Pop Top up or down for storeage ?

G,day there folks, we have a pop top van that when not in use we leave the top in the down position & place one of those Van covers over it.
Trouble is the cover is designed for a full Van, so you end up with all the excess length of sides hanging on the ground.
We do it this way as I thought with leaving it in the "up" position for purposes it would put excessive load for prolonged period of times on the gas struts.
We did buy from Jayco four adjustable "props" which are designed to releive the struts of the load, but they look to me to be a bit "iffy"
The longest the van is not in use & therefore covered would be about six months.

Thanks for your comments/advise in advance