You can easily change out lift supports on your vehicle, toolbox, camping trailer, RV, and more! With the methods and a great supplier DirtFarmer Jay shows you, you’ll save time AND money!
#liftsupports #autorepair #tailgatesupport
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Changing lift struts on your vehicle can seem complicated, but with a bit of know-how, and a quality support supplier, you can easily do this remove and replace - with only a few simple tools.
Lift supports operate because of compressed nitrogen and oil in the cylinder body that exerts extreme pressure on the lifting rod. If you get a lift support, and you can compress it by hand, you’ve got a defective unit. The rod should retract into the support body only when it is loaded with the weight of the liftgate, lid, or hood it is attached to.
You’ll only need a few simple tools to do the job. Gather up a small to medium flat-blade screwdriver, and safety glasses, and you may need needle-nosed pliers if you have “wire-clip” style ball sockets. Some people like to put a spot of high-temperature grease in the ball end as well. Don’t use WD-40!
Of course, you need the correct lift support, and the best quality for the money! Our “go-to” is www.liftsupportsdepot.com. They have a large selection of supports for just about any make or model of vehicle, and supports for RVs, trailers, off-road vehicles, toolboxes, utility access covers, and even changing tables for your baby!
We prefer the Lift Supports Depot line as they are high-quality units, and fairly priced. There are a lot of cheaper Asian units found on Amazon, but they tend to be poor imitations of better gear. You get what you pay for.
Once you have your basic tool kit on hand and the correct supports, the job goes quickly. The basic steps are:
Lift the gate and place a step ladder under it to support it securely. Because the lift supports lift so well, you may well underestimate the weight of the tailgate. Have the ladder take the load as you proceed. Don’t use a single piece of wood or PVC pipe. This is asking for trouble. If you don’t have a ladder, use a strong-armed person to assist!
Take a picture or make a note of which way the lift supports are oriented. The goal is to have the end of the support body that the lift rod comes out of being oriented in a down position when the lid is closed. This is because the oil in the cylinder needs to continually bathe the sealing gasket in the cylinder so it won’t dry out and crack. Having the lift supports installed in the best position will make them last longer!
Remove the support from one side. Do this by inserting the flat blade of the screwdriver behind the u-band that secures the support to the vehicle ball mount. Pry the band back slightly enough to release the support and pull it away from the mount. Repeat the same process on the other end.
Install the new support. No screwdriver is needed. You can simply push the ball end on for “u-band” types. If your unit has a wire clip, you will use the needle-nosed pliers to rotate the clip around to release the end from the ball mount. For further instruction, visit https://www.liftsupportsdepot.com/how-to-remove-the-wire-clip-from-the-ball-socket/ If you want to, you can put a small dab of high-temperature grease inside the end or on the ball mounts. Some lift supports come with a small amount of grease already and others use self-lubricating materials. There has been some report of squeaking when the liftgate is raised and lowered, but we’ve never had that occur, and neither has the Team at LiftSupportDepot.com.
Repeat the process on the other side. If the ball end doesn’t line up with the ball mount on the rod end of the support, simply rotate it until it does.
Remove the ladder, and test the installation.
Smile at the realization you just did this yourself, saved a lot of money, and installed top-notch gear!
Isn’t it great when you can JUST DO IT YOURSELF?
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[Music]
hey dirt fmer J here from dirt fj.com do
you need to change the lift support on
the back of your SUV or maybe the hood
of your car well it's an easier task
than you think you just got to know a
few little things I'll walk you through
[Music]
it hey dirt farmer J from dirtfarmer
j.com one of the repairs that you can do
on your vehicle is replacing the lift
supports now these are sometimes called
struts but struts are also suspension
part so that might be kind of a
confusing term so we just call these
lifts okay lift supports uh I've got
these parts from my friends at lifts
supports
depot.com Lou over there is a friend of
mine and provided me these uh and this
is the second set that we've actually
had for several years uh and the other
ones aren't worn out yet but it was time
to update this video and give you some
feedback that your fellow viewer family
members gave us of just some details
that would be more helpful to you so
we're going to do that and rectify any
of the shortcomings in the first video
if you want to see the first video you
can check it out in the link right above
and take a look at that earlier
treatment same vehicle uh but we're
going to walk you through everything
here and get you on your way to a
successful repair inexpensively so you
only need a few things here to make this
happen number one you need a set of
struts and if you do go to supports
depot.com no they're not paying me to do
this they just have a great interface
there that you can put in your vehicle
year trim package model make you know
who the manufacturer is and they will
perfectly match the right struts or lift
supports let's call them that for uh
your vehicle and so these are the
specified lift supports for our vehicle
here with this hatch pack here the next
thing you're going to need is a small
straight blade ated
screwdriver uh this will help you to
back off the retainer Clips on the ends
of the lift support and uh really simple
tool you should wear some safety glasses
too in case something flies loose and
lets go it's helpful to protect those
peepers of yours and then these supports
that come from lift support Depot lift
supports depot.com they have a really
nice instruction sheet in and there with
some good graphics on it uh that just
help you to understand what you're doing
but we're going to show you what this is
saying and we think we'll lock it into
your memory really quickly the oh one
