I seen the aftermath of that twice.  Both times it was someone other than
the owner closing the hatch.

I just replace the struts as well.

Cheers,

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Rob
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 9:24 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Weird Hatch Struts?

When my struts were getting weak I thought about that fix, it has been done
in PVC. Then someone mentioned 'forgetting' the lock was installed and
bending something trying to close the hatch.
I could see myself doing that... I bought the struts.
Then again I don't have anything mounted on the hatch either.

Rob
becida@comcast.net

At  4/18/2012 08:53 AM,Loren Busch wrote:
>  RE: PVC On the Struts
>Some years back I watched a VW mechanic use the ultimate tool for
>dealing with the rear hatch on a Vanagon.  Anytime he was approaching a
>Vanagon and knew he was going to be opening the rear hatch he had a
>piece of heavy brass tubing in his hand.  That piece of tubing had been
>split open it's entire length and the split opening was just wide
>enough to slip over the piston (small) end of the hatch strut.  And
>when he opened the rear hatch, no matter how good the struts were, that
>piece of tubing went onto one of the struts.  He never had to worry about a
hatch coming down on his head.