Installing the heavy lift struts on the Tune M1 was more challenging than I expected. Installing the struts on the front of the camper was especially hard. I'm happy to share a few tricks that I came up with!
This is what I ended up using to get the struts installed:
The struts arrive fully extended. I was hoping that they would show up held in the retracted position similar to how vehicle struts are sold. Not the case! Because the struts are fully extended, you must raise and lock the camper in the fully open position.
The struts have a small wire that holds the strut onto the ball. You rotate the clip and pull down to remove the wire. You must remove the wire to install or remove the strut! When reinstalling the wire clip, sometimes it will feel like it clipped but in reality it didn't. Make sure you can see the end of the clip protruding from the strut ball!
The rear struts are much easier to install than the front. You are able to stand directly under the struts and use your legs for leverage. The only thing that made the rear strut install easier was using a piece of wood to distribute the pressure over a larger portion of your hand.
The front is much harder to install because you can't get enough leverage to depress the strut. I tried installing them from a ladder and there was no chance. The next thing I tried was from the roof of the camper. No dice! The only thing that worked was to use a strap to hold the struts in a depressed position. Then install them onto the camper.
The strut installation wasn't easy. It was actually pretty hard. You can use the straps for the front and the back to make things significantly easier. I would budget about 90 minutes to do this job! If you would like to watch me install the struts, you can click on the video below!
