Fitting gas rams to a Land Rover’s Bonnet

The standard Series Land Rover bonnet has no gas or spring assist, instead using a tethered prop. Replacing it with some gas rams makes it a lot easier to lift and also allows it to lift further and higher out of the way.

The fitting is fairly simple – in this case I’ve used two fairly low powered rams (from the tailgate of a Toyota Yaris). These are mounted to a single plate fixed to the bulkhead, and onto a metal plate bolted onto one of the main ribs.

It works really well. Lift the latch and the bonnet pops up an inch, then a single smooth movement with a single finger raises it all the way as shown.

I’ve seen designs fitting them to one side which seems to get in the way when working on the engine, and also won’t give as good a support without a fair bit of additional bracing.