Rear Hatch Hard To Open

[Firm]

Owned my 06 Escalade (shorty) for 5 years now and the rear hatch has been getting progressively harder to open. By that I mean it takes a lot of force to pull it up off the seal, but oddly, once it's up, it stays up well. My brother has an 03 and his is not nearly as difficult to open.

I figured my lift supports were worn out, so ordered a new set from RockAuto; StrongArm part # 6262. Installed them and I think it felt a little easier to initially open the hatch, but they didn't have enough strength to keep it open, so it falls down on
you. Obviously that's worse, so I put the original ones back in and returned the StrongArms.

Did I just get a bad set of StrongArm replacements? So I should just try another brand? Or is there something else going on?

To be clear, I am referring to the entire rear hatch, not just the glass section.

 

[treehan77]

You may want to inspect the hinges, maybe even lubricate them.

 

[swathdiver]

Owned my 06 Escalade (shorty) for 5 years now and the rear hatch has been getting progressively harder to open. By that I mean it takes a lot of force to pull it up off the seal, but oddly, once it's up, it stays up well. My brother has an 03 and his is not nearly as difficult to open.

I figured my lift supports were worn out, so ordered a new set from RockAuto; StrongArm part # 6262. Installed them and I think it felt a little easier to initially open the hatch, but they didn't have enough strength to keep it open, so it falls down on
you. Obviously that's worse, so I put the original ones back in and returned the StrongArms.

Did I just get a bad set of StrongArm replacements? So I should just try another brand? Or is there something else going on?

To be clear, I am referring to the entire rear hatch, not just the glass section.

My old ones got really stiff in cold weather, which for us was just several days a year. I replaced them with OE shocks. They never failed to open or keep the hatch up, just got stiff in cold weather.

 

[Doubeleive]

I Would just get the AC Delco 5101227 (19324360), with the supports off it should move like greased lighting