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Older Eagle owners? Gas struts?


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#1 RovingFalconer

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Posted 23 May 2019 - 07:59 PM

Anybody have an old eagle with lift assists? I’ve been going in circles trying to figure out whether I need 36” or 40” lift assist struts for my 2002 eagle. Most places say 40” but my 40” struts look like they will barely fit. Might be too long. The newer Eagles had taller a roof (the fabric was about 27-29”). Mine is older and the fabric is only about 24-25,” which is similar to the larger camper models (all of which use 36” struts). Seems to me the shorter struts are correct.

Judging by the attached photos can anyone confirm which length I need? Or, does anyone have an old eagle (2000-2006) with struts?

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#2 nevaska

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Posted 23 May 2019 - 09:07 PM

I just went through this with my 2005 Eagle. 36" struts were too short when the top was extended, 40" worked perfect in the back and in the front I needed to move the latches ~100mm outboard to get the struts to fit when the top was closed. I ordered 40lb struts from Gemini in British Columbia (excellent people to work with and good price). 

IMG 20190511 121138
IMG 20190511 120805

 


Edited by nevaska, 23 May 2019 - 09:10 PM.

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#3 RovingFalconer

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Posted 24 May 2019 - 12:23 AM

I just went through this with my 2005 Eagle. 36" struts were too short when the top was extended, 40" worked perfect in the back and in the front I needed to move the latches ~100mm outboard to get the struts to fit when the top was closed. I ordered 40lb struts from Gemini in British Columbia (excellent people to work with and good price). 

Thank you so much. Very helpful! Any chance you'd be willing to measure the height of your grey canvas when it's popped? Mine is about 24" tall, but they switched to 28" at some point (which then required the 40" struts). If yours is the same as mine then 40s should do the trick!

 

Thanks a bunch 


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#4 cwdtmmrs

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Posted 24 May 2019 - 04:32 AM

I have a 1993 FWC Ranger II, which is the predecessor to the Eagle. The canvas is 24" and I went with 30# struts. They work well with a 50# canoe. I have to pull down a little with the roof empty and latch pretty quick or the roof can pop up again.


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#5 RovingFalconer

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Posted 25 May 2019 - 07:20 PM

I have a 1993 FWC Ranger II, which is the predecessor to the Eagle. The canvas is 24" and I went with 30# struts. They work well with a 50# canoe. I have to pull down a little with the roof empty and latch pretty quick or the roof can pop up again.

Thanks do you know if you have 36" or 40" long struts?


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#6 Wildcat

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Posted 27 May 2019 - 08:30 AM

I had the factory add struts on my 2001 Eagle a couple of years ago.  It should be a duplicate of yours as they didn't change much during the late 1990's into the early 2000's.  I'll try to look at it on Monday and pop it up to measure the struts and perhaps give you some measurements regarding where they attached the ball brackets.  I know the fabric is 24".  Stay tuned.


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#7 Bert

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Posted 27 May 2019 - 07:21 PM

Looking to do the gas strut install aswell on a 2007 Eagle. 

Found this PDF that a member "Buckland" put together from his install if anyone is interested.

 

PDF is 1 post down on this page: http://www.wanderthe...s-struts/page-6


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#8 Wildcat

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Posted 27 May 2019 - 11:37 PM

The Buckland pdf is very nicely detailed.  From Buckland's pictures it looks like there are some dimensional differences between his 2011 and my 2001 Eagle so I'll leave my details in this post.  I'm quite sure the OP's 2002 is very similar to mine.  The short answer to  the OP's question is that my struts are 36".  The following is probably way more info than the OP wants but I'll leave it here anyway...

 

First of all, keep in mind that the guiding principle seems to be to adjust the install for the situation you have, meaning if your buckle clamps are positioned differently than mine you should adjust as needed because the strut brackets need to be mounted inboard of the buckle clamps.  I had the factory install mine because the camper was already in their shop for a new one-piece roof and a few other things.  They did not remove/relocate the existing buckle clamps but instead mounted the strut brackets immediately adjacent and inboard of the buckles.  The strut brackets are butted directly next to the buckle clips. on the roof.

