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G3 strut replacement for towers with a pair of Rev-10


wdr

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I was told by the dealer that replacing the oem struts on the G3 with Rev -10s would be kind of a waste of money as the Revs are too heavy even for the upgraded struts. Real world observations?

There are two dual shock/strut upgrade options, the "heaviest" is the 2x 275 lb option (measuring the strength of the shock/strut). I have 4x 8" HLCDs at ~12 lbs/ea plus 4x Skylon Shocker (triple) board racks, and the CS bimini. The tower needs a little help, but is just fine with the 2x 275lb units.

No matter what shock/strut you put in the tower it will probably need some help to align for tightening the knobs/clamps.

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I was told by the dealer that replacing the oem struts on the G3 with Rev -10s would be kind of a waste of money as the Revs are too heavy even for the upgraded struts. Real world observations?

4 Exile xm9's on my g3.2 with heavy duty struts and it works great. The standard strut will not be enough to support tower speakers.

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Maybe the cost of each strut will help you decide. I had one heavy duty strut fail and the replacement part from the dealer was $171.00 plus tax. With only one heavy duty strut working, the tower would not remain up and made it near impossible to raise and screw in the knobs without assistance. The part number on the stock strut was vage and I could not find the manufacturer to buypass the dealer.

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You can't by pass the dealer in this case. I did the research and found the company and they said that "they would only sell the struts to Malibu". Anyway I just called the dealer and ordered the 275s. Thanks for the price update, when I actually go to pay for it the sticker shock won't be so bad now!

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  • 4 months later...

An update to this earlier post. I finally replaced the original (215 lb) G3 struts with the 275 lb struts from the dealer. My original set up was the 4 Alpha cans on the factory shelves. Even on a good day the 215s were barely able to lower the tower with out it slamming down. I upgraded to 2 Rev-10s on the dual mounts and the tower would come screaming down if I let it. Not an easy task to lower it even with 2 people involved. Tools involved were a 3/16 Allen wrench for the upper heim joint pivot points and a #2 Phillips head screw driver for the upper plate screws and lower the heim joint pivot pins screws. With the tower up and secured, remove the upper plate screws, the Allen pivot screws can be left untouched, at least on mine. With help I lowered the tower onto my tower pedestal I use for backing into the garage so I could work the lower parts.The lower pivot pin screws are removed and I smacked out the pivot pins with the end of the screw driver so as not to mar the black crinkle finish. The lower pivot points are splined, so treat them accordingly. I could remove my factory struts w/o removing the heim joints. For the reinstall I could only get the bottom heim joints on the new struts then I had to insert the strut rod up through the tower base and then install the lower heim joints with the pivot pins and screws. I had to repeatedly lower and raise the tower, screwing the upper heim joints out until the joint holes would line up with the opposed pivot pin holes drilled into the tower. I the reinstalled the upper plates. The tower would not fully set in to the tower base with the heimjoints screwed out to line up with the holes, so I raised the tower unsupported with a piece of wood under one of the bases to unload the struts as much as possible and using a rag wrapped around the strut rod screwed the struts into the heim joints until they stopped. Yep, not a good idea to go metal on metal on a strut, but the exposed ends don't retracted in to cartridge so I felt safe doing it. You notice I said "I didn't support the tower"! I am now at the other extreme. Even with 2 Revs and associated parts on the tower it comes screaming up into place. I actually have to pull the thing down onto my base and I now going to have to ratchet strap it to the floor if I want to back into my garage by myself, which a scary proposition now. There are worse problems to have I guess! :)

Edited by wdr
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If a pair of the 275's is too much lifting force, you can run one 275 on one side and a 215 on the other side to get it just right. I only know this because I had a pair of the 275's that also would stand the tower up by itself with one pair of Exile XM9's. Then one of them started to die and it was just right for a while. Then it completely died and now needs replaced. :lol:

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I briefly thought about using just one but figured it would die pretty quick and be a bear to get the knobs screwed in due to misalignment. Just one more thing for the wife to complain about. Too bad it wouldn't end up something like "this tower is really p---ing me off, lets get a new boat"! :)

Edited by wdr
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I had a strut fail last season, they are definitely not bulletproof. I have 4 xm9's on my tower and bimini and it's about the perfect weight to allow it to come down slowly and stay stowed once collapsed. I did request heavy duty struts when ordered, assuming they put the strongest resistance struts available. Are they stamped or labeled anywhere to identify the model number?

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If you look on the strut you will see all of the manufacturers part numbers and such and at the end you will see the strut weight. My OEMs said 215 and the new ones say 275. I got the impression from the dealer that there was another strut weight in the middle. When I first put these on I was kind of disappointed that they were so aggressive. Then on hind sight I remembered that when new the original struts worked pretty well with 4 Alpha cans then became progressively whimper over the years. The extra weight of the Revs had nothing to do with the struts dying, just a strut being a strut I guess. I can confidently say that because the tower always stays up in the secured position (struts unloaded) except when I put it in the garage, which is raised and secure when not in use as well meaning no load at all 99.9% of the time I have owned it since new. Getting back to my point, the 275s will probably need Viagra or replaced in a couple years as well so I will hope the 275s will last longer than a less aggressive strut that I could of bought.

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In my wife's opinion it "would definately look better"! She really liked the look of the 4 Alphas. As it stands the 2 Revs can be brutally loud even sitting in the drivers seat listening to them. I can't imagine what a 2 sets would be like, but it would balance the looks of the tower better.

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Yep about $175ish. The parts guy looked at the original cost of $200 and said let me get you the discount which came to about 175-178 or so IIRC. Of course that could of been because my final total was hovering at $600 at that point. I ordered a new upper dash pad and it was almost $200 alone.

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