Manual Rear Hatch? Or wire in a power source that can be used with no battery?

I've been reading many threads on the rear hatch and trying to find a way to open the rear hatch in case the battery ever dies. I can't find conclusive information on how the rear hatch can be opened from the inside manually.

Another thought, how much power does the rear hatch need to open? Could an 18650 or similar small power pack be custom wired in place to open it when there is no battery?

Pop off the inner rear plastic cover (cargo area) start at the bottom.
One bolt on the pull strap i forgot about, under little cover.

Remove (carefully peal off) the vapor barrier. (sheet of plastic, can be reused if you are careful)

You should see a white plastic box like thing. (actuator cover)
The left side pulls up and off.

You should see two levers.
Pulling up on the smaller/lower lever release the latch.

I'm sure a 18650 battery will run the motor a couple times but not sure if you'd need to isolate the motor from the rest of the circuitry. Still pretty easy to do with a switch if all you want is to unlatch it.

randy88fj62 said:

I've been reading many threads on the rear hatch and trying to find a way to open the rear hatch in case the battery ever dies. I can't find conclusive information on how the rear hatch can be opened from the inside manually.

Another thought, how much power does the rear hatch need to open? Could an 18650 or similar small power pack be custom wired in place to open it when there is no battery?

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As other posters stated, it is doable with pulling the plastic cover off the hatch and pulling the lock lever or pulling the metal rod to the door latch. This is a pretty annoying thing that I have had to do a lot.

It sounds a little bit like you're trying to put a band-aid over the real problem. Would wiring a main battery cut off or putting a new battery in negate your issue? Have you tested what is drawing power to kill your current power and considered addressing that?

I installed a handle with a lock mechanism out of a rav4 so that I can open and lock/unlock my hatch from the inside of the vehicle. This is set up to open even if the outer latch handle breaks or all of the electric actuators fail.

A potential solution would be wiring a switch to lock and unlock the rear hatch from the inside straight off of the tail light hot wire. I know you're talking about when your battery is dead, but you could probably modify it to accept an external battery if that is what you really think your solution will be. Any sort of 12V power source running over half an amp would probably work just fine as long as you isolate its circuit (This can easily be done using diodes but make sure you install a button so the power source doesn't discharge all of its power before you need it).

TravThePro,
My rear hatch works perfectly now. My goal is to have a manual back up or electrical back up so I can get in and out should the problem occur.

I like your Rav4 handle. Could you share some more specifics on how you did that? It sounds like something I'd like to do and easy to find parts in the junk yards.

randy88fj62 said:

TravThePro,
My rear hatch works perfectly now. My goal is to have a manual back up or electrical back up so I can get in and out should the problem occur.

I like your Rav4 handle. Could you share some more specifics on how you did that? It sounds like something I'd like to do and easy to find parts in the junk yards.

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As a quick disclaimer, I did this to my 3rd gen. So it won't be the exact same as how it is for your 4th gen, but it should be really similar to do this to it though. I had to fabricate brackets to mount the cables to the hatch actuator with 1/8" angle aluminum, but if you are slightly handy it should be easy to do with basic tools.

I suggest that you take the back cover off of your hatch and inspect that this project will be possible for you before you undertake it.

The junkyard is perfect for this, it's where I ended up buying both front door handles off of a 3rd gen Rav4 for this project on my buddies GX470 and my 4Runner. The front door handle off of a 1st gen or 3rd gen Rav4 (2nd gen might work as well, but I haven't taken one apart) will have cables attached to the lever/lock instead of rods, this allows you to route the cables around the rear window that rolls down and would otherwise make this feature useless.

Would you like some pictures of how I did it with a smaller write up?

I'm trying to figure out in what situation would this be helpful? If your battery died with nobody around to give you a jump and you needed to change a flat tire at the same time?

I think maybe the easiest solution is to carry a portable jumpstarter battery pack.

I would love to see some pictures and a brief overview of the handle.

Inv4brZm,
I was installing a light sensor and auto headlight stock two weekends ago so the entire dash was apart and I wanted a tool sitting in the back of the truck. It would have been nice to have a manual option to open the back.

randy88fj62 said:

I would love to see some pictures and a brief overview of the handle.

Inv4brZm,
I was installing a light sensor and auto headlight stock two weekends ago so the entire dash was apart and I wanted a tool sitting in the back of the truck. It would have been nice to have a manual option to open the back.

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Yes it would be nice to have manual way to open the hatch without having to remove anything, but trying to do this electrically with an outside power source is going to back feed and send power backward through the rear body ECM and no telling where else and could possibly do damage to some expensive electrical devices, not worth it IMHO, I would much rather go through the trouble of removing the hatch cover and move the levers.

Took some time yesterday and too the back hatch cover off. Then I located the release lever and tied some cord to it.

I then assembled everything leaving the cord peaking through the small access hatch. I taped the cord to the cover so it won't interfere with anything and that should get me by until I can fabricate some kind of handle for the inner door.

AuSeeker said:

Yes it would be nice to have manual way to open the hatch without having to remove anything, but trying to do this electrically with an outside power source is going to back feed and send power backward through the rear body ECM and no telling where else and could possibly do damage to some expensive electrical devices, not worth it IMHO, I would much rather go through the trouble of removing the hatch cover and move the levers.

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You could do it with relays so the body ECM is out of the loop when using a battery. Fun thing to try if you have time to burn.

randy88fj62 said:

Took some time yesterday and too the back hatch cover off. Then I located the release lever and tied some cord to it.

I then assembled everything leaving the cord peaking through the small access hatch. I taped the cord to the cover so it won't interfere with anything and that should get me by until I can fabricate some kind of handle for the inner door.

Click to expand...

That is a simple but effective way to do what you want. :thumb:

Is a 5th gen guy that makes and sells an electric switch kit.
'Camping mod'? i think it was called.
Was just reading it, will see if i can find.

Inside rear hatch button, maybe window roll down too...i cant rememder, that might have been a fob thing.

I have already completed the double tap key fob mod to roll up the rear window and it's a great feature to have.

This post was me wanting to have access to the rear hatch when the battery died or if the electric gate switch failed.