You might not be aware, but gas struts are everywhere, and this means that they’re in your car, your caravan and in your home windows. So, if one breaks, you might need to know how to repair one or potentially replace it. Of course, if you’re not a professional, you probably don’t know how to replace a gas strut, and although it’s not the most complicated procedure, it can be quite fiddly. Thankfully we’ve created this comprehensive guide to gas struts and how to install one. This means that you won’t have to panic if and when one of your old struts breaks and you need to replace it. Learning to replacing a gas strut is a little bit like learning to ride a bike: once you know how to do it, it just comes naturally every following time. So, without further ado, here’s our guide to gas struts and how to install them.
Gas Struts Are Everywhere
You might not know it but gas struts are pretty ubiquitous in our homes and our vehicles. Just so you can see how pervasive gas struts are, here’s a list of all of the basic categories our struts fall under:
- Marine gas struts
- Car gas struts
- Industrial gas struts
- Hatch gas struts
- Camper Van gas struts
- Caravan gas struts
- Motorhome gas struts
- Hard Top gas struts
- Bed gas struts
- Furniture gas struts
- Kitchen gas struts
- Roof light gas struts
- Agricultural gas struts
- Commercial vehicle gas struts
- Plant gas struts
As you can see, gas struts are everywhere, and you might think that different gas struts for different situations are built in different ways. Thankfully, struts are designed so that they operate pretty much along the same lines, so if you know how to install one, you should be able to install them all.
Replacing Your Strut
Finding the right strut is not a massive challenge thanks to the fact that all struts come with a part number located on their cylinders. This means that you can enter the part number into our search box (after removing hyphens and spaces) and you’ll find the right strut. Once ordered, we process your quote usually within an hour, and we deliver next-day.
How to Install Your Gas Strut
When you purchase your gas strut, we recommend using those with ball joints that will help to alleviate uneven wearing of the piston rod and the seals. Place the cup of the baring over the ball joint and fit with the piston rod down within 60 degrees to the vertical. Similarly, install the struts with the rod down for optimum lubrication, ensuring as little wear and tear as possible.
DO
- Do store and install gas struts with the piston rod pointing down to ensure that the piston seal is kept lubricated.
- Do try to use ball joint fixings to help prevent side load forces.
- Do ensure the end fixings are in line to prevent side load forces.
- Do ensure the fixings are fully tightened onto the strut.
- Do provide physical stops to the struts limits – ie ensure the strut cannot be over extended or over compressed.
- Do avoid external side load forces on the gas strut or the end fittings.
- Do keep the piston rod clean from contaminate and debris.
DO NOT
- Do not lubricate a gas strut. They contain oil for damping and self-lubrication.
- Do not puncture or incinerate. SGS provides a disposal service at no cost.
- Do not grip, scratch, chip, bend or paint the rod.
- Gas struts are not designed to be cycled more than 15 times per minute.
- Gas struts should not be over-compressed or over-extended: provide physical stops to limit the strut’s extremes.
- Never attempt to re-gas/re-fill a strut. This is a hazardous operation.
Help and Support
If you get stuck in the process of installing your gas strut, don’t panic, refer to our helpful video or use our live chat facility, for assistance from our knowledgeable team and they’ll be able to help you to work through your issues. One thing you should bare in mind is that when you’re trying to find a matching new strut to replace your old one and you’re writing down the part number, you might find that the code has worn off, as they can sometimes be written in blue paint on a black background. Therefore, when you get your new strut, you should write down the part number immediately as this will help you in the long run. So there you have it, a short and comprehensive guide to installing a gas strut. Hopefully, if and when your next gas strut breaks, you should be able to purchase a new one and replacing the old one.