Has anyone ever used hydraulic door closers for pop-top or bed lifts?

[KeyserSoSay]

(* I posted this same thread in the camper van forum, then thought I'd like to run this by you guys over here who might not see that forum as much.. I hope that is not taboo or against site rules.)
`
So they are remodeling my office a bit and I found one of those hydraulic door closers sitting in the coffee room. I started fiddling with it and realized there is a lot of maintenance-free stored energy in a small and easily/sturdily attached package. The one I have here has two 3/8" square drive attachments meaning you could easily build and attach whatever type of swing arm you want and they could be damn sturdy, and the return weight and speed are adjustable. I did a little googleing and found that these are not that expensive and you can easily pick up 4 of them for $100 to $160 depending on what weight rating you go with. the weight ratings are not true ratings as I believe they're based on the weight of the door they could close, but I'm confident 4 of these could lift a piece of plywood and a mattress and hold it up and out of your way, to be pulled down and used at your discretion.
`
I tried to search the ExPo site a bit without luck, was interested if anyone had attempted this or anything similar. made up a picture below to show where my mind went with it, interested in where other's minds may take it or have taken it.....

 

[KeyserSoSay]

Thanks for stepping onto the conversation. I can't yet quantify how much "lifting force" these things put out relative to their weight rating, or even how much ft.lb force one might need (contingent on varying arm lengths) to lift a bed, or pop-top, or other camper mechanism. Judging from the one I'm playing with today (which is around the middle zone of available models as far as I can assess) my intuition tells me these could very well be used to allow one-hand lifting and lowering of an empty bed, and may also be a simple and inexpensive way to make a pop-top lifter and tensioner. One thing I see right away is that these type of lifters could provide much better lateral rigidity then many of the hydraulic piston lifting mechanisms I've seem used for these types of applications, for example, making the lowered bed much sturdier and less wobbly to sleep in.
`
Having said that, it's all still speculation on my part until I build something cool with them to prove the concept. Hopefully someone else has done this already and I'm just late to the party.