pic: 7.5" tall robot, ready to shoot

[asid61]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

The custom sizes have poor lead times.

You can definitely make this work with a longer or shorter cylinder, don't forget you don't have to actually use the full travel of a cylinder (and can externally set the travel).

We ordered custom sizes in 2015 with only around a 2-week turnaround, which isn't great but it's not SDP-SI level either.
All of my trials I did with a layout sketch like you did in your RAMP video (great series BTW). I tried with 3.5" but found that I would be unable to flip the hood to the two positions I wanted, and 4" would make it impossible to mount. If I have changed the place where it attached to the hood, it may have been possible to use a shorter cylinder, only moving the cylinder forward caused an interference with something else while folded.
If I had used a custom cylinder extension rod I would have gone a lot farther, but I figured it would be easier to just order the customs.
I wasn't thinking about the turnaround while I was making this. If I had, I probably would have opted to move the hood-side cylinder mount closer to the hood pivot, even though it would have taken extra layout work.