---- Tabe Johnson <greentabe-vanagon@YAHOO.COM> wrote:

Ron almost always has excellent advice but I think he's not totally correct in this case:

One strut can't do more work than the other.  The struts are filled with compressed gas and they push as hard as the gas pressure lets them.  If one has lots of pressure, it will push harder than the other, but that's as far as it goes.

You may replace one strut only to find the other was near the end of its life anyway, but there can be no causal relationship between the replacement of one strut and the wearing of the other.

Hmmmm ...... .  If I replace one strut with a stronger one, leaving a weaker one in place on the opposite side, then the stronger strut determines how hard I push to lower the gate.  I may be compelled to push really hard, harder than really necessary to get the gate to drop.  Could my pushing the gate down more forcefully than necessary because of my perception of resistance cause the already weak strut to wear faster -- push more gas out through the leaks it has?

Don't know, just speculating.

DMc

tabe johnson/ex 87 westy