oil doesn't leak out of gas struts.
Nitrogen I believe.

cold weather makes weak ones weaker.

personally, I always ask for 'the medium strength ones.'
I have gotten the strong ones, which a parts place might say is for a rear
hatch with a wiper on it.
I find the strong ones way too strong.

I start with one new medium strength one,
then test each strut individually on the van, and replace the weaker one.
that usually works pretty well.
I want it to stay up nicely, but not be too hard to close.

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Cohen" <mtbdavid2@AOL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2010 9:15 PM
Subject: Re: Rear Hatch Struts

all this rear hatch strut talk is bad luck. mine are fairly new and
were working fine until this morning now they wont hold at all. must
have leaked all the oil out. -----Original Message----- From: Mervyn
Readman <themervino@GMAIL.COM> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Sent: Sat,
13 Mar 2010 18:30:54 -0500 Subject: Re: Rear Hatch Struts I have had
the Bus Depot's stronger hatch struts on both sides of my rear hatch
and have been very pleased. I can open the rear hatch on my van from
inside so if its too warm at night I can open the hatch a foot or so
and it will stay there by itself. I have no problem closing the door
when it is fully open. Merv.