CarnationSailor wrote:
TKW wrote:
The two 80# gas struts that comes from the factory can barely hold up a bare mattress. It will not keep the underbed storage stay open once bedding are added. I saw the previous owner had a very thin bed spread on it when I was viewing the TT. It was early spring and the TT was just visiting family down here from up north. I thought nothing of it as ppl live up north might withstand cold weather better than us who live at the wet coast.
My options are either to replace these struts with 100# or 120# rated ones. To decide on which one to use, I use a wood post and a bath scale placed at the C.G. of the bed. The scale shows 98.8#. However, with the two 80# fully extended at an angle of approx. 34 deg. from horizontal, it's about 10# overloaded. I therefore decided to order a pair of 100# struts from Amazon. And the result: see photo attached.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/f5zvt1idehn45p1/WP_000441.jpg?dl=0
I had a similar problem with a previous TT. I moved the "lower" mounting brackets (the brackets that attach to the platform base) a few inches toward the foot of the bed and the problem was solved. The struts had plenty of capacity, but were just installed incorrectly.
Given you need to support 98.8 #'s and your original struts should have been able to support a total of 160 #'s, maybe yours were just installed incorrectly too.
I know this suggestion is too late to help you, but maybe it will be useful to others.
If you think about it, the 98.8# number I got is a downward force perpendicular to the floor. The 160# rated struts are at 34 deg from horizontal, per factory design, which will only give you an upward resistance of roughly 90#. It is good enough for leaving the dealership with a bare mattress but underdesigned in my book. Moving the pivot point a few inches may help by improving the angle of attack but the distance you can move is limited by the retracted length of the strut. My new struts only costed $20. It saved me from rebuilding the bed frame.
