Gas Shocks / Struts

[Portable Welder]

I have a customer that has a rack on top of his horse trailer to haul his hay when He's on a riding trip, unfortunately He's tired of the hay getting wet and wants me to build a 15" tall cover that is 90" wide by 80.5" long that hinges on the front and latches down in the back, I also have the exact weight of this lid.

So I want to use 2 gas shocks / struts to hold the cover open like the modern day hatch backs have on a car.

My problem is trying to find a company that will tell me the length of the gas shock I need and where to mount the shock in reference to the hinge.

I'm willing to pay for the gas struts and for a engineering and cant find anyone !!!
Any ideas

 

[michiganbuck]

there are a number on eBay with weight noted.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1311&_nkw=gas+struts&_sacat=0


I don't know beans about them

 

[Portable Welder]

Thanks Michigan Buck, the weight opposite side of the hinges would be 61.41 lbs.
But what would it be when located 10" or so away from the hinge is what I dont know how to calculate.

 

[michiganbuck]

Should be some math guys here to figure that out. After finals in mid-May I will ask my grandson who is a math wiz, if nobody here gives the answer.

You could make a mock cover and home weight scale the weight at 10".

 

[DDoug]

I have a customer that has a rack on top of his horse trailer to haul his hay when He's on a riding trip, unfortunately He's tired of the hay getting wet and wants me to build a 15" tall cover that is 90" wide by 80.5" long that hinges on the front and latches down in the back, I also have the exact weight of this lid.

So I want to use 2 gas shocks / struts to hold the cover open like the modern day hatch backs have on a car.

My problem is trying to find a company that will tell me the length of the gas shock I need and where to mount the shock in reference to the hinge.

I'm willing to pay for the gas struts and for a engineering and cant find anyone !!!
Any ideas

Looking at a "Tarping system" for a dump truck might be easier to accomplish.
"Buyers" comes to mind.
Please Wait... | Cloudflare

 

[Portable Welder]

diggerdoug, I thought the same thing, I through out a $ 6,000.00 number to scare him away, but rich guys with horses want what they want.

 

[atomarc]

I've got a big box of gas springs I've collected over the years from attempts to 'get it right' on various projects..it's a tough one to do right out of the box as there are quite a few variables. McMaster-Carr sells gas springs and has a pretty good engineering page to help you select the proper one.

Stuart

 

[DDoug]

diggerdoug, I thought the same thing, I through out a $ 6,000.00 number to scare him away, but rich guys with horses want what they want.

Yes, when the local weld shop was fixing a "Bloomers" horse trailer, and they told me the price of said trailer was $260k, I understand where you are coming from.

Could you use the Buyers motor/gearbox to doo the lifting and swinging of the hard cover your working with ?
"Pushbutton Access" would really be a improvement eh ?

 

[D Nelson]

You can change the leverage quite a bit by getting closer or farther from the hinge and the length of the lever you use.
Don


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[Portable Welder]

Atomarc, I sent my customer a break down of of material and labor, I also let him know that I'm not an expert on gas springs.
I also let him know I'm not an expert and there's a possibility that we might have to buy more shocks as well as my labor.

Car companies spend millions on engineering over a 3 year period to build things like this and a small guy like me is supposed to have it done the right way the first time !!!
diggerdoug, I haven't researched the power unit !

D Nelson I'm really hoping to get the springs right the first time..., but will make the mounting plate area big enough to move the pivot points around a little.

 

[dalmatiangirl61]

Build a mock up of 1 side of the cover with mounting holes every inch of length on the stationary and moveable side, this will allow you to test different lengths and weight capacities of different struts.

 

[Fabworks]

I saw a youtube video where a guy designed his own tilting trailer for a 10' wide catamaran. He used gas springs to raise and lower it. He said he called "Easylift" to determine what springs he needed and they calculated what would work.

Here is a link for a site for "Easylift" that makes gas springs/struts.

