rear lift door strong arm

I am a tall guy and want the rear door to lift up higher.
When I bought the truck the arms wouldnt lift it up all the way, so I went to the junk yard got replacements, works good. The door can go higher and I want them to go higher. Found some Ford Windstar arms, but they dont grab the screw ball mount on body. Ford Explorers are too short.
I got a 88 cherokee.

Any cheap idea's?

Maybe I could weld a extender piece to the ends.

I don't think the hatch would close if you did that. The extension wouldn't go into the body/tube. If you found longer ones, I'd think you would have to relocate one of the mounting points.

Maybe I'm way off, but that's how it seems to me.

Kujito is right if you make the rams to long then they won't compress fully preventing you from closing the hatch. Plus the hatch also can only go so far before the hinges stop the travel. So if you want the hatch to open higher for height (which i fully understand as i have to duck under my stock DD hatch) then try lifting the jeep about 3 inches.

I was in the same boat for a long time...

then I lifted it and put big tires on it :eyes: That gave it an extra 6" or so from the ground to the roof.

(being able to get under the hatch wasn't the reason I did that but it sure is nice!)

You could use longer struts and move the mounting point, the hinge does have a little more travel than is used. If the new struts have different mounting brackets, get those with them at the junkyard. If you have a sawzall you might even consider cutting out a ~4" diameter chunk of the material at each end of the strut so you can weld/bolt it down if it's not easy to get the new hardware mounted.

When I was eyeballing the situation putting in the used stock arms, I knew lifting it would fix my problem, then I realized as clicked post here that longer ones wouldnt work and I needed to relocated mounting. I will just leave it and lift it later on putting on bigger tires.

you could also use stock size rams and relocate the mounts. Move the door mount closer to the hinge and it'll go higher. Just disconnect a mount, raise the door to the desired hight, and mark the new location for the mount. This will reduce leverage and make the rams seem weaker, so you may want a pair of the heavy-duty rams, which many report are too strong.

just make sure there is enough space for them to close if you do that. I think that was his original idea. You can go as far as the exposed length of ram shaft when the hatches are closed but no further.

kastein said:

just make sure there is enough space for them to close if you do that. I think that was his original idea. You can go as far as the exposed length of ram shaft when the hatches are closed but no further.

Click to expand...

His original idea was longer rams. Moving the upper mounts closer to the hinge won't over compress the rams. They'll compress less, and he could even move the lower mounts up.

Look at the door when it's closed: moving the mounts closer to the hinge extends the ram. Of course he should still check clearances, and not just slam it shut when it's first attached.