HOOD SHOCKS

I am looking for some info. on the hood shock kits that are made I don't have the money to buy the kit sold by 4wd. how ever I am looking for someone that does have them and could tell me how long the shocks are when they are stretched out or the hood is open. If anyone could help it would be very much appreciated.

You mean you want your hood to open like your hatch does?

I am in the midst of doing this right now.
there are a few write up on the net for doing it. but really its pretty straight forward.

I am bolting them upto the hood hinge, I had to cut a slot in the one hole for the shock. One bolt is shared with the hood hinge, and the other slides under the other bolt, and is held down by it.
The problem I am having right now is the ball that the shock mounts too.
I tried just putting it through the sheet metal at the side of the engine bay, but its too thin, and will not be strong enough. So you'll have to make a piece to re-enforce that area.

really just take the design you see online, and make it work with what you have available.

Get the ones from www.redlinetuning.com I've had these on two different Jeeps.

The ones from www.hoodlift.com are shorter and require more leverage to close. I know a couple of guys running these and their hoods have started to buckle.

I used an XJ hatch strut to do mine. I'll try to get some pictures sometime. It's a little stong, and scared me the first time I popped the hood, probably could be adjusted with angle. I attached some angle iron to the hood and the side of the engine bay, and attached the strut with the stock hatch attachments. It helps to have an entire parts jeep

this latch is nice. and alot better than 4wp's...

Many many years ago I added a few pictures showing how to use your old hatch strut to lift the hood. Before the days of even my how to write ups!
http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/Exterior.htm

Go Jeep's write up on it is wonderfull. It's what got me to do mine, rather simple and clean. I didn't follow his exactly (i was a little a lot intoxicated...) I just ended up using two small pieces of angle iron, removing the old hood bar, riveting the angle iron down, and then mouting the shock to it. just remember to double check your measurments a lot. And if i did it again, i wouldn't rivet the angle iron down either, Id use some self tapping sheet metal screws to make it a little stronger. all in all, cost me less than $10. The shock I got from a junkyard 99XJ rear hatch. As far as how long the shock is when it's fully stretched out... I dont remember. Id have to re-measure, or you could just measure your rear hatch shocks.

Thanks for the help guys!!! That helped a lot. I printed out the manual off the Red line/tuning site.