Stop Hatch Gates Dropping

The gas struts on my truck bed cap were getting too old and weak to hold the rear window up anymore. Of course they could be replaced, but that costs money. I've seen people prop them up with a broom handle or some such, but I've also bumped that prop and had the window come down on my head. So I thought, why prop the whole window down to the tailgate when I could just prop the gas strut?

You'll need a piece of plastic pipe the length of the exposed rod of the strut when the window is up. Inside diameter at least the size of the rod, but not larger than the barrel.

Now you'll want to cut one side of the pipe away so that it can fit over the strut rod. I used a bandsaw, but use whatever you have that you're comfortable cutting pvc with. As you can see I cut mine to a sort of hourglass shape, at the wide ends the notch is larger than the strut rod, but at the narrow in the middle it's smaller. This means it will actually snap into place over the strut rod and you don't have to worry about it falling out if a gust of wind lifts the window. I also drilled a hole in one end of the pipe so I could tie it to my truck bed with string and keep it from getting lost.