The parts may be available elsewhere, but revise your expectations on the strength.� We bought a pair of the "strong" struts several years ago and they still work well but never held the '87's hatch open with bikes on the Bones hatch-mounted rack.� The rack by itself, yes, but not with bikes.� That can be a lot of extra weight to support.

Stephen

--- On Tue, 11/20/12, Harry Hoffman <hhoffman@IP-SOLUTIONS.NET> wrote:

From: Harry Hoffman <hhoffman@IP-SOLUTIONS.NET>
Subject: Rear hatch struts  - heavy duty
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Date: Tuesday, November 20, 2012, 6:45 PM

Hi All,
Bus Depot offers a set of heavy duty rear struts. They supposedly can hold open the hatch even with a bike rack and bikes.
Unfortunately they are on back order for 2-3 months.
 Anyone know a alternate vendor?

Cheers,
 Harry