if you park too close to an object like a garage door or pole or other obstacle there is nothing stopping you from opening the door into/against that object.

 

I put some foam on my garage door so at least there's no damage when the lift gate opens while my garage door is open. I'm pretty careful, but the real issue for me is lowering the garage door while the lift gate is open and pushing against it, or opening the garage door while the lift gate is already up. What I fear is that at some point I'm just not going to be thinking, and make one of these mistakes (or my kids will do it). That will do far more damage than the lift gate opening against something.

Otherwise, your idea is a great one. The lift gate should have the same sensors on it that the car does, and stop itself before hitting anything.

 

At least you didn't drive into your garage stall with the liftgate still open.

I know somebody with a real nice 2012 R/T that looks just like mine who did that! Now he has a big Mopar sticker on the back covering the big scratch inflicted on his liftgate glass.

I'm such a dummy.

 

In that case, not opening the liftgate seems to be the logical answer.

 

Luckily the remote needs a double click to do that. Otherwise mine would be opened all the time when my kids jump on me (and the car would be started).

 

You mean not parking so close to an object is the logical answer. Thanks to chryslers design team not allowing us to open the glass, we have no choice but to open the gate to get something out, if the 3rd row seats are up.