O.K. guys, here I come.

The struts are absolutelly functional. I use them all the time on my models. The trick is to have the struts compress 1/8" to about 1/4" under the aircrafts own weight (static weight, not in motion). The way to do this is to remove a c-clip and pin in the sizzor link and remove the lowwer strut assy. You then can remove the compression spring and replace it with a softer one or what I simply do is to cut one loop of the spring at a time to get the desired "softness". Most modelers not knowing just leave the stock tension in the struts and if the model is too light the springs don't compress under static weight. You see, if you make them a little softer, then the model or gear can take up some of the bumps. Especially flying off grass fields. They always worked for me. Less strain on retractable landing gears and the models structure. They give you a nice cushion barrier if you should make a hard landing and I would'nt have to worry about blowing a wing tube through the foam wing, especially that this one is very close to the top of the foam coars.

c130nut, You should roughen up the fiberglass and clean with alcohol. For better adhesion, use at least 30 min. epoxy and mix in 1/32" long milled fibers. On fiberglass work I use the BVM twin glue gun epoxy tube. It has these fibers in it. BVM also sells milled fibers. Your local hardware store sells something calle FIBER-POXY I think that's what it is called. I never used it thou. I also am going to use robarts steerable nose gear strut, but I'm replacing the actual strut with the one shown so I may mount two wheel on the nose axle.

I bought The following for my c-130 "Robo stuts all around":

(5) #650 straight robostruts 3/8" --4 for the mains and one for the nose---------------------------$44.95 ea. total--$224.75
(5) #654001M mountings blocks----to hold the robo struts to the ply side plate---------------------$11.50 ea. total--$ 57.50
(10) #654003M steering arm yoke-8 clamped to the mains & locked to the side ply plate.
2 for the nose strut not clamped to anything so it may steer--$ 1.65 ea. total--$ 16.50
plus their shipping and handling charges-------$ 8.00

So the total gear strut assy. cost me just over $300

The first picture is showing a comparison of my original mounting idea (1/2" steel square tube with hole and slot for clamping) This was a little heavy and I did'nt like how it worked in many aspects "period". The other one is the way I am going with. I liked everything about this method. It holds the strut tight (rotational wise too) and loosen up two bolts and the struts can easily be moved up or down for belly clearance.

The second and third pictures shows the steeing arm yoke. I'm calling it locking clamp and I added a bushing (the red one) for a spacer that sets the locking clamp perpendicular to the side ply plate.

The fourth picture again is the old mounting method which I am not going to use.