Gas springs and More! | Bansbach Easylift of North America, Inc.

Here is the video of the boat trailer

F20c Tilt - YouTube

 

[triumph406]

Atomarc, I sent my customer a break down of of material and labor, I also let him know that I'm not an expert on gas springs.
I also let him know I'm not an expert and there's a possibility that we might have to buy more shocks as well as my labor.

Car companies spend millions on engineering over a 3 year period to build things like this and a small guy like me is supposed to have it done the right way the first time !!!
diggerdoug, I haven't researched the power unit !

D Nelson I'm really hoping to get the springs right the first time..., but will make the mounting plate area big enough to move the pivot points around a little.

Don't delude your self thinking car companies spend millions getting the right gas strut and it's location to hold up a hood or trunk.

Find a car with a hood held up with gas struts, measure the relative locations of the hood hinge, the gas strut locations and start from there.

Do some simple math to figure out where to start with the gas strut. Likely you'll get the first iteration wrong, and if you get lucky you may only have to buy one more set of struts.

Try and find a length of strut that has the most range of strut forces.

 

[Conrad Hoffman]

Use a bit more spring than you need. They tend to weaken over the years and you don't want to replace them every 6 months because the cover slowly comes down. There are various rules about orientation and using them periodically too. Some useful stuff here- https://www.suspa.com/downloads/SUSPA_Series16.pdf

 

[triumph406]

Guden Gas Spring Selector

Gas strut mounting positions - Camloc US

 

[D Nelson]

Atomarc, I sent my customer a break down of of material and labor, I also let him know that I'm not an expert on gas springs.
I also let him know I'm not an expert and there's a possibility that we might have to buy more shocks as well as my labor.

Car companies spend millions on engineering over a 3 year period to build things like this and a small guy like me is supposed to have it done the right way the first time !!!
diggerdoug, I haven't researched the power unit !

D Nelson I'm really hoping to get the springs right the first time..., but will make the mounting plate area big enough to move the pivot points around a little.

And then add a couple holes so when it gets older you can move it and get more strength
Don


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[Scottl]

Thanks Michigan Buck, the weight opposite side of the hinges would be 61.41 lbs.
But what would it be when located 10" or so away from the hinge is what I dont know how to calculate.

It's a lever. Calculate torque as: 61.41 pounds on the full length with 10" on the other side of the fulcrum. Doesn't matter if the short portion is on opposite side of the fulcrum, same side of the fulcrum, or 90 degrees (a bell crank) force is the same.

Calculate inch pounds for the full length and then divide that by the short length to get pounds of force at that point.

 

[52 Ford]

diggerdoug, I thought the same thing, I through out a $ 6,000.00 number to scare him away, but rich guys with horses want what they want.

I worked on a horse farm when I was younger. The guy met his (future) wife at some horse class "thing" at a college. Skipping to the end of the story - he ended up buying land and building a HUGE horse barn. Roughly 10,000 square feet. It has a full blown apartment in it for someone to stay and take care of the horses. Anyway, he got married.

Nice people.


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[atomarc]

Not knowing all the details..I wouldn't start fabbing until I 'grocked' other ideas such as, linear slides to slide the top away from the hay bales or 12 volt linear actuators that lift the top at the touch of a button, or even the Buyers tarp motor that Digger mentions (which I just used on a job) to drag the hay bales out from under the cover and off the end of the trailer to the waiting arms of the horsey person. Lots of options.

Stuart

 

[52 Ford]

Not knowing all the details..I wouldn't start fabbing until I 'grocked' other ideas such as, linear slides to slide the top away from the hay bales or 12 volt linear actuators that lift the top at the touch of a button, or even the Buyers tarp motor that Digger mentions (which I just used on a job) to drag the hay bales out from under the cover and off the end of the trailer to the waiting arms of the horsey person. Lots of options.

Stuart


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Off Topic: did you pick your name based off the ESAB welding electrodes?

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