While you get greater pressure in the warmer air, you are also more likely
to get failures due to the greater pressure build-up from sitting in the
sun.  Here in Phoenix, the interior of the vehicle gets up to 150 degrees,
and if the sun happens to fall on the strut itself, I'll bet it gets a fair
amount higher.  I know I had a spray can explode inside a sealed car once.
just opened up flat as a pancake.

Karl Wolz
----- Original Message -----
From: "Karl F. Bloss" <bloss@ENTER.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2000 9:00 AM
Subject: Re: hatch struts

> > actually, fluid filled hatch/hood struts fail more in COLDER weather,
not
> > warmer.. the hood struts on my audi usually dont have as much holding
> > capability in cold weather and more in warm.
>
> Agreed.  Ideal gas law sez:
>
> pressure*volume=amount of gas in strut*gas constant*temperature
>
> so all other things being constant, a rise in temp means more pressure in
the
> strut.
>
> Our van's struts sag in the winter, but are fine in the summer.  The old
PVC
> hatch strut fix works well enough in winter:
>
> http://www.enter.net/~bloss/vw/hatch_strut_support.PDF
>
> -Karl
>
>
>
>
> Karl and Kristina Bloss, Trexlertown, PA
> '87 Westfalia Weekender  "Beverley" - 196K miles
> http://www.enter.net/~bloss/vw/
> PA/NJ Vanagon owner's mailing list:
http://www.enter.net/~bloss/vw/pavanagon/