Engineering help needed for camper

[Willc]

As many of you know I purchased this camper from a board member. With the height and the tongue and rear box, it is a bit hard to open by yourself. Well I had one hand near the hinge last week and it decided to close on its own. With one torn distal tendon and surgery I am one-armed for the next 12 weeks...
So I found these campers that open the same way and have talked to the company and they have agreed to sell me the struts to assist in opening. My questions are about mounting the struts at the proper angles. It appears to be close to 45 degrees but I can not get that much on the other side of the camper because of the rounded nose.
I also have the

gas strut numbers that no one can match up other than the force which they say is 180 pounds, the top at 45 degrees is about 50 pounds measured the best I could with a scale.
So will the angle need to be close as I can get it to 45 degrees?
Will one provide enough lift or do I need to double the force if I can use two?
Can anyone decode these numbers? If I use MM it seems small for the compressed length.
Video of how they would work and pics of camper and strut below
Thank you

âï¸ demo

15 seconds · Clipped by Willcouick · Original video "OPUS OP4 Set Up Video" by Set Up Camp

youtube.com

 

[Bebop]

No matter what, double it to have a symmetrical force pushing on each side and it won't get cocked sideways during opening.

That also offers some kind of redundancy, in case you have one strut that shits the bed, it'll still be easier to open than doing it all by hand.

 

[snipes243]

IF you take the sticker off I bet the oem part number is underneath. There is only a handful companies making them. Like stabilus, suspa, ACE, and the china knock offs. And the resellers are notorious for covering up the part #'s.

But in general to match it up to another one all you need the following.

Force which is 180 foot-pound or 245 newton/meters
Overall length ball socket to ball socket generally in MM
Compressed length generally in MM

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

As for mounting you always want the body or tube side up when its in the compressed state. As for angle if I remember correctly you the top ball socket to be about 1/3 the way up from your pivot point. The more angle the better, But you can make up the angle by changing the force. But its been a while so here are some better info. I

Gas spring calculator: calculate your own gas strut | Gasspringsshop.com

Gas spring calculator: Calculate and own gas strut (including mounting parts) ✅ online gas spring calculator ✅ Good quality & fast delivery in USA.

www.gasspringsshop.com

Gas Springs Online Calculation | ACE Controls Inc.

ACE Smart Sizing: ACE Online-Tool for Gas Spring Sizing. Calculate and order your perfect product.

www.acecontrols.com

I will be honest when I worked there I just used the computer model, Then adjusted the mounting location to accommodate.

 

[WARRIORWELDING]

Make it simple, buy the longest one you can fit with the most stroke. This will net the most triangulated length you can manage once worked out. The closer to the vertical position with some compression will better force but the long lever of the platform cancels some of the benefit.

I'd more worry about what the strut mounts to. Plan the strut strength around this factor. I've never saw a situation more aggravating then the mount be far weaker then the needed strut force.

If you want more initial lift help less angle. If you want the help when it get higher and awkward more angle. As the platform lifts the arc of the strut changes as does the force applied in a given direction.

 

[CasterTroy]

As the platform lifts the arc of the strut changes as does the force applied in a given direction.

the angle of the dangle is inversely proportional to the heat of the meat, provided that the maxis of the axis, and the gravity of the cavity, remain constant.

 

[Willc]

so if the angle is 30 instead of 45 equals more lifting force at the bottom. mounting will bein a three-bolt flinch plate design to spread the load

 

[WARRIORWELDING]

so if the angle is 30 instead of 45 equals more lifting force at the bottom. mounting will bein a three-bolt flinch plate design to spread the load

Think of it this way. If you push straight up anywhere on the frame all that force goes toward lift. If you push at any angle some of that force goes out rather than up. The reverse of the push is loaded in the pivot point soooo....we used struts for all sorts of applications. We could get holding force to keep a pull out tray shut, and aid in it's extension on the other side of a pivot point.
When needing really long strokes we would mount them back to back connected by a tube. Now we netted 24 or more inches of travel. We built some pull out trays that extended 3 or 4 feet from a cross lay cabinet.

Just like a shock or coil-over more angle equals less straight line force applied in perpendicular planes when working off a pivot point.

 

[Willc]

Well the struts from the other company didn't work so me and @Buddy Holly figured out something.