Gas Struts please Help Mrs Haggers (1 Viewer)

[haganap]

As on another thread I have purchased a new matress which is superb and makes sleeping in the van like sleeping at home, in fact better.

But Mrs Haggers is weak Weak I tell you!!!!

Now, the Mattress is much heavier and sits on a french bed and lifted open with the help of gas struts. It would appear that these struts are now no longer strong enough to help her.

I have no idea about this and my preference was simply to send her to a military style training camp to build up her muscles in order for her to perform said task. She is however not too keen on this idea and is more insistant that I sort the issue out.

So in all seriousness, are gas struts made stronger and more powerful and if replaced would help with the job? or is there a potential to maybe even fit an hydraulic motor to lift the bed?

tia

 

[DavidG58]

morning Paul

For the easier option of swapping gas struts, either for new same that might be stronger or a stronger version of what you have, these are the people to talk to, good products, great knowledge, brilliant support

https://www.sgs-engineering.com/

if you can check what is both ends of yours they will be able to match the fittings, I even changed my own, albeit on cupboards not a bed

edit - they will need to know the length and a rating which should be printed on the side

 

[Figaro]

Upgrade to a new motorhome, you know you want to !

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[Janine]

Weak? Are you kidding? She'll floor you with a single right-hook if she gets to read this

 

[jockaneezer]

We used to buy in replacement gas struts from RS Components, they come set at "maximum". You fit them in place, then carefully operate them, if they are "over enthusiastic", you let a little bit of gas pressure out via a small Allen screw until you get to the appropriate action.

 

[Lenny HB]

Another vote for SGS, they will pressurise the struts to your requirements, very helpful company.

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[tacr2man]

Just be careful that the mountings are up to handling the extra force
+ another vote for SGS

 

[Xabia]

What make of motorhome do you have?

 

[Bluemooner]

my preference was simply to send her to a military style training camp to build up her muscles in order for her to perform said task

Think i would go with this idea

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[Stealaway]

How long are they? I have a pair bought by mistake for a hatchback car. They are strong.

 

[haganap]

it's a rapido, Mercedes based A Class .. I will try the SGS company, so will stronger ones help with the bed lift then?

 

[Lenny HB]

it's a rapido, Mercedes based A Class .. I will try the SGS company, so will stronger ones help with the bed lift then?

They will help but Nikki my be hanging in mid air trying to get it back down.

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[haganap]

Thanks for the link @DavidG58 just been on the site and bought,,,,,

An Air compressor !!!!!!

Will have to get the struts off and measure properly

 

[haganap]

They will help but Nikki my be hanging in mid air trying to get it back down.

Ha ha, so then I have to cancel the Gym and get her fattened up

 

[gus-lopez]

it's a rapido, Mercedes based A Class .. I will try the SGS company, so will stronger ones help with the bed lift then?

Yes, but don't get them uprated too much as you will find it going up on its own.
You might be able to measure the downward force by disconnecting the originals & using bathroom scales to measure the downfoorce that it has now.

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[Teuchter]

@haganap - is the new mattress much thicker & firmer than the old one?

If it is then it may be that the "inboard" (now thicker & stronger) edge of the mattress is now getting compressed and crushed against the side if the MoHo thus making it much more difficult to raise the bed - this happened to the single beds in my last van when I put thicker sprung mattresses on them

 

[weekenders]

We bought new gas struts for our Rapido, but the Ones for the front drop down bed, also from sgs engineering, think they are at Derby

 

[two]

You may have 'fun' fitting struts to a drop down bed because they will be exerting their full force if you try to remove or fit them with the bed in the down position.

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[Geo]

Think outa the box

HERE

 

[Ralph-n-Bev]

Being a big strong man , Paul, why don’t you just lift the bed up ?

 

[Xabia]

it's a rapido, Mercedes based A Class .. I will try the SGS company, so will stronger ones help with the bed lift then?

If it had been a Hymer I would have suggested taking it to Peter Hambilton. I took mine there because the rams are under a considerable pressure and were difficult to access. He told me that one chap tried to do it himself and one of the rams shot through the windscreen.

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[mitzimad]

I can see niki going in to orbit via the roof light

 

[haganap]

Think outa the box

HERE

I like this idea, will have to measure up .

Being a big strong man , Paul, why don’t you just lift the bed up ?

ha ha, I think its a stuglle to get the wine out and hold the bed up with one arm, especially when Nikki;s asleep on it...

@haganap - is the new mattress much thicker & firmer than the old one?

If it is then it may be that the "inboard" (now thicker & stronger) edge of the mattress is now getting compressed and crushed against the side if the MoHo thus making it much more difficult to raise the bed - this happened to the single beds in my last van when I put thicker sprung mattresses on them

yes this is an issue, but the mattresses weight is also the main issue.

 

[Ridgeway]

I used this company last week:

https://www.gasspringsshop.co.uk

They have several brands and many variations of spec. They also have a nice simple calculator you can use. Really you just need to measure up the piston diameter, piston length and overall strut length, hopefully on the sticker it will give you the N (Newton) rating i.e. how strong it is although for a bed it should be that much. Mine came within 2 days and were straight replacements, took 15mins to swap out from the 15yr old ones that had leaked and just didn't have any umpffffff.

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