I am not sure if it is just my bad luck for replacements or not, but I have not had a sttrut last more than 2 years before dying on me. I have given up, and use a mop handle, cut to length, with rubber furniture feet on the ends. It sits wonderfully in the small triangular relief in the hatch, under the edge of the window, on one end, and on the bumber on the other. I used mop handle because it is larger in diameter, and easier to handle. The rubber feet fit it better, too.

  Opening the hatch in cold (Michigan) winter weather seems to be the "killer" for the high-pressure seals on these struts. So, if you are warmer in your basing, the dead struts may not apply to you...

Michael Elliott <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  Bent it like a plastic drinking straw.

The driveway is sloped so I have blocks under Mellow Yellow's tail end
to roughly level the van. Prior to blowing the driveway with the leaf
blower, I go to close all the doors and windows. The rear hatch is open,
and out of reach. I'm not real tall. So I grab the lowest part I can
reach, which is the skinny part of a strut. What can I say? All I can
say it that it seemed like a good idea at the time. I pulled down a bit
and the metal rod bent like a Viagra-free organ. I stood there thinking:

1. Golly -- I hardly pulled on it . . . that thing must be made of
pretty soft stuff!, and
2. There are none of these in town and we're going camping on Tuesday. I
better fix this or I'll be hoisting the hatch up with all my might and
propping it open with a stick.
3. I have the brain of a peanut.

I roughly straightened it out . . . seems to be working.

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
KG6RCR