Trunk Lift

[Master]

Has anyone here given thought to producing a pneumatic lift assembly for the trunk of our cars? In the Tempo it frustrated me to no end that the old fashioned internal arm system was still employed. And now, the Marauder suffers the same anachronistic apendages. Very annoying. The space lost to these archane assemblies is abhorent. If there was enough interest in the idea of creating a new lift assembly, I'd gladly ask the local technical institute to come up with a mechanism. It would make a great senior project. Imagine: Billet aluminum superstructure, nifty little pneumatic actuators, and a tidied up internal space. Add to this the possibility of parallel motion and we could eliminate the dumping of water into the trunk every time it was opened on a rainy day.
Thoughts? Opinions? Let me know. I'll probably try it anyway, but feedback is always welcome.

[jim geary]

I'm not quite sure what your talking about but it sounds good. I would be interested I think.

[Master]

Our trunk is currently held in place, and located in motion by two large brackets and an internal spring, all of which occupy large volumes of trunk space. The current designs utilize a bracket external to the storage space that, through a series of links, allows motion and location without bulky internal supports.

[Loco1234]

Let me know how things go since I plan on relocating the battery to the trunk and would find this a useful way to obtain plenty of room to put the batttery up on the little shelf where the trunk swing arms are normally located when the trunk is closed....

[Master]

Too true. I'll let you know.

[Master]

I've just spoken to one of the profs at the technical institute and have laid out what we'd want. Now its just a matter of having a student/group show enough interest to take it on. May be a couple of months, but I'm going to keep on it.

[Loco1234]

Let me know how things go since I plan on relocating the battery to the trunk and would find this a useful way to obtain plenty of room to put the batttery up on the little shelf where the trunk swing arms are normally located when the trunk is closed....

[MENINBLK]

Has anyone here given thought to producing a pneumatic lift assembly for the trunk of our cars? In the Tempo it frustrated me to no end that the old fashioned internal arm system was still employed. And now, the Marauder suffers the same anachronistic apendages. Very annoying. The space lost to these archane assemblies is abhorent. If there was enough interest in the idea of creating a new lift assembly, I'd gladly ask the local technical institute to come up with a mechanism. It would make a great senior project. Imagine: Billet aluminum superstructure, nifty little pneumatic actuators, and a tidied up internal space. Add to this the possibility of parallel motion and we could eliminate the dumping of water into the trunk every time it was opened on a rainy day.
Thoughts? Opinions? Let me know. I'll probably try it anyway, but feedback is always welcome.

Ask the team to come up with a simple tool that can be used
to adjust the torsion spring ? There is plenty of adjustment on this.
Then ask if they can come up with a different counter balance structure
that can replace the torsion springs as an aftermarket kit.

[Master]

I'm meeting with a group of four students plus their advisor tomorrow at 11:30 am. Although it would be nice to simply modify the existing system, my personal preference is to get all components out of the trunk entirely. Therefore, I've compiled a list of requirements as follows (in no particular order). Note: These are Mechanical Engineering Technologists, so they are expected to do very detailed structural analysis with an eye to strengths of materials. Should be a good project for them. Anyway - The list:

Must require no welding or cutting of original structures
Must be “Bolt On” and fitted with use of standard mechanics tools
must have installation instructions
must be made of machines billet aluminum
re-enforcing of existing structure is permitted. Must comply with point 1.
Must be laterally stable
must resist lift at speeds of 170 mph
Must be able to support additional loads added by ground effects
Must be able to lift additional weight (+20#)
Must use over the counter pneumatics, if pneumatics are used
Must come with a build sheet for production c/w CNC program
Should have a working prototype
Investigate existing designs. These would be a good starting point design-wiseIf anyone would like to add something to this list before the meeting tomorrow, let me know. Thanks,
David
(Master)

[Sully008]

David,

Sounds like you're on the right track. What I would do if possible is get them to look at a Chrysler 300M for a design. It uses gas struts and no trunk arms. If they can reverse engineer this, I'd be interested.

http://www.familycar.com/RoadTests/Chrysler300M/99-300M/images/Trunk.JPG

[Master]

Good point. Even better, one of the students has an Impala, and they too use the struts. He'll start there. I have also given thought to two problems I've personally encountered with swing-motion trunk lids. First, when the unit is at about 45 degrees, it pours water (if its been raining, or you've just washed the car) into the centre of the trunk. Second, when you have snow on the trunk and lif it fully open, the snow runs ahead to the rear window then slides en-masse into the trunk. Neither is desireable. What I've proposed they consider is a parallel lift lid. One that comes up quite vertically, then moves forward out of the way. In this way, what is on the lid stays on the lid. Would be quite novel, too.
Here is my synopsis via attachement. Feel free to comment. As well, we should expect a letter from the NSIT (Nova Scotia Institute of Technology) regarding the intent of the students to proceed with this project.