I'll be darned. I used to own N9XL from 1986 to late 1992. I really can't make a reasonable answer to your trailer problem. I've not had problems with gas springs. In fact I'm curious about how you can bend one without bottoming out the
piston. Maybe the piston rod got bent sometime while extended. Not by the linear loads, because that would have let the piston work, but by something putting an external load across the rod while extended. This assumes that the ball ends are in use and free.