That's exactly the kind of more detailed thinking that we need. Thanks for putting it up, Rick. Before anybody even thinks of going anywhere with the idea, we need a lot more of this. I'll make a few more sketches, with your comments in mind, and see if anything looks even a bit do-able. Not that I intend do do anything like it, but it is fun to think about. Yes, I've got to do something about the very high initial lift load for the front shell of my TM. And no, I can't weld either.
It occurred to me that a gas strut arrangement such as we are thinking about would put the strut out in the road grime and weather. I'm not sure that is a good idea ...
Bill
Thanks for the kudos. Road grime is probably not an enormous factor, because the strut rod is fully compressed during travel. But your issue will apply during take-down, any grime or moisture on the rod will be pushed into the seal. If the seal isn't very good, residue ends up in the body. Because TM lift arms are exposed to rain, an oil-filled strut would probably be a bad idea - better stay with nitrogen qas. Except for the case of heavy rain, I think that you could simply wipe them clean as a new step in the lowering process.
Just talking, without looking:
I can imagine a reinforcing plate on the thin steel "L" member which hangs down from the outside front-to-back edge of the TM floor, but that alone would leave the corner of the L-member prone to cracking. The plate is anchored to the floor with only a few screws. The torsion bar hole (within the vertical portion of the present "L" plate) seems to be a kind of "limiting" guide for the horizontal portion near the outside bend of the lift bar.
At build time, each the "L" plate was put onto the torsion bar end before attaching the lift barb. In order to completely
replace the current (thin!) L-plate with something strong enough to handle the additional force from the compressed strut, it would need to have the lift arm removed (so that you could pull the detached plate over the bar end. At that point, you've basically done more than half the work involved to in replacing the torsion bar -- and torsion bar upgrade is a far superior fix. (If you can support the armless shell, and handle the effort to apply initial bar torque, and pay the really high "truck freight" shipping costs for new bars).
I therefore think that replacement (of the thin-walled L plate) makes almost no sense at all. But It could maybe be augmented, on the portion away from the torsion bar hole, by using 2 new parts. In this description, I'm describing the street side front corner:
A new L bar, perhaps 3/16 steel and maybe 1.5" wide, needs to come down from "further back" with the 1.5" edge mostly vertical. There is possibly some overlap with "rear" portion of the current plate: in that case, this L bar is placed along the outside of that plate , and a screw may be used to bolt al the way through to the new "inner" L bar). This is angled, high at the rear and low at the front, so the that the shorter arm of the ""L" sticks out from the TM body to attach the the cylinder end fitting. 45 degrees is optimal for the strut range of motion, but a lower angle is needed - to provide more contact length and area for between the angled outer "L" and the flat-against-the-floor-edge horizontal/vertical bar.
The second new L bar, a plate very similar to the current plate, doesn't need to be that strong (even 1/4" "feels" like overkill for that one). It is mounted like the current plate but further to the rear. They may overlap for some portion, In that case I simply removed the "rear-most screw" of the current plate, put on the new L bar, and then reaplce that screw with a taller one. This is perhaps 10" long, to provide for multiple screws into the bottom corner of the floor. The downwards width may be 3-4", and the "against the floor" width should be the same as the current plate.
The custom plates will cost a lot more than the struts, but I'm a long way from South Dakota - and my HOA would "severely unhappy" if I began assembling open shell supports for a disconnected front shell in my driveway (to do a torsion bar replacement at home).
