Yes, there is always a reason. Although sometimes more complicated than others. I was waiting to post about this until I found a solution, but here is the problem.
(First, a note about the struts mounted to the exterior of the camper. FWC feels very strongly that this is not the way to do it. In fact, I read that doing the exterior strut mount will void the warranty.)
After installing the lifting struts in the interior of the camper I started to notice that they were spreading the frame of the camper where the base of the struts are mounted. I was very careful with the installation of the struts, being aware of the pushing force they would have when the roof is down. I studied photos of factory installed struts and felt confident that my installation was equally if not more solid and force distributing. Needless to say I was a bit distressed when I noticed that the struts were warping the top of the frame. I figured that the factory must build the frame differently on campers that are ordered with lifting struts, but I found this not to be the case, so I am not sure why I am having this problem. Also, the factory uses up to 80lb struts and mine are 50lb, so I am not "over" on the strut pressure.
So I took the struts off for the winter while I figure a solution.
The struts are mounted as close to frame reinforcement as possible, so simply moving the mount does not look like it will help. At this point I am thinking I will just mount them to the bed slide frame. Not ideal, as I will need to remove the struts to slide the bed out, but I do have the marine quick release hardware so that will help. Of-course I could pull out the interior and weld in some reinforcement, but that is not happening at this point.
That is the complicated answer to a simple question.
