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Seabeedaddy's avatar
Seabeedaddy
Explorer
Jul 28, 2015

Gas Shock Problems on Outside Kitchen Door/Flap

I have a outdoor Kitchen on my FW that opens up and then is held in place by 2 gas shocks on each side.
Ths left side shock keeps giving me a problem.
1st time it pulled off mount..
2nd time it pulled whole mount out from door and shock stayed connected.
So I Re-Anchored with plastic anchors..
3rd time I Got to destination this wknd and when I openned Kitchen and mount was pulled out again but shock was still connected.
Got home from this wknd re-attacched with better anchors tryed several times in driveway and and mount stayed connected but shock popped off again,:M :M-so I had to walk away from it. Both sides seemed to be Configured the same!!! The Angles on both sides seem funny to me but only the one side is giving me a problem.
ANYONE had this problem before and could give me some direction..
Thanks
Rob

6 Replies

  • Is the other strut capable of holding the door open by itself ? Perhaps the strut that's giving you the problem is messed up ?
  • Is the wood punky where you're trying to attach the gas spring? It wouldn't take much water to rot the immediate area around the screw holes sufficiently to keep them from having much strength, even if the wall in general is fine.

    Is the other end of the lift in question binding or bent at an odd angle, putting unusual stresses on the attachment?

    If you can get access to the back relatively easily (and doubly so if it's not an interior finished wall that you're going to see constantly), I'd see about removing some of the presumed foam laminate sandwich from the area and replacing it with a backer of plywood or something similar, glued to the thin Luan or whatever the outer skin is adhered to. Obviously use sufficiently long mounting screws to get a good bite in the plywood. Of course, this might not be practical depending on the wall construction; I'm certainly no expert on all the possible variations out there.
  • I'm sorry, I can't figure out what the "failure" is. Your description of the problem doesn't describe for me what is occurring. Maybe someone else will understand your description and be able to help you out. Sorry!
  • I am guessing, because there is no real useful information given, that you are trying to anchor into a foam core. That's a losing proposition. In my Opinion, Until you either remove the foam core and replace it with something of substance, or somehow get to strong anchor points (i.e.: wood, fiberglass, HDPE), your spinning your wheels.

    Carefully cut out a piece of the foam core and glue in a piece of plywood, then anchor to the plywood?

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