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

I have no "vested interest". I don't sell Spiker or any other brand, nor do I have one installed. I was born in 1953, and owned my first Toyota in 1972.
Your initial comments seemed to question whether the Tacoma hood had enough structural integrity to support itself if it was being propped open by the Spiker device that attaches midway up the length of the hood vs. the original Tacoma prop-rod that supports the hood from the very top. My reply to you included a picture of the Sokietech device, which attaches to the hood very near the hinge point. Before retiring, I worked in electrical engineering (not mechanical) but it's pretty obvious to me that the opened hood is under much greater stress with the Sokietech than the Spiker or Redline. But after several years, I have seen no reports of hoods crumpling due to the Sokietech.

Sokietech


Spiker

 

He is absolutely trolling. No doubt now with his comments. Anyone who spends time here - especially in 3rd Gen knows this isn't a Toyota Love Fest.

 

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.