Rear hatch lift support upgrade for mounting gear.

[Bpjr07]

Has anyone changed their standard lift supports fron their factory rear hatch to ones rated for more weight?

I have a grand caravan and was thinking i can add a rotopax or 2 on my tailgate just need to upgrade the schocks to hold the extra weight.

Cannot find whats is the standard weight of the stock lift supports so dont really have an idea what weights i need.

Purchased some 150lbs lift supports that may work... (might even be able to mount a spare with that lmao

 

[9Mike2]

There is a bracket I have seen to attach to your rack that brings the Roto-paxs down and covers your side rear window... Like this...

 

[Bpjr07]

That was my first though... but its a van so sliding doors on both sides roll all they way and cover the whole rear sides.

The whole roof is taken up by the RTT.
Only option is the rear (if possible)

 

[9Mike2]

If you have a Machine Shop near you, they can make a rack that will bolt to your RTT frame and make it hang out far enough for the sliding door to open... just my two cents....the hinge on your rear hatch may fail with the weight of the gas can on it with the mount. We had a similar problem at the power company with Meter reader's trucks as the door hinges started to fail left and right from the duty cycle of just opening and closing so much....

 

[trail_runn4r]

Has anyone changed their standard lift supports fron their factory rear hatch to ones rated for more weight?

I have a grand caravan and was thinking i can add a rotopax or 2 on my tailgate just need to upgrade the schocks to hold the extra weight.

Cannot find whats is the standard weight of the stock lift supports so dont really have an idea what weights i need.

Purchased some 150lbs lift supports that may work... (might even be able to mount a spare with that lmao

I have. If I'm not wrong I upgraded to a 250lbs. I installed a rear ladder, rotopax mount and rotopax. It holds the weight but it's almost maxed out.

 

[Bpjr07]

Great!!! Do you recall where? I found some 150 lbs one. Nothing bigger on amazon.

How did you end up mounting the rotopax? Did you bolt and nut it through the other side?

 

[Bpjr07]

Has anyone changed their standard lift supports fron their factory rear hatch to ones rated for more weight?

I have a grand caravan and was thinking i can add a rotopax or 2 on my tailgate just need to upgrade the schocks to hold the extra weight.

Cannot find whats is the standard weight of the stock lift supports so dont really have an idea what weights i need.

Purchased some 150lbs lift supports that may work... (might even be able to mount a spare with that lmao

I have. If I'm not wrong I upgraded to a 250lbs. I installed a rear ladder, rotopax mount and rotopax. It holds the weight but it's almost maxed out.

I found the ones you are talking about they are 244lbs and very popular with the 4runners. I will look into the specs see if it fits or if the company can point ne in the right direction.

 

[trail_runn4r]

I found the ones you are talking about they are 244lbs and very popular with the 4runners. I will look into the specs see if it fits or if the company can point ne in the right direction.

You can search by make/model Lift Supports | Gas Struts & Springs | Lift Supports Depot

 

[Bpjr07]

I found the ones you are talking about they are 244lbs and very popular with the 4runners. I will look into the specs see if it fits or if the company can point ne in the right direction.

You can search by make/model Lift Supports | Gas Struts & Springs | Lift Supports Depot

Looks like the stock ones are 160lbs, the liftsupportdepot had some that will fit with 207lbs should be all i need. For 1 rotopax. I still emailed if they had anything stronger.

Not bad for 30$ chainging them because my stock lift supports gave out last weekend.

Thank you for the help.

 

[trail_runn4r]

I found the ones you are talking about they are 244lbs and very popular with the 4runners. I will look into the specs see if it fits or if the company can point ne in the right direction.

You can search by make/model Lift Supports | Gas Struts & Springs | Lift Supports Depot

Looks like the stock ones are 160lbs, the liftsupportdepot had some that will fit with 207lbs should be all i need. For 1 rotopax. I still emailed if they had anything stronger.

Not bad for 30$ chainging them because my stock lift supports gave out last weekend.

Thank you for the help.

Their customer support is good too. One of my struts was doing a weird noise after few months and they quickly sent a replacement!

 

[smritte]

Once you figure out what you want, look here McMaster Carr.
Finding "stock" lift numbers isn't hard. Your doing custom though. Most of the places that sell will get you stock replacements. On custom, odds are their guessing. If they guess wrong and your injured because of it, their liable. If they can help you, great. If not ,a little research and you can get pretty close then you buy what you need.
Ive used these supports for everything from the hood on my Tacoma to lifting an RTT on one of my trailers.

EDIT: I normally use just the general purpose ones.

 

[Sparksalot]

Looks like the stock ones are 160lbs, the liftsupportdepot had some that will fit with 207lbs should be all i need. For 1 rotopax. I still emailed if they had anything stronger.

Not bad for 30$ chainging them because my stock lift supports gave out last weekend.

Thank you for the help.

Be cautious how far you try to go with weight. Even with upgraded struts, the attachment points are going to be a weak spot.

 

[smritte]

And you don't want to have to hang all your body weight on it to close when you don't have the extra weight.

 

[WokkerK]

+1 for Lift Supports Depot. I got the upgraded struts for them on my 4runner as well for ladder and RotopaX and they are great. I hope you find some for your van!

 

[Bpjr07]

Stock are 165lbs

I found some with 207 lbs should work i am only insralling a 1.75 rotopax gas tank to be safe.

Their customer service did also found a 250lbs one.

I think 207 might be the perfect balance.

 

[Bpjr07]

Sorry for the dirty van.
Got the lift supports and rotopax installed last night.

The new lift supports open fast and need more effort to close. Nothing to crazy. (Without the rotopax installed)

Bolted the standard rotopax mount directly to the panel. (Little disappointed on the play the jug as once installed, it can rotate 1" left and right once fully tightened)

Tried to Go as high and center to the help distribute the load to to both lift supports.

Just filled the tank today, it goes up and down just like it did stock in speed and weight needed for me to close. The automated lifgate also has no issues lifting and closing.

True test will be high elevations and cold climates.

Thank you all for the help.

Ps.
Got it because we have had 2 close calls running low on fuel on our trips. (Our fault on planning of course)
1.75gal is a bit over 35 miles of highway driving)