Tail gate lift

charlieD · Post by **charlieD** » Fri May 13, 2011 10:53 pm

Hi All,

I've recently fitted a Thule bike rack and very happy I am with it too.

Question is though, with the bikes off the rack the tail gate wont stay up on it's own, do I need new gas struts?

it was fine before...

Cheers, Charlie

hembramacho · Post by **hembramacho** » Fri May 13, 2011 10:55 pm

I've just done the same, and got the same problem. Thinking of re-gassing the struts. Anyone done this with success?

Cheers

Andrew

briwy · Post by **briwy** » Fri May 13, 2011 11:44 pm

I got mine regassed here:

http://www.sgs-engineering.com/pages/Regassing-Service

While you wait service if you're local.

Mine were just generally tatered but as we've got a bike rack on the tailgate I asked about upping the pressure. The guy there wasn't sure but said he doubted the struts would take the extra pressure. Might be worth asking again though.

If you take the struts off make sure the tailgate is well supported first. Its amazingly heavy.

charlieD · Post by **charlieD** » Sat May 14, 2011 5:53 am

briwy wrote:I got mine regassed here:

http://www.sgs-engineering.com/pages/Regassing-Service

While you wait service if you're local.

Mine were just generally tatered but as we've got a bike rack on the tailgate I asked about upping the pressure. The guy there wasn't sure but said he doubted the struts would take the extra pressure. Might be worth asking again though.

If you take the struts off make sure the tailgate is well supported first. Its amazingly heavy.

Well that seems easy enough, Cheers Briwy, I'll give that a go

teenmal · Post by **teenmal** » Sat May 14, 2011 10:26 am

charlieD wrote:Hi All,

I've recently fitted a Thule bike rack and very happy I am with it too.

Question is though, with the bikes off the rack the tail gate wont stay up on it's own, do I need new gas struts? it was fine before...

Cheers, Charlie

Hi charlieD,

I would say that you need to upgrade the struts to compensate fot the extra load.If you load the tailgate with your bikes etc then using a set of scales,place a piece of wood or similar between the fully open tailgate and the scales on the ground to get the weight of the load.This will give your supplier an idea of the strength of struts that you require.
Remember without the load the tailgate will be a wee bit stiff to close..

Cheers.

hembramacho · Post by **hembramacho** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:21 pm

Had my new gas struts back today from SGS and just re-fitted them. Problem sorted. The tail gate now stays put with the bike rack still attached.

(minus bikes obviously!)

I had to go for new struts in the end, as my original ones weren't up to a re-gas apparently!

A few pics:

Cheers

Andrew

daveblueozzie · Post by **daveblueozzie** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:26 pm

How much for the new struts ?

dandemann8 · Post by **dandemann8** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:28 pm

Now that's what I call strutting your stuff

hembramacho · Post by **hembramacho** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:35 pm

daveblueozzie wrote:How much for the new struts ?

£151.54!

Expensive I know - a re-gas of the original struts would have been £50 - but having camped with the tail gate propped up with a pole, and knowing how my kids run about not looking where they're going, all it takes is that pole to get knocked by one of them, and having felt the sheer weight of the tail gate, I don't think I could live with the possible consequences!!

Cheers

Andrew

daveblueozzie · Post by **daveblueozzie** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:40 pm

I noticed when you were parked next to me in Wales the other weekend that you were using a pole to hold the tailgate up, NOT SAFE.

A cheap solution to save the kids from getting hurt.

hembramacho · Post by **hembramacho** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:51 pm

daveblueozzie wrote:I noticed when you were parked next to me in Wales the other weekend that you were using a pole to hold the tailgate up, NOT SAFE.
A cheap solution to save the kids from getting hurt.

Thanks Dave
That was the first (and only) time we went camping with the tail gate like that. After doing that the once, totally agree it's not safe at all and needed to do something.
As I said before, I dread to think what could have happened in the event of a misshap, so totally sorted now - very pleased.

Cheers

Andrew

mrsdreamwarrior · Post by **mrsdreamwarrior** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 11:33 pm

we still use a walking stick to keep our tailgate open so we are naughty too.

charlieD · Post by **charlieD** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 1:49 am

Ordered mine today, eventually got fed up holding the tail gate open with my head while trying to reach in and grab the hook up cable

LoopyLoo · Post by **LoopyLoo** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:08 am

I just don't use the tailgate (don't really have a need to and can't say I miss it).

If there wasn't a chance that I might be moving abroad though I think I'd be going down the same route as Andrew just for the odd occasion I need to get something big in the back.

Poohbear · Post by **Poohbear** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:09 am

daveblueozzie wrote:I noticed when you were parked next to me in Wales the other weekend that you were using a pole to hold the tailgate up, NOT SAFE.

Are you a member of the fun police or something?

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