Good morning all! I am a new owner (2002 3610 U320) and I was trying to find out the best way to purchase the small cylinders that hold open/closed the cabinets. Some of them have lost their "power" and will not hold the cabinets open and let the cabinets rattle while driving. I probably need a dozen or so.
thanks, Old Hippie- a very excited new owner.
Welcome to the forum!
Those cylinders are also called struts or springlifts. Here's a thread that lists a couple of sources
Cabinet gas pistons (http://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=16909.0)
We buy ours from FOT when we're in Nac for service (to save shipping). We've bought some from Encore and unfortunately the ones we got seem to be much stiffer than needed and caused problems with the cabinet mounting points.
Michelle
I got my replacements from encore. You are right about the stiffness. What I did was replace one instead of both cylinders.
We recently bought several while at FOT. Fast, easy, and the right part for the application.
Old Hippie - Maybe a bit off topic, welcome aboard.
Seeing you are a new Foretravel owner, I thought you might like to know that you can let Foretravel know that you are a new owner and they will enroll you in the Motorcaders Club for free for one year, at least they use to. That gets you a 10% discount at Foretravel Parts Department. Foretravel Conversions : A Division of Foretravel Motorcoach (http://www.foretravel.com/inc/motorcade-page.php?&id=31) . They put a really flashy quarterly magazine.
Just picked up 4 Suspa 15# at FOT in Feb. at $12.84 ea. less 10% Motorcade.
Heads' up - don't know how long it's good for, but Steve just noticed FOT has a Buddy Rally special on the Suspa cabinet struts, $9.85 apiece. We ordered some.
Foretravel Texas - Parts (http://www.foretraveloftexas.com/parts.php)
If you call Encore RV you may find out their price is lower. It was cheaper @ Encore last May when I purchased a few from them.
when you get a good buy, get a bunch of them,
they have a 100% failure rate.
That's funny, Wayne. I bought replacements for all the cabinets last year. Ended up using only 1/2 of the total purchased. Turns out that replacing only one side is good enough. So I have another 15 year supply. I'm good to go... :P
We had issues with the stiffness of the ones from Encore and would not recommend them. The ones we bought caused the mounting to pull out/damage the cabinet interior. Sure, you could put just one on, but then you're applying uneven stress to the hinges; I'm not comfortable doing that with our coach. With the sale, FOT is very competitive on the struts.
Michelle
Hi Folks:
When we picked up our coach at MOT I got a half dozen there, about the same price as FOT.
Having made custom furniture for several years I agree with Michelle.
Norm