Door Struts-Does it matter??????

I did not build my RV-10 but I have owned it for over 7 years now and have made many modifications and upgrades to it. One minor problem has been the door struts. I have purchased the Van's heavy duty ones a couple of times but I fly the airplane a lot and the doors are opened and closed hundreds of times each year. These struts usually work OK when it is warm but in the winter months they start to sag. I am in the replacement mode right now and came to the RV-10 forum and searched for door struts. Nothing recently was posted but going back a few years there is a lot of information and based on that I ordered the Bansbach struts that should be here this week. During this search several people posted pictures of their installations and I couldn't help but notice that one person had the struts positioned one direction (non-movable end on the air frame) and the other person had it position exactly the opposite way. I wondered which way was correct so I got my plans out to investigate. It turns out that the plans show that the non-movable fixed end of the strut should be attached to the air frame and the other end attached to the door. My question is does it really matter and if so why? Just curious.................

Bansbach instructions say "piston rod downwards, to get the best damping effect" (As the rod reaches full open, there should be some damping so it doesn't 'slam' open.) I have no idea what's inside, or why this should be so.

BobTurner said:

Bansbach instructions say "piston rod downwards, to get the best damping effect" (As the rod reaches full open, there should be some damping so it doesn't 'slam' open.) I have no idea what's inside, or why this should be so.

Click to expand...

Not sure I understand that, but I think you are saying the piston rod should be down when the door is up? When my door is closed, the piston rod would be slightly up.

-Marc

That's how I read it. To get the best dampening, the rod end should be down as the door comes full open. (Mine does dampen just prior to full open.)

Really confused???

I asked the question but I am confused about the answers. Is the correct answer that the fixed cylinder part should be attached to the top of the door frame and the other end that extends out from the cylinder should be attached to the door itself?

Cylinder Damping

The cylinder body is attached to the door and the rod extending from the body is attached to the canopy. In this configuration, the last half inch or so of rod extension is slowed so the door doesn't't slam open at the end of the extension stroke.

Paddy said:

The cylinder body is attached to the door and the rod extending from the body is attached to the canopy. In this configuration, the last half inch or so of rod extension is slowed so the door doesn't't slam open at the end of the extension stroke.

Click to expand...

This is how mine are installed and they seem to work fine. I?ve got the 600N versions and maybe my doors are extra heavy, but i dont seem to have an issue of anything slamming open. In fact, when i open the doors, it seems like i need to give them a slight push to get them moving on their own.

"Upside down"

Not an expert but just passing on the learnings...

Having recently replaced several sets of struts on a few different cars, I was informed that a weak point is the seal where the rod extends out from the strut body.
By mounting the struts so that the silver rod is in the lower overall position, the seal is kept lubricated and is less likely to fail.

So that would also line up with Charlie and Paddy's comments...

RV-10 Door Stuts........conclusions

I started this thread some weeks back and gained a lot of insight and as always there was interesting discussion about the issue. From what I have learned, most people have given up on the Van's struts and have switched to one of two different manufactures. Most have gone with the Bansbach "eashlift" but as was mentioned, dealing with their order department can be rather tedious. I ordered the AIAIF50-100-287/600 which is what most others were doing. Mine came with no instructions as to which way they should be installed (cylinder body up or down) but after reading how other did it, there seems to be no real consensus as to which way is correct. That was my original question, does it make a difference? Some have installed them one way and others have installed them the opposite direction, both seem to be satisfied with the way they work. Paul McVitty wrote that he was told that the seal that the rod goes through is the place that the struts normally fail and that the strut should be installed with the rod down to keep it lubricated. If you look at the pictures that I took during the installation of the new struts the rod is slightly tilted down at about a 3 degree angle when the door is closed. Since the door is closed 99.9 % of the time when the aircraft is in the hanger or it is in flight, I elected to install mine with the rod end down which is with the body attached to the airframe and the rod attached to the door. One thing that I did observe after I installed the first strut is that the Van's are about 3/4 of an inch longer, mounting hole to mounting hole. What this is means is that when the door is fully open with the Van's strut, the bottom of the door which is now up in the air is about 3 inches higher than when using the Bansbach strut. This can been seen in the pictures at:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/FUiYvr9YKveiQzMn9

When this picture was taken the copilots door had been replace with the Bansbach but the pilot door still had the vans strut, the difference is noticeable but not striking. The other pictures also show that the body of the Bansbach strut is considerably larger than the Van's, I hope that leads to longevity. There is no question that they are a lot cheaper than the Van's heavy duty struts, I hope they last longer!

DJP said:

One thing that I did observe after I installed the first strut is that the Van's are about 3/4 of an inch longer, mounting hole to mounting hole. What this is means is that when the door is fully open with the Van's strut, the bottom of the door which is now up in the air is about 3 inches higher than when using the Bansbach strut. This can been seen in the pictures at:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/FUiYvr9YKveiQzMn9

Click to expand...

My guess is that on the Bansbach strut, your overall length is less than the OAL of the Van's strut due to the shorter ends. If you have either the A1 (20 mm) or E2 (23 mm) M8 ends, they are shorter each than the B1 M8 (25mm), making about 1/2" shorter OAL, leading to the door hanging down a bit.

DJP -
What did you use for your headliner and how did it attach? Looks very nice.

Headliner

Like I said in my very first post, I did NOT build the airplane although I have rebuilt or replaced just about everything in it at this point in time. One thing that is still the same as when I bought it is the headliner. It is some kind of very course material that he obviously used a contact cement on. It has held up well and as you say looks good except under the front windshield. I will be taking my airplane into annual next Monday and plan to address that issue for the first time in about seven years, everything else has been replaced or updated. New paint, new panel!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/rKdFNW7AkoAkSXy4A