Hood Support Struts

[A/V1]

Hey guys. I know I've heard others talk about their hood support struts getting weak and have to use a broom stick, vice grips, etc, which is what I've been having to do lately.

I finally got fed up enough and decided to find some aftermarket struts because I wasn't about to pay $55 each for them (online at the stealership), or $100 each at the brick & mortar. So after spending several hours at my local Napa, O'Reilly's, and Autozone, and trying out more than a few different combinations of struts, I came to the conclusion this wasn't gonna be a simple process (no sh!t) LOL!

So after researching on the internet, I did find a manufacturer / distributor for struts for the 4Runner. The place I found is Lift Supports Depot. The struts are made in the USA, and they also sell on Ebay with very fast shipping.

Here I have a hood strut removed & showing how the mounting ball / nipple is built-in.


Here you can see I've used a dremel to split the end to re-use the mounting ball / nipple with the new gas strut.



Then after receiving the new gas strut, I found they included nice shiny new mounting ball / nipples (that's kinda fun to say) in the box. Oh well, I'll hold on to them for a rainy day.

These are the old ones installed since I went through all the trouble...

 

[JB.]

I agree, they work great. Not quite as smooth as OEM but they're strong and that's all I care about.

Customer support is top notch too.

 

[svana]

For what its worth, I just ordered these from Amazon a few days ago, $25 a pop. They haven't come in yet, but I'll let you know as soon as they arrive if they're any good. They almost look the same also if that's of any consequence.

 

[svana]

Well, they came in today and just got them installed. It literally took me less than 10 minutes. I think they're the exact same ones as the OP, they had the same head with easily removable metal bracket, along with the spare nipples. I couldn't get my struts out either, so I just took them off directly from the screws and installed the new ones. My only beef is that the head isn't on a swivel (it's screwed on), so it couldn't just be swung around to fit, I had to unscrew the head half a rotation. But other than that, it was a snap! Now onto the LED replacements...