Chris on the Gas Struts
Chris: I have seen a boat with the gas struts, and the owners love them, but let me ask you a few questions. When the pop top is down, how much do you have to lift to get the top to start to move up? I can see how the struts would do the job once the top is on its way up, and the struts have somewhat of a vertical angle, but when the top is the whole way down, I don't see how it can exert much force in the vertical direction. Also, how much stress is on the pop top when it is in the down position? Does it twist the pop top from its normal position? Relative to the dogs, did you get "dog catchers" from CD? If you did, what are they made out of? I have the 2 dogs on the pop top, and 2 more that I installed onto the front hatch, and I made some dog catchers out of velcro for the front hatch, but the self stick adhesive is having truoble sticking to the fiberglass of the underside of the hatch. It would be handy to have the dogs stay out of the way until the hatches are lowered. Thanks, Aldo