Date:         Wed, 7 Feb 2007 13:10:06 -0800
Reply-To:     Keith Ovregaard <kovregaard@COMCAST.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Keith Ovregaard <kovregaard@COMCAST.NET>
Subject:      Re: Poptop Raise Assists (Fryeday content)
Comments: To: Kim Brennan <kimbrennan@mac.com>
In-Reply-To:  <0409A26D-EAB5-4FE7-983D-850F97683B80@mac.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed

Kim

I have to admit that your solution is a less invasive one and also
looks like a factory install. Very nice!

You may have mentioned before how much weight you have added to the
top, but I missed that. Have you used a scale to measure the loaded and
unloaded weight? How did you weight it? Using a digital fish scale
hooked to the forward mounted roof rack cross bar, I measured 45LBS.  I
thought it would be much more considering the weight of the 2 yakima
racks with kayak supports on both, plus the six wide body mounts, but
then there's some assist from the support bracket springs. My Kayak
weighs 46LBS and my bike with rack mounts maybe 30LBS, so I am going to
be lifting at least 120LBS. Of course some of that weight will be on
the back hinges.

Keith

On Feb 7, 2007, at 11:07 AM, Kim Brennan wrote:

> As I mentioned before, I considered having the struts elsewhere. Note
> that due to the angle of the raised poptop, you are limited in where
> you can attach a gas spring. Further, you are additionally limited by
> where you can mount it when it is down. You can't have the bottom
> directly under the top mounting point, for example.   While that
> arrangement would give you the best lift capability, when it is down,
> there is no place for the gas spring to go. Even when compressed it
> occupies a certain amount of length. I didn't want to drill any
> irreversible holes in the top of my camper until I experimented some.
>
> The way I mounted them was a quick a dirty test to see if it would
> work. I figured if it didn't work, the only irreversible "damage"
> would be an inconsequential hole in the poptop hinge. As it turns out,
> this way worked quite well, so I never pursued any other
> possibilities.
>
>