I have a Komet trailer whose top will barely stay up in cold weather. I
know, I need to replace the gas struts. I figure winter is a good time to
do this since the struts expand with less force when cold.

To get the trailer open with less effort, try making a tube around the cold
struts with plastic sheet and duct tape and then direct hot air from a hair
dryer through the tubes to heat the struts.

Here's a trick I've used to replace smaller struts; compress them with a
drill press and lock the spindle to hold the strut compressed. Use safety
wire to secure the strut at the compressed length - don't put the wire
through the mounting holes. Bolt the strut in place and then cut the safety
wire. The same proceedure can be used to safely remove the old struts. Be
careful, there's a lot of energy in a compressed strut.

Whenever I'm faced with an OEM part replacement, I look around to see if the
money could be better spent on an upgrade. One thing that caught my eye is
the 12V electric ball screws that boat people use to open hatches. These
things are often on E-bay for less than $100. A pair of them could easily
open the Komet top. How cool would it be to open a trailer by just pushing
a button.

Bill Daniels


wrote in message
ups.com...
Thanks for all the input. I like the move to a warmer part of the
country.

They are the square struts and seem to work well when it's warmer and
stay up without any indication of falling.

We need to open them when it's cold to do some work so we can fly when
it's warmer.

Bob


On Dec 4, 4:39 pm, Tony Verhulst wrote:
wrote:
My Cobra trailer is difficult to open and close in colder weather. It
seems to be with the struts. Any suggestions?On the other side of the
coin.... I had a strut fail last season on my
almost 20 year old Komet trailer. Fortunately, the shell was not open
with the glider partially removed at the time. That would have been bad.
I simply showed up one morning and the shell was VERY difficult to raise
and would not stay up.

Tony V.