ON-FARM

Ute tray lift assist

Gas struts used to dampen tailgate

Ben White

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Chris has fitted gas struts to his well-body ute tailgate to dampen the speed of its fall when opening and to assist lifting for closing. The gas struts or gas springs, as they are sometimes known, have a 150mm stroke and attach to the fixture points of the standard tailgate cable retainers. One of the struts is damped while the other is a straight gas spring although Chris reckons they would function without any worries both being a damped gas spring.

Chris said the kit cost around $150 and took fifteen minutes to fit.

Thanks to Chris for sharing some photos of the unit with us. A couple of books from our Workshop series are on the way.

If you have some innovative adaptions, send them through to us and we will include them in this Ideas and innovations section of Farming Ahead. Email us the idea at contact@kondinin.com.au or send us an MMS of it at 040 111 FARM (040 111 3276).

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the farming sector, brought to you by the Kondinin team.

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the farming sector, brought to you by the Kondinin team.

editions

Research Report: Agritechnica 2025 (January 2026)

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Research Report: Mobile Phones (December 2025)

With the closure of Telstra’s 3G network, Kondinin Group engineers Josh Giumelli and Ben White put several popular 4G phones to the test to see how they stacked up. Our standard test protocol applied over the past two decades was maintained as each handset was measured by the maximum distance a two-way call could be made from a phone tower.

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