13pony

I think I searched enough with no luck so....I saw an ad on here yesterday for Steeda s550 hood struts. Got me thinking how cheap it feels to put up the hood on my '13. I went to Steeda's site, their s197 struts are expensive, but are they worth the bread? It's not the style I care about...just the quality of the strut itself. I had to replace the struts on my wifes Grand Cherokee every couple years until I found a replacement made in America and is very much the best one yet.
O.K. so, who's got hood struts, are they american, and have they bent your hood? I heard that could be an issue....Thanks for relpies, Steve

ucinn

I have ones from American Muscle and they seem to work fine..no bending. They are a bit pricey but it's nice not to have that prop rod getting in the way. They also raise the hood higher than the prop holds it.

13pony

I'm assuming you got the too easy to be true, slow release valve ones...black? Is that a sticker on the rods that can be removed, or paint?..

ucinn

These are the ones I got


http://www.americanmuscle.com/mmd-mu...trut-0514.html

ghunt

I bought some off ebay. Good price, and they were just what I wanted- plain old black steel brackets, and the struts.

I like the struts, but I've found they don't like to hold the hood open unless you have it COMPLETELY open. Otherwise the hood tends to fall shut which is kind of a pain. Temperature might affect that too, though.

P51C

I used the ones from MRT because they are as tight to the hood line as you can get with these things and that makes engine access at the rear of the compartment easier. None of these will bend the hood because they are all bolted to a big steel bracket that spreads the load.

Goldenpony

I got the stainless steel ones from Redline Tuning. Have them on my '06 Mustang GT as well as my wife's '08 Miata. Excellent.

13pony

I can honestly say I was leaning towards these....Thank You, and everyone!

bstang14

I have the Steeda struts. Very high quality.

P51C

Look at some pics online and see why I chose MRT. You'll see how tight to the hood the struts stay? Some others place them further out, which gets in the way when working underhood.