If you go to the McMasters website (google McMasters Carr) and go to page
1167 of their on-line catalog or search for "gas struts" you will find it.
You have to choose your struts based on where you want to place them and how
much weight you have on the poptop.  They explain it quite well on their
website.

Remember not to get too much strength on the struts or you will have to hang
on the bar to get the poptop down.  And also remember that if you take the
load off the poptop, closing it might become and issue unless you also
remove the struts.

Joy

:::-----Original Message-----
:::From: Keith Ovregaard [mailto:kovregaard@comcast.net]
:::Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2008 1:56 PM
:::To: Vanagon Mailing List; hecht.joy@GMAIL.COM
:::Subject: Re: Poptop Raise Assists
:::
:::Hey Joy
:::
:::I've been thinking about putting some assist struts on my poptop for
:::some time now, so I am glad you brought it up. Kim Brennan and I
:::emailed back and forth about a year ago and he seemed happy with the
:::struts mounted to the poptop brackets.  I think they were 250lb.
:::struts. Kim, do you have a part number? Did you get the struts from
:::McMasters?
:::
:::Keith O
:::
:::
:::On Mar 4, 2008, at 4:01 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
:::
:::> Date:    Tue, 4 Mar 2008 06:57:48 -0500
:::> From:    Joy Hecht <hecht.joy@GMAIL.COM>
:::> Subject: Re: Poptop Raise Assists
:::>
:::> Yup, I know I'm replying to an email from more than a year ago!  But
:::> I'm
:::> back to carrying a kayak, and thus back to being unable to lift my
:::> poptop.
:::> Very inconvenient.  So I'm looking at struts.
:::>
:::> Kim, why did you install them inside instead of outside?  Is that
:::> cosmetic
:::> or functional?  And I can't tell from your photos where exactly they
:::> are
:::> mounted at the lower end.  Are they attached to a metal plate that
:::> is part
:::> of the poptop hinge?
:::>
:::> If anyone else has tried this, I'd be interested in your experience
:::> as well.
:::>
:::>
:::>
:::> Joy