Tailgate lift suggestions?

I'm finding the OE struts on my '23 to be annoyingly weak but I don't need anything super heavy duty-just want a bit better than stock. Any suggestions for some quality aftermarket struts with a bit more power?

 

There’s probably after market struts you can purchase without being a huge expense. I’m not sure if any would offer more / faster raising power than what you already have.

For grins and giggles, I just went out to my 2022 model and ran a test with it. I began to very slowly open my tailgate by hand until I let the struts take over to lift the tailgate without any further opening input by me.

At the 10” opened point that you see in my picture, I could let go of the tailgate and it would stay stationary. As soon as I nudged the tailgate past that 10” mark, the struts took over and raised the tailgate fully without further assistance from me.

After nudging it open behind that 10” mark, my tailgate then became fully opened in less than 3 seconds. (No wind interference. Still conditions.) That was plenty fast enough for me. How does yours compare?

If you manage to find more powerful / faster struts to raise your tailgate, you may end up finding that the gate will require more effort to close, who knows. And that in turn may become an issue if you have a wife or girlfriend or children who may be operating the tailgate hoping to close it.

If you find your tailgate taking much longer to fully open on its own than the less than 3 seconds that mine did, you may wish to start by just replacing them with a pair of like struts. How many miles do you have on your truck? This may be a warranty covered item. Maybe your OEM struts are just abnormally weak for some reason.

Good luck. Maybe another member here will chime in with better knowledge here of what to do. But if yours is opening on its own within 3 seconds after passing that 10” measurement, I’d call that pretty good and just leave a sleeping dog lay.

 

Thanks. These are the warranty replacements. My' 19 OE struts weren't this bad. It does open, it's just weak and doesn't always go all the way up if it's on an incline or if the window is down a bit.

 

I got a set of Stabilus 3B935963 and it’s supposed to have some valve to improve cold weather action but I haven’t noticed much. It’s an improvement over the factory ones at least but not dramatic.

 

These work very well with some additional weight that is on my hatch.

 

I picked up some MAXPOW heavy duty ones from Amazonp still working perfectly five years later on my 2011.

 

Does anyone know of replacement struts that don’t open as high? Need about 3-4 inches less opening height.

 

less open height? Why?

 

For experiment put window down then open the hatch.
The heavy window down changes the balance point on my 2017 and make the hatch easier to open & close

 

mmmm ok…

 

I think you’ll have to find something meant for a different vehicle with a similarly weighted hatch since those ball joints seem pretty standard (or maybe string in the metal clips to limit movement? but I’m just guessing)

 

Nah just go to the website thay sells these struts and start looking. They list length in the specs. Buy a couple options to test. You got this.

 

Good to know. When mine go I have to remember to look to see if there is a anything a bit shorter. My open hatch hits my garage header. Right now I’m using a bungee cord tied to my molle panels to keep mine from opening all the way, but it’s a pain.

 

https://www.liftsupportsdepot.com/22-52-stabilus-3b-935963-lift-support-3b-935963-w/

This one is 22.52 extended, and the other options they have are 22.56 extended. Don’t have the math skills to figure out how much shorter that translates to at the bottom of the hatch, but it would probably keep it from opening as much.

Gotta wonder if there is any other way to adjust the opening amount…

 

Hits garage door in garage at full open.

 

Well, I just put in Strong Arm 6550's and they seem to fit the bill. Just a bit stronger than stock and slightly longer. Hope they last!

 

Rather than limit the full open height (when you need it away from your garage) perhaps just hang a modest weight from the hand strap?

 

I have 3 4R now, and have owned others.
The older units had a stronger lift gas strut, i suspect this is pressure and valving. I can say from experience, the older units would lift quick but were much harder to close. Almost impossible to do a one-handed swing and close. You pretty much are guaranteed to swing it down then have to reach over the top and push it closed.

Have a friend with a 22, his is about the same as my older ones.

Got a new 23 in October of 23 and its almost effortless in comparison to my others. I can swing it down one handed and slam it closed on one swooft pull. I can only suspect they changed the pressure in the struts or valving or both to try to make it easier to swing and close. I suspect they have complaints over time of people having to do the two-handed swing and push close and they tried to change the struts to allow the rear hatch to close easier. This is only speculation but i have also read many others here that also said their newer ones 23+ were much easier to close than their older models. Mine seems to open just fine, but it is certainly easier to close.

 

Yeah, both my '10 and '19 4Runners had stronger struts than my '23.