 

The factory installed the following struts: (I got this info from http://www.suspaparts.com)

Front:  Suspa #C16-28169 Center-to-Center Length * Extended 35.43" (900mm) * Compressed 19.29" (490mm) Force 20 lbs (89 N)

Rear:  Suspa #C16-22241 ... no details on Suspa website... Strut label shows 30 lbs and gas cylinder body is same length as front struts

 

I went with the factory recommendation of 20 pound struts in front and 30 in rear because I have a bare roof with no racks or other attachments.  It has worked well and I would have problems lowering the roof if the struts were higher pounds/pressure.  I still have some struggles raising the front because I can't get a good body position when trying to push up on the wide board toward the front.  I tried switching the struts to use the 30 pounds in the front but then I couldn't lower it.  Even today with the 20 pound strut on the front the roof will try to go back up on it's own when I'm closing the camper top.  The rear seems to work fine for me with 30 pound struts.  I also have to pull down the rear roof a little bit to overcome some of the strut assistance when lowering.  A little bit of sunshine and warm weather will increase the strut assistance dramatically, while cold temperatures and shade will reduce the power of the struts.  As Buckland noted, consider getting struts with higher pressures if you have roof attachments.

 

Installation locations:  With the 36" struts the factory installed the roof brackets immediately inboard of the roof clips, which on the front is about 14 inches from the outside edge of the roof (the rear is different as noted in the next paragraph).  The struts attach to the body of camper in the middle of the 4wheel decal on the front.  On the outside of the camper each of the two lower ball brackets that are mounted in the middle of the decal have a 1.5" washer around them, and those washers are touching each other in the middle and also touching the lower molding trim.  If you line those washers up accordingly, you have the location where to drill the holes through the camper for the front lower ball brackets.  I can't see what's on the inside of those front attachment points.  Perhaps there's another washer if space permits.  When the roof is closed the front strut is just about fully collapsed and only a 1/2" of the center rod is exposed outside of the pressure cylinder.  You don't have much leeway for mounting the strut brackets if your existing clamps are in the same position as I noted above and you don't intend to relocate them.  

 

On the rear installation the strut bracket on the top begins 4" from the outside edge of the roof.  This is immediately adjacent to the clip.  I have only one clamp on the rear, which is on the passenger side and is much closer to the outside edge than the front clamps.  Since they mounted the rear passenger side strut bracket next to the clip, they just mirrored the same 4" dimension on the driver side even though there is no clamp.  The lower ball brackets do not have a 1.5" wash on the outside, but instead those washers appear on the inside above the rear door.  It looks like they didn't have enough room for the washers on the outside because of the rear door frame.  The lower ball brackets are spaced differently from the front installation (probably because the upper bracket is much closer to the edge when compared to the front).  The rear lower ball brackets are mounted in holes that are 13" apart when measured from the center of each bolt hole.  Each of the holes are about 27.5" from the outside edge of the camper and thus are centered across the back.  When the top is closed the struts are not as compressed as the front struts.  There's still 3.5" of exposed strut that is sticking out of the pressure tube.

 

Hope all this helps with an install of struts on a turn-of-the-century Eagle (approx 1999-2005).  


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2001 FWC Eagle on 1998 Taco 4x4

#9 Wildcat

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Posted 27 May 2019 - 11:44 PM

One more note... I can see in the OP's pictures that he's holding the struts outboard of the roof clamps.  This is going to create a clearance issue if installed that way.  I have seen some posts where people did that and then realized the error.  I think they were able to compensate with shims/washers but it probably isn't the best way to install the struts.  My instructions above note that the struts are installed inboard of the roof clips.  The OP's picture seem to show the front clips are probably in the same location as mine, and therefore only a 36" strut will work as there won't be enough space for the 40" strut on an Eagle of this turn-of-the-century vintage (unless you relocate the roof clamps to be closer to the outside edge of the camper).


Edited by Wildcat, 27 May 2019 - 11:45 PM.

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2001 FWC Eagle on 1998 Taco 4x4

#10 RovingFalconer

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Posted 02 June 2019 - 04:59 AM

The Buckland pdf is very nicely detailed.  From Buckland's pictures it looks like there are some dimensional differences between his 2011 and my 2001 Eagle so I'll leave my details in this post.  I'm quite sure the OP's 2002 is very similar to mine.  The short answer to  the OP's question is that my struts are 36".  The following is probably way more info than the OP wants but I'll leave it here anyway...

