Droopy tailgate with new bike rack.

[Ajspicer]

Since fitting our new bike rack from SMG, the tailgate will not stay up in a horizontal position, in fact it falls to approximately 45 degrees!

Any idea what this could be? I have checked the part numbers on the gas struts and they are the correct ones as suggested in the instruction manual.

It's very annoying to say the least.

Andrew.

 

[SimplyDubs]

Likely to be gas struts have leaked a little over time.... pretty normal unfortunately. VW used to specify uprated struts.

New struts readily available.

I've just put some uprated ones on my T4 from these guys:-

http://www.sgs-engineering.com/car-boot ... ransporter

Around £60 delivered, next day. (you might need to but a nut or bolt to take it over the pre-VAT £50 free delivery.)

2 minute job to replace but it is a 2 man job

Mine are a little fierce on the way up now, but better than being hit in the small of the back by a corner which is what convinced me to change

Rgds
Mark

 

[philcod]

We had the same problem (???) - the struts were changed under warranty but made no difference at all. Uprated struts weren't mentioned at the time. The door raises perfectly when the seats aren't in it - so I guess the struts provided must pretty much be at their performance limit? Good luck in sorting it!!

Phil

 

[briwy]

Ambient temperature seems to make a difference as well.
We have two brandrup awning sides and a comfortz topper in the tailgate as well as the chairs and a Fiamma bike rack. I noticed early Friday morning the tailgate struggled to stay up but on the campsite later it was no problem when the sun had been out a while and warmed things up.

 

[sdes]

Be careful, the struts from SGS are in "standard uprated" form are not even as powerful as the ones fitted as standard on the Cali. They are "uprated" from a standard T5 that doesn't have deck chairs and a double glazed window in the tailgate,

I swapped mine out in preparation for fitting a bike rack and then found the old ones are rated at 1250N, the SGS uprated ones are 1150Newtons, so you are actually taking a 200N step down for the pair. Enough to make the tailgate sag even without any rack on mine anyhow.

Speaking with SGS, the uprated gas springs can be re-gassed to a safe maximum of around 1400N I think, but this is still not sufficient to lift a rack with bikes in place, SGS (very helpful BTW) say its enough to lift the extra weight of the rack, not rack plus bikes. They can gas to specific requirements before despatching.....learn form my error and get them 'tweaked' first.