Spiker Engineering High lift hood struts for the 3rd Gen Tacoma

I answered the one technical question you asked (load carrying ability of the hardware). I said it has a factor of safety of 8. As you no doubt know, that is significantly higher than most things in your plane, where the consequence of a failure is slightly higher than a hood strut coming loose.

As to some of your other points:

The hood sheetmetal is thick enough to support the applied loads, with about 3X safety factor for yield strength. The struts do not apply an upward load to the hood stiffener, the load is applied mostly along the length of the hood stiffener. So no, you will not see the hood bulge up due to the strut extension force. As @DES2009 correctly pointed out, some other hood strut systems place significant loads into the hood itself; our design does not.

Spiker's engineers do know the piston force and the torque imposed on the hood, that's how you design a hood strut system.

The piston force is indeed highest in the compressed state. That is also the state where the force is applied almost entirely along the hood stiffener, reducing concerns about hood bending.

The underside of the Tundra and Lexus hoods are very similar to the Tacoma. The reason that some trucks have struts and some don't is not some technical feature or lack thereof, but cost.

No one will warranty your truck for consequential damage using their products. Read the warranty of any aftermarket product, they will all say that only the product itself is warranted. No one can control how you install their product or how you use it, so if you flip a lifted truck or fry your electrical system after adding a fuse box, that's on you.

It is indeed. I have 35 years of mechanical engineering experience with aerospace actuators and fastening systems, so I am happy to talk technical aspects all day long. I have no concerns about this product, or I would never bring it to market.

As you can see from the responses, no one has had any issues with it - that's not being "defensive", that's data.

 

Very odd a new member starts in a vendor upgrade thread with so many long posts. The person may be from a competing company and made a bogus member profile. If they knew so much to say if was not engineered correctly, they never offered an alternative bracket or method of install. Very odd but only my opinion.

I personally do not see any issues with the Spiker hood struts or the great support that is available for them. I highly recommend these first before adding lights, harnesses, extra batteries etc. If mine break after warranty I'll buy another set the same day!

 

FWIW I stumbled across this thread and wanted to say that I'm a very satisfied customer of these hood struts.

I installed them at the max height I could because I hit my head a few months ago while putting on a K&N filter and got pissed so bought these. They're great! So easy to open and close the hood now. I took my time, measured constantly, put the brackets at the correct spots, sprayed primer on the holes I drilled, everything worked perfectly the first time. Installation took me about three hours and two beers but I was moving slowly and reading the instructions over and over.

 

Well since he went back and deleted his posts, I re-quoted the relevant portions of his original posts to put my responses in context.

 

Rangerider completely gone.

No posts found...

 

Why am I not surprised?

 

Sept Update. No issues, probably pop my hood once a week or more, checking, cleaning, thinking of a mods. No rust, farts, pops, bending or Chevy hood doubling over.

 

Good to hear, thanks for the update! Should be good for many years to come

 

Count me in as another satisfied customer. Easy installation, clear instructions and available YouTube videos. What really surprised me is the intense feeling of satisfaction I get everytime I unlock the safety latch and watch the hood float up into that high lift position. Thanks Spiker & Leon for the great mod and the attentive customer service.

 

Installed this kit a few months back. And I love it! I took advantage of the max opening height. Now I am considering adding ditch lights. Are there any ditch light brackets that will work with the max opening height without hitting the windshield?

 

We don't keep a list of what ditch lights work with the higher lift, but look for something that is low profile (thickness). Many ditch lights use brackets that are adjustable fore/aft, so you can bias them as far forward as needed (usually).

 

Thank you. I will keep looking.

 

This is nice. Gotta order one

 

I've had mine one for about 7-8 months. I open/close my hood on average of at least 4 times a week, every week. I open/close the hood from the sides, from the middle, with one or both hands. I even drilled one of the mounting holes in the wrong area, where it wouldn't allow the hood to close. Absolutely ZERO issues. I even had 3 other friends buy the kit.

2nd best money I spent, after rubber bed mat, on the truck.

 

Thanks for that feedback and vote of confidence. BTW, in the past few months, we've upgraded our lineup to the ULTIMATE Lift hood struts, which can raise the hood by up to 8" above stock height - https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...timate-lift-hood-struts-now-available.689163/

 

Oops! Did i post in the wrong thread?

 

No worries, this works just fine! Our webpage only has the newer models available, so there should be no confusion .

 

Just got the set today! Shipping tube packaging is a real PLUS!

I pulled out the install instructions and read them. (Not something a guy does, but "Oh Well"). Looks straight forward. I think I'll go with +3 inch hood lift. Decisions .... Decisions....

Might get them installed tomorrow. It's supposed to be nice weather.

 

It is straightforward enough, just take your time and follow the instructions . Nice weather definitely helps, but we've had customers with enough dedication to install the kit in the middle of winter, outdoors, in Alaska .

 

Install went very smoothly.

I used a windshield snow brush /scraper to set the lift height.

Having Clecos (temporary sheet fasteners) really made for trouble free drilling process. Having all the tools from a previous career as an aviation mechanic never hurts ;-)
I couldn't have any less than 100 #10 split point drill bits in my box ;-)

The hood goes up with a light touch, and stays up! Just like it was made that way.

I didn't need the spacers for the clutch Reservoir. I should have looked before ordering, but it was late, and dark outside when the order was placed.;-)

Thanks for the good product!