 

First of all, keep in mind that the guiding principle seems to be to adjust the install for the situation you have, meaning if your buckle clamps are positioned differently than mine you should adjust as needed because the strut brackets need to be mounted inboard of the buckle clamps.  I had the factory install mine because the camper was already in their shop for a new one-piece roof and a few other things.  They did not remove/relocate the existing buckle clamps but instead mounted the strut brackets immediately adjacent and inboard of the buckles.  The strut brackets are butted directly next to the buckle clips. on the roof.

 

The factory installed the following struts: (I got this info from http://www.suspaparts.com)

Front:  Suspa #C16-28169 Center-to-Center Length * Extended 35.43" (900mm) * Compressed 19.29" (490mm) Force 20 lbs (89 N)

Rear:  Suspa #C16-22241 ... no details on Suspa website... Strut label shows 30 lbs and gas cylinder body is same length as front struts

 

I went with the factory recommendation of 20 pound struts in front and 30 in rear because I have a bare roof with no racks or other attachments.  It has worked well and I would have problems lowering the roof if the struts were higher pounds/pressure.  I still have some struggles raising the front because I can't get a good body position when trying to push up on the wide board toward the front.  I tried switching the struts to use the 30 pounds in the front but then I couldn't lower it.  Even today with the 20 pound strut on the front the roof will try to go back up on it's own when I'm closing the camper top.  The rear seems to work fine for me with 30 pound struts.  I also have to pull down the rear roof a little bit to overcome some of the strut assistance when lowering.  A little bit of sunshine and warm weather will increase the strut assistance dramatically, while cold temperatures and shade will reduce the power of the struts.  As Buckland noted, consider getting struts with higher pressures if you have roof attachments.

 

Installation locations:  With the 36" struts the factory installed the roof brackets immediately inboard of the roof clips, which on the front is about 14 inches from the outside edge of the roof (the rear is different as noted in the next paragraph).  The struts attach to the body of camper in the middle of the 4wheel decal on the front.  On the outside of the camper each of the two lower ball brackets that are mounted in the middle of the decal have a 1.5" washer around them, and those washers are touching each other in the middle and also touching the lower molding trim.  If you line those washers up accordingly, you have the location where to drill the holes through the camper for the front lower ball brackets.  I can't see what's on the inside of those front attachment points.  Perhaps there's another washer if space permits.  When the roof is closed the front strut is just about fully collapsed and only a 1/2" of the center rod is exposed outside of the pressure cylinder.  You don't have much leeway for mounting the strut brackets if your existing clamps are in the same position as I noted above and you don't intend to relocate them.  

 

On the rear installation the strut bracket on the top begins 4" from the outside edge of the roof.  This is immediately adjacent to the clip.  I have only one clamp on the rear, which is on the passenger side and is much closer to the outside edge than the front clamps.  Since they mounted the rear passenger side strut bracket next to the clip, they just mirrored the same 4" dimension on the driver side even though there is no clamp.  The lower ball brackets do not have a 1.5" wash on the outside, but instead those washers appear on the inside above the rear door.  It looks like they didn't have enough room for the washers on the outside because of the rear door frame.  The lower ball brackets are spaced differently from the front installation (probably because the upper bracket is much closer to the edge when compared to the front).  The rear lower ball brackets are mounted in holes that are 13" apart when measured from the center of each bolt hole.  Each of the holes are about 27.5" from the outside edge of the camper and thus are centered across the back.  When the top is closed the struts are not as compressed as the front struts.  There's still 3.5" of exposed strut that is sticking out of the pressure tube.

 

Hope all this helps with an install of struts on a turn-of-the-century Eagle (approx 1999-2005).  

Wildcat!!! I cannot thank you enough for this post. It is extremely helpful and EXACTLY what I needed to know. Based on your response, and Nevaskas early response, I am concluding that either the 36 or 40" struts can be made to fit these Eagles. The 40" require moving the roof clips outwards whereas the 36" can be used if the roof clips are left as-is. When I called the factory they insist that the 36" struts will not work because they will be too vertical when the roof is opened, and therefore will bottom out as the roof lowers. But your thorough description is proof that that is not the case. Would you agree?

 

I will mimic your exact measurements for my install, especially since the factory did the installation.

 

Just to clarify, there is no limitation in your roof's movement, correct? In other words, it opens and closes smoothly with the struts extending and compressing fully as needed?

 

Thank you again!


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