Since putting the bike rack on the tailgate struts struggle to the point that you can’t open the tailgate and it stays open, you have to hold it open.

There are companies out there you can send your existing struts to and they will re-gas them, I decided to just buy some new ones and here they are pictured below, they look way nicer than the VW ones!

The struts were ordered from a company called Car Gas Struts, you just find the ones that fit your vehicle and when you fill out the order form in the comments write “Regas struts to 1250NM for bike rack” and that is exactly what they will do, easy.

They were about £45.00 including delivery, arrived promptly and took about 20 minutes to fit.

The tailgate is a little harder to close on it’s own but with the bikes on it’s fine.

I’m guessing you might now be thinking are these strong enough to support the tailgate, bike rack and 2 bikes?

Alas with my bikes, no.

With our two fairly heavy mountain bikes on the rack they don’t but i’m not worried about that, the rack stays on permenantly, the bikes don’t and if it was possible to have them gassed any higher i’d struggle to close the tailgate if the bikes weren’t on it.

Overall I’m really pleased with both the product and the service from Car Gas Struts, I highly recommend them and their product.