other thing you see why we got this
ladder here well this ladder is a safety
uh and when we're doing the repair we're
going to put this lad Under The Edge so
that if the lid comes down it lands here
on the ladder and not on me this is a
common
misunderstanding of how heavy these
lifts are we're so used to them being
supported by the lift supports that we
think they're almost weightless or 20 lb
or something no this is um probably 50
60 lbs and if I remove both of the strut
uh support arms over here uh this is
quite heavy so uh we just keep this as a
safety so if this does come down it goes
there and not on top of me don't use
things like a single 2X4 we've seen big
piece of PVC pipe different things that
are really unstable overall step ladder
is the best way to do it this happens to
be a six-footer works really well for
the safety purposes we need here all
right with those simple supplies and the
parts we're ready to go to work let's go
over here and take this lift support off
and show you how easy it is so the end
of the support this is the replacement
one you can see that there's a cavity
here that goes over a ball that's up
here
but to get this to come off when we're
replacing it if you rotate it around
you'll see a clip on the back and you're
going to need to put a screwdriver under
the clip pull that back slightly to
retract the grip on the front that's
holding onto the ball so that you can
pop that off so when you see me reach up
there with a screwdriver that's what I'm
doing all right now we're going to reach
up here we'll take this put it under the
edge here lift that and pop off
there we go and as you can
see only one support's holding it we now
have a ball here and the support is
loose we're now going to repeat down
here do the same thing I'm going to
reach down find the back of the
clip and retract it all right so this is
loose here there is no need to take that
CL completely off matter of fact you
don't want to pull it off it'll probably
spring and go somewhere and that's
especially true when you're putting on
the new lift so we have our old lift out
now something I need to tell you right
away we've had some people um ride into
us and Lou over at lift supports Depot
has had the same thing where people
saying these are defective I can't close
this it should compress no it better not
it's doing an incredible amount of
lifting work as you can see by the
weight of this lift gate and so if you
could actually compress this you have a
defective unit here it's got to be very
strong and you cannot press those
together you need the leverage and the
weight of the gate actually to compress
it so now you're going to take your new
support and we're going to put it right
back in the same orientation now another
tip here if you're going to try to do
both of them at the same time you can if
it's supported um it's a good idea to
take a picture to see which way the
lifts were and let's go ahead and
discuss that very quickly does it go
like this or does it go like that
well mechanically either way it'll work
because it's the right length and it'll
certainly lift the gate but one way is
the correct way for longevity of the
unit and that is whatever the
position uh when the unit is closed or
at rest puts this end near the rod down
that's the correct way why because right
in here is a seal unit that keeps the
oil and the nitrogen everything in this
that provides the pressure contained and
if that seal is not lubricated or kept
wet by the oil inside over time it'll
dry the gas will escape and then this
will get weaker and then you'll have to
replace them sooner but if it is
oriented down most of the time like this
oil in here comes down settles down in
this part here and keeps us lubricated
and moist so keeping that seal uh
functional much longer now it's time to
replace them you don't need a
screwdriver though to back off the clip
because as you press down into the ball
right here uh the the clip will spread a
little bit and then clip back around the
ball that's down here inside the chassis
here and up here before you install it
should you lubricate these or not in the
earlier video you saw me put in a little
bit of high temperature red grease in
there and the some it was on my hand and
sever of you thought that I'd cut myself
originally um was the grease necessary
well uh there's a diversive opinion on
that a lot of the materials now are
nylon and they slip and they're self-
lubricated or some of the manufacturers
have a DOT of grease in
there uh however Lou at lift supports
Depot has said every once in a while
he'll have somebody call and says hey
these are squeaking slightly and uh a
little dab of Grease took care of it
he's never had them squeak and I never
have but it's been reported before so if
you're comfortable want to put a little
dab of grease in there do so but let's
go ahead and install this we're simply
going to orient this over the ball pop
it on here we
go now we're going to take this and
notice that the uh the ball cavity is
facing towards me it's to the wrong side
so now what you do is take this and
rotate it around to where it's lining up
now we're going to go aad and lift this
gate again push this to where it
goes and push it
on there we go one half the job's done
now we'll just step and repeat on the
other
[Music]
side
all right our installation is complete
here literally 5 minutes of work here
just getting those clips retracted
replacing them reorienting the ends and
then putting together well does it work
as you can see it's in the upward
position this is the dampening effect of
there's a valving system in both of the
bodies of these lift supports that push
the gas around so that you get that nice
gentle lift once it's over past Center
and as we close it all the way down then
you can feel it give and the body the
head of that cylinder body is down lower
to keep that seal wet so this is ready
to go easy peasy you know another thing
that people really struggle with and
that is understand what happens when
their low tire pressure light comes on
the tire pressure monitoring system
we'll check out this video where we show
you exactly what to do when that pesky
light turns out and and what you should
be doing about it and then check out
this other video that is from our
catalog that YouTube thinks is perfect
for you and we'd like you to watch it as
well until the next time this is dirt
farmer J from dirtfarmer
j.com
