Tailgate gas struts

Hi I'm having trouble finding the struts that hold the upper tailgate open. Some wreckers have suggested getting gas struts. Has anyone done this? I went to a strut shop today and the guy was having trouble finding a size that would fit it. Any pointers?

Hi, i did the gas strut thingy. It'll depend on what model/yr you have. Not sure where you're located either... in Melbourne??

I used a pair of stuffed AU bonnet struts and they work very well indeed.

Just did they Gas strut thing on my XF, cost a whole $88.00 for the pair & all the hardware.

I've got a 78 hz, I'm in qld Toowoomba to be precise, if I can get the right size I'm happy to buy off the net. Au bonnent ones eh? Do they fit in the standard mounts or did you have to make your own mounts?

I just rang the local gas strut bloke..... thats all he does, Gas Struts.

He came & measured, went back to his van gassed the up to 250 newtons (his guess at require force).

Charged me $88, I fitted them in about 15mins when I got home.

Have a look in the yellow pages, this bolke did gas strut reconditioning also!

davodinkum wrote:I've got a 78 hz, I'm in qld Toowoomba to be precise, if I can get the right size I'm happy to buy off the net. Au bonnent ones eh? Do they fit in the standard mounts or did you have to make your own mounts?

Had to drill another hole.Possibly get pics of them tomorrow for you if you wish.

gday mate, i used vr vs commodore bonnet struts, and if you look on the bonnets of ea eb falcons the little knob things for the struts to mount too unscrew out of the bonnet, get four of these, put one on each original strut mount on your tailgate using a nut and washer, then do the same using one of the existing strut mount holes on the body of your van using nut and washer, clip on struts and boom your done.
hope that helps lol.
p.s you can get new struts from pedders suspension

So VR/VS ones are shorter then the AU ones?

You can buy the struts through repco etc and they have a regas service also. Saw a nice silver windowless in at melbournes cheapest tyres in Dandenong and he had the gas strut setup but the neat feature was the electric gate release from a vk commodore boot release. Press the button and the gate goes up. Thought it was a nice touch.

AGR071 wrote:

davodinkum wrote:I've got a 78 hz, I'm in qld Toowoomba to be precise, if I can get the right size I'm happy to buy off the net. Au bonnent ones eh? Do they fit in the standard mounts or did you have to make your own mounts?

Had to drill another hole.Possibly get pics of them tomorrow for you if you wish.

photos would be great if you could

thanks for all tour help guys

I had used a mob in Ferntree Gully called Eastern Strut Recharge, they come to your work or house and set it up for you, they did mine in the carpark at work, much to the amusement of all the onlookers out the office windows....LOL. We're in Melb though, so sorry, probably of no use to you in Qld, but i'm sure they'rd be a mob in qld that does the same thing. You also need to be careful as to how high the strut ultimately goes due to the hinges and also depends on how tall you r.... too tall and upper tailtgate too low = u hit da head on corners...ouch! thanks M

i just did this today. i scored some gas struts from a daewoo lanos a mate was getting rid of. figured id try my luck...bolted straight on! no drilling required. i did however need to use the upper tailgate latch bolt hole. (strut clears everything neatly) the only other issue was they were too powerful...you could have launched a pumpkin ten feet in the air off this thing!. so i drilled a tiny hole (carefully) in one of them to release pressure. works perfectly and looks much tidier and even better cost me nothing. i doubt the wreckers would charge much for them

"you could have launched a pumpkin ten feet in the air off this thing!."

lol. i like it

hate to re open this thread from way bak, but just wondering if anyone has any pices they could post of how they did this. im trying to put vs commo bonnet struts on mine but am having trouble.

cheers

Just have a look at the length of the black section and measure it and i'll let you know about mine then.

also make sure you have them around the right way and the nut is facing the correct way, or it may foul on the body, thats what happened on my Ford but havn't tried it on a Holden

hey mate,

i'll take some photos of mine on the weekend and post them. the only real trouble i had was metric vs imperial threads. the struts i used had bolts at each end which made it easy. i think the commodore struts have the push on type ends that need a 'ball point' bolt to clip too. if thats the case you may be able to pick up some 'ball point' bolts from the wreckers and fit them to an existing hole somewhere.

Az

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that looks good

ah thanks heaps HT vanner!! looks so good with gas struts, and those ones are off a commodore arent they?
should be able to use the pics to get mine happening!
thanks heaps
m
cheers
matt

thanks guys it looks neat using the latch bolt hole i reckon

Matt i would rather not say what they came off *cough* daewoo lanos *cough* better to not dwell on such questions hey?

HT VANNER wrote:Matt i would rather not say what they came off *cough* daewoo lanos *cough* better to not dwell on such questions hey?

hahaha dont worry ur secret is safe with me lol
ive got spare vs commodore bonnet struts at home, which i was going to use, but they look a bit longer then urs. mite get a couple of extra ball pin things from the wreackers and see if i can fit them the same way to the existing latch and the mounting point on the tailgate. hopefully it will work lol

thanks for the photos again!

cheers

i just measured my struts; from tip to tip open is about 475mm if its a bit longer it will still work fine the tailgate will just sit a bit higher. mine sits almost level with the roof line at that length. when you get the ball pins try to get some with an imperial thread. mine weren't and i had to re-tap the old thread to suit the new metric thread, not ideal.

hopefully it comes together no dramas matt, good luck
Az

I'm not 100% on this but I'm pretty sure WB used Metric threads.

I suggest that you take a bolt from the catch with you to check the thread against the fitting you get.

Good Luck.

Regards

Rusty!