Forum Discussion

Tomboy2's avatar
Tomboy2
Explorer
Aug 14, 2015

Compartment Doors

We have an '08 Bounder. A couple of the compartment doors don't always want to stay up by them selves. Specifically the electric/water/sewer compartment door and the front door on the large slide out.

Can I put an additional gas strut on each door? And if so should it be the same as the original?

15 Replies

  • WILDEBILL308 wrote:
    jplante4 wrote:
    Dump the gas shocks and buy a bunch of these.

    Catches

    Then you can open the basement doors all the way.

    That would be great but what about the doors that hit the slide? OP is better getting new struts.
    Bill


    Or, what if the doors are prohibited from opening all the way 'cause they hit something or, the hinge won't let them etc.? And, depending on how the OPs doors and original struts are designed, they may be opening almost all the way anyway. I used those latches on my old '78 Dodge 4 Star 23' Class C and, they worked, back then. But, things have improved drastically since then.
    Scott
  • jplante4 wrote:
    Dump the gas shocks and buy a bunch of these.

    Catches

    Then you can open the basement doors all the way.

    That would be great but what about the doors that hit the slide? OP is better getting new struts.
    Bill
  • Dump the gas shocks and buy a bunch of these.

    Catches

    Then you can open the basement doors all the way.
  • Tomboy2 wrote:
    We have an '08 Bounder. A couple of the compartment doors don't always want to stay up by them selves. Specifically the electric/water/sewer compartment door and the front door on the large slide out.

    Can I put an additional gas strut on each door? And if so should it be the same as the original?


    Well Sir,
    First off, the logistics most likely won't work. The reason is, there's spaces that the original struts lodge in when the doors are closed. If you added any, where would they reside, when the doors are closed?

    So, like the other poster stated, yours have just lost their strength. In many cases, there is nomenclature printed on the sides of the case. If you jot all that down then, go either google it or, call your local Fleetwood Parts Center and give them the info you have.

    How long have you owned the coach? If for quite a while, how well did the doors stay up when you bought it? If they stayed up just fine back then, then all you need is new ones of the same strength and, un-loaded and compressed length. Once you have new ones with identical stats of your originals, the doors will stay up just fine, without engineering additional components. Good luck.
    Scott
  • Your original units are probably just worn out. Get the number off of them and Google it. You'll get the size and strength you need and then look for the best deal, like Amazon.