Well, just to chime in here, we use the one soft & one hard on all the vans,
but I change it to two hard when we put the bike rack on the hatch.

Works  perfectly for us.

Jake

On 8/28/06, The Bus Depot <vanagon@busdepot.com> wrote:
>
> >   It's not 2 lefts or 2 rights; one of the part numbers has
> > more uumph than the other, I can't remember which one it was.
> >  2 of the stronger PN's make
> > it much harder to pull it down to close it.   2 of the weaker
> > PN's will not
> > hold up a heavier hatch; ie.- one with a rear wiper.  One
> > stronger and one weaker is what the factory installed there.
> > Do what's right and it'll work properly.
>
>
> The original configuration is one weaker strut on the left and one
> stronger
> strut on the right. But many people do put on 2 right (stronger) ones.
> This
> will last longer and work better in cold weather. We do sell both sides
> for
> those who want to use the original configuration, but most who have tried
> the two stronger ones don't go back.
>
> What is important is that you always replace them in pairs. If you replace
> only one, it's likely that the other one is already weak, so the new one
> will be doing extra work. This will cause it to fail prematurely, so you
> end
> up replacing one at a time at a more frequent rate than if you replaced
> them
> in pairs.
>
> Links:
>
> Left (standard): http://busdepot.com/details.jsp?partnumber=251829331B
>
> Right (heavy duty): http://busdepot.com/details.jsp?partnumber=251829332
>
> - Ron Salmon
>   The Bus Depot, Inc.
>   www.busdepot.com
>   (215)  234-VWVW
>
> _____________________________________________
> Toll-Free for Orders by PART # :  1-866-BUS-DEPOT
>

--
Jake
1984 Vanagon GL
1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
www.crescentbeachguitar.com