Frozen Pop-Top Strut?

[zencamper]

Hey guys,

Hope you're all enjoying getting out in the snow in your vans

Just a quick question - my Devon Moonraker pop-top has lots its power to stay popped I'm guessing it's the cold and the struts' pressure has been affected. Do you think that's the case? Is this common?

I'm keeping it propped open to get the sun on it a little and it seems to be helping...

Cheers!

PA

[dugcati]

This is a common problem on anything that is aging and uses gas struts... as you already correctly said the lower temperatures mean the gas inside has lees push on the piston and hence a heavy roof/boot lid etc will tend to drop
there are a few tricks people use - Matt and a couple of others use a piece of 15mm copper pipe that can be put between wide lower part of the strut and the mount point on the body - hopefully they can put up a pic

Some folks use bits of timber to keep the roof held up - even in summer for the really bad ones!

I use an old broom handle on my tailgate

The only way to sort it out properly is to buy new struts

[zencamper]

Thanks Doug! I think it's recovered now - I propped it up with a cushion and left it up in the sun and now the struts seem to be able to support the roof. Also there was quite a bit of snow on the roof, so I cleaned that off too
As long as it's not a freak occurrence and only my little van is affected, I'm OK with it

Thanks again.

PA