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Canopy Gas Struts

N

N223JH

Well Known Member
Both my struts are immovable. They appear to be in the fully-extended position but are not compressible. They rotate freely but I leaned on them to the point where I worried about breaking an eye end. Nothing.

Is there some preparation required for these things? I've installed struts before and never run across this problem. Data on strut covers disposal and country of manufacture. TIA Jim
 
N223JH said:
Both my struts are immovable. They appear to be in the fully-extended position but are not compressible. They rotate freely but I leaned on them to the point where I worried about breaking an eye end. Nothing.

Is there some preparation required for these things? I've installed struts before and never run across this problem. Data on strut covers disposal and country of manufacture. TIA Jim
Click to expand...

Yep, you will not be able to compress them on the bench very easily. Just install them!! If you press too hard trying to compress on the bench, you WILL break the ear!
 
Well installing them is the problem. They won't compress, so I can't get
'em under the square tubing to get the AN4 bolts in. I realize there is some force vector geometry going on here but how do I get leverage on them?
 
Open canopy first

The struts are installed with the canopy in the open position. 10-32 screws fasten the struts to the sides of the canopy frame.
Do not compress the struts. Install them fully extended. They will compress after installation when the canopy is closed.
Joe
 
Last edited:
Hmm...

I wonder if there's something wrong with them?
If you have leaned on them as hard as you say, and they STILL not move, I think you schould check another pair of struts first.
Is there any other RV's in your area? If you get the owner to unscrew one of his, and lean on that one, you can compare that force to yours.

They are hard, yes, but you schould be able to compress them to some degree with one hand in each end.

I suggest this approach, rather than installing them and forcing your canopy down. That might damage your frame and/or canopy. OUCH...!
 
Just install them.....With the canopy open.

The mechanical advantage produced by the geometry is very easy to calculate.
I the entire finished canopy weighs lets say 40 lbs. Because of the hinging/strut geometry it probably takes on the order of 4:1 to just barely keep the canopy open. This would be a strut force of about 160 lbs. This would provide just enough to keep it open, so to make it safe two struts of 160 lbs are used. It can still be easily closed because of the 4:1 ratio reducing the closing ratio by that amount.

The main point is that if struts were used that could easily be compressed by hand, the canopy would not stay open.

Note: The above weight and ratio values are just guesses and do not reflect any specific values for the RV-12
 
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