Transom fish box rod (holds lid open)

[Bodick93]

Good morning all! Would one of you fine folks take a picture of the rod/ram/cylinder that holds the fish box lid open? It may be present on later model boats with the walk through transom. My '19 2320 relied on 2 Gemlux hinges to hold that heavy lid, and failed .5 seconds after I bought the boat. I am looking for any distinguishing marks to if you see them.

Thank you!

 

[warthog5]

For that.... A Lot of boats had a heavy spring. Open the lid and the spring strengthened out and held it open. Push on the middle of the spring while closing the lid....Spring would fold in half and tuck away.

 

[Andy]

Good morning all! Would one of you fine folks take a picture of the rod/ram/cylinder that holds the fish box lid open? It may be present on later model boats with the walk through transom. My '19 2320 relied on 2 Gemlux hinges to hold that heavy lid, and failed .5 seconds after I bought the boat. I am looking for any distinguishing marks to if you see them.

Thank you!

Here's ours. The screws came loose, so I replaced them with thru-bolts.


Starting at 1:50 in this video, you can see the, to me, necessary bolts, replacing the screws.

 

[Bodick93]

Andy, thank you. That is exactly what I'm looking for. I want to move to a 23 SE, and I need to upgrade this.
Love the storage for the rod holder outriggers.

I had a spring holding a hatch on my Seapro. Works great until you inadvertently hit the spring with something. It was guests most of the time, and the hatch would slam. No more springs for me.

 

[Andy]

Andy, thank you. That is exactly what I'm looking for. I want to move to a 23 SE, and I need to upgrade this.
Love the storage for the rod holder outriggers.

I had a spring holding a hatch on my Seapro. Works great until you inadvertently hit the spring with something. It was guests most of the time, and the hatch would slam. No more springs for me.

Thanks! It took me awhile to find a place to store the rod-holders... I had the spring hatch holders on a previous boat; they worked good on some of the hatches but as you mentioned, on some they got bumped a lot and dropped the hatch on my head! ☺

 

[Bodick93]

Andy, I just ran across a video when I was trying to figure out how long the gas struts need to be. Yours MAY be upside down. Last night I checked my Diamondback tonneau cover. Per the video below, I had two of them correct and two of them upside down (rod up). When I flipped them they acted totally different, for the better. They dampened the action all the way up (after I flipped them), also as indicated in the video. News to me.

 

[southofblock]

If needed, the OEM gas springs are available at:

https://industrialhardwaredirect.com/product/lgp6s-150-30/

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[Andy]

Andy, I just ran across a video when I was trying to figure out how long the gas struts need to be. Yours MAY be upside down. Last night I checked my Diamondback tonneau cover. Per the video below, I had two of them correct and two of them upside down (rod up). When I flipped them they acted totally different, for the better. They dampened the action all the way up (after I flipped them), also as indicated in the video. News to me.

According to this video, my strut 'IS' upside down!☺. The way it is shown in the video, is how Parker installed it at the factory (other than me adding bolts where Parker used screws on the upper bracket). I have not experienced the potential problems that the person in the video talked about with this strut, but I HAVE had issues with the strut that holds the 'lid' of the 'dash' leading down into the cuddy-cabin. AND, that strut IS installed 'correctly' according to the video; rod-down.. Like I mentioned in the video, I was unable to remove the lower bracket as it is not only screwed in place, but also 'glued' with something; likely 5200?? So, I will not be able to switch it, to see if it works better when installed correctly. I will trying switching the one on the cuddy-cabin 'lid' to see if it works better. EDIT; I guess not, as it is supposedly installed correctly?

 

[Bodick93]

Apparently a lot of them are installed with a 10mm ball and socket to facilitate replacement. Sort of a spring loaded, pop- on,pop- off deal. I don't have anything right now but the friction hinges, and they are not up to the task. Going with a pair of TaylorMades. I want to through-bolt and it will be really tough to get to the back, so I'm putting a weaker one on each side. Thanks again for y'all's input.

 

[Andy]

Andy, I just ran across a video when I was trying to figure out how long the gas struts need to be. Yours MAY be upside down. Last night I checked my Diamondback tonneau cover. Per the video below, I had two of them correct and two of them upside down (rod up). When I flipped them they acted totally different, for the better. They dampened the action all the way up (after I flipped them), also as indicated in the video. News to me.

Apparently a lot of them are installed with a 10mm ball and socket to facilitate replacement. Sort of a spring loaded, pop- on,pop- off deal. I don't have anything right now but the friction hinges, and they are not up to the task. Going with a pair of TaylorMades. I want to through-bolt and it will be really tough to get to the back, so I'm putting a weaker one on each side. Thanks again for y'all's input.

It's none of my business, but I wouldn't buy or install anything made by Taylor-Made. I've had serious issues with a number of their products, and had sometimes comical, yet disastrous 'service' from them on numerous occasions; some of the incidents talked about here at CP.... just an opinion, and like I said, none of my business.

 

[Bodick93]

Dangit, too late. They have great reviews on their gas struts on etrailer, so that's where I bought them.

 

[Bodick93]

I went with two struts instead of one since I have a poly-type lid vs glass. The dang lid hinges are held onto the transom with gotdam screws vs through bolts. They could have gotten to the backside during assembly. SMH.
If these struts go bad, replacements will be cake to install. I went with 20 pounders and they are a little stiff. 10s would be sweet. Either way, the lid is perfectly vertical when open, so it not putting stress on anything. I will have to trim my extra rubber insulation a little to clear the struts. The rubber just lays in there and it made a noticeable difference in ice keeping, and makes the fish box quieter. The long bolts through the rubber just hold the side pieces in place, and aren't in fiberglass.
Now to figure out how to access the backside of the fish box and get the transom side of the hinges through bolted...

 

[Bodick93]

It's none of my business, but I wouldn't buy or install anything made by Taylor-Made. I've had serious issues with a number of their products, and had sometimes comical, yet disastrous 'service' from them on numerous occasions; some of the incidents talked about here at CP.... just an opinion, and like I said, none of my business.

And man, I have to tell you, they had zero interest in helping me figure out how to set these up, which ones to choose, angles, weight rating etc.
This website was the ticket, though I didn't use any of their products:

https://camloc.com/us/help-centre/installing-gas-struts/understanding-gas-strut-mounting-points/