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Rosco

Member Since: 03 Dec 2010
Location: Burntwood
Posts: 1833

2015 Defender 110 Puma 2.2 XS CSW Montalcino Red

that's a first for me. My rear door has developed a rattle so I'll pay more tension to the state of the hinges.

As for the strut, another vote for the V2. The peace of mind knowing that the door isn't going to swing shut and trap one of the kids, or the dog far out weighs any concern that it's accelerating the wear on the hinges. My only negative about it is that you need to be careful when opening it within close proximity of something in the line of swing, and small children or the unsuspecting, can be taken off their feet when opening the door

but that's not an issue with the product

2007 - Stornoway Grey 90 XS SW - Gone
2002 - Black Discovery II - Gone
2014 - Montalcino Red 110 XS SW

29th Apr 2018 8:10am

Screbble

Member Since: 26 Apr 2015
Location: Lancashire
Posts: 2098

2004 Defender 90 Td5 XS CSW Zambezi Silver

Zed wrote:
zsd-puma wrote:
The gas struts will put more load onto the hinges. When you close the door they're trying to push the hinge apart, so one drawback is they'll accelerate wear on them. They do stop the door slamming into your backside while you're leaning into the boot though.

The top hinge on mine seemed fine until I fitted a top strut, then I noticed the hinge pin had already sheered. I just drilled through it and put a stainless steel bolt through it.

Good to know. I was going to order some gas struts but i hadn't considered the added stress on the hinges.

I'd rather put up with the door trying to kill me than the hinges shearing and the door falling off.

I wouldn't let this incident put you off purchasing a gas strut per se, as the benefits are significant. It also depends how often you use the rear door (which may seem like a strange thing to say

). I use mine a lot and I'm always grateful to have the 'hold open' device.

I'd just keep an eye on things and keep things well maintained. Better still, have a look at what others have done to reduce or remove the risk e.g. Eric.

As said earlier, I have the v3 on the original door and hinges with the spare mounted directly. No issues. I do now realise what I've gone and done...

29th Apr 2018 8:46am

Screbble

Member Since: 26 Apr 2015
Location: Lancashire
Posts: 2098

Zed wrote:
zsd-puma wrote:
The gas struts will put more load onto the hinges. When you close the door they're trying to push the hinge apart, so one drawback is they'll accelerate wear on them. They do stop the door slamming into your backside while you're leaning into the boot though.

The top hinge on mine seemed fine until I fitted a top strut, then I noticed the hinge pin had already sheered. I just drilled through it and put a stainless steel bolt through it.

Good to know. I was going to order some gas struts but i hadn't considered the added stress on the hinges.

I'd rather put up with the door trying to kill me than the hinges shearing and the door falling off.

I wouldn't let this incident put you off purchasing a gas strut per se, as the benefits are significant. It also depends how often you use the rear door (which may seem like a strange thing to say

As said earlier, I have the v3 on the original door and hinges with the spare mounted directly. No issues. I do now realise what I've gone and done...

29th Apr 2018 8:47am

leeds

Member Since: 28 Dec 2009
Location: West Yorkshire
Posts: 8581

I do not think I have to declare an interest here.

Have no idea how many rear door gas struts we have sold but it must be thousands and that is from version 1 through to version 3.

Now we have them fitted to our own vehicles and we have heard all sorts of comments.

We have been told that the Version 2 rear door strut will never ever fit a Defender. That was apparently from a helicopter engineer! Ooops over 10,000 of these have been made. Personally I would not want to fly in a helicopter if that engineer had serviced if he could not fit a rear door strut!

Do these struts put any excess strain on the door hinges? In my opinion the answer would be no. Other people might not agree.

The door hinges are a pivot point for a lever/fulcrum.

Now OK how to explain this. IF we consider the door handle to be about 1 metre from hinge point and requires a force of X newtons to open the door looking at 1 xX Nm

Now if rear door strut was attached 1/10m away from hinge it would require 10X newtons to open the door.

Personally I can not see a rear door strut having enough force to shear the pins in the door hinges. I do not know the force required to shear 3 pins of what about 6 mm diameter? The strut is rated at about 400-450 N.

If the hinges pins do shear I would suggest that the hinge pins are in a sorry state to start with. Without knowing the diameter of the pin and something like the tensile or shear strength of the pin I would struggle to work out the force required to shear the pins.

Brendan

29th Apr 2018 8:11pm

moresauce

Member Since: 18 Feb 2012
Location: UK
Posts: 50

Thanks again to all,

I'm ordering the strut and I tend to agree with Brendan's explanation.

30th Apr 2018 8:24am

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