On May 16, 10:40*am, Andy wrote:
Last year "YO" told us about how he nearly lost his trailer top after
both bolts securing one trailer top hinge plate failed. *Of course I
checked my bolts and all four were secure at that time.

Yesterday I arrived at the club field and had a problem releasing the
left rear top latch. *Sure enough the outer bolt on the left hinge
plate had failed and this allowed the top to move back slightly and
bind up the rear latch. *I was able to find replacement bolts at a
local hardware store. *5/16 x 3.5 inch *are very close to the
diameter *the original metric bolt and provide more load bearing
unthreaded shank.

The bolts in question go through the front handles, the trailer glass
top, the trailer top frame (with an internal spacer block), a spacer
plate, and then the main hinge plate. All the parts try to misalign
under load. *With the help of 5 people I was able to align all the
pieces well enough to get the new bolt in and was then able to rig and
fly the task.

Another isolated failure? *No. *While I was working on it GW walks up
and says he found the same bolt failed on his trailer the previous
evening. My trailer is 9 years old and GW's I think 10 years old.
Both are glass top but I don't know if that is significant. *So 3
known failures of these bolts.

Do you feel lucky?

Andy (GY)

I was just about to post something on this very topic,
as I'm about to do some work related to this...

1) Spindelberger has had only one other failure of
this bolt reported to them; actually while I was with
them a few weeks ago and they were very surprised and
thinking maybe a bad batch of bolts.

2) The gas struts that open the trailer top push
the top FORWARD when closed. This puts a load on
these bolts and over time the top actually moves
forward. When this happens you will notice the
rear latches don't line up with the top and are
hard to close.

3) Do NOT remove these bolts without clamping the
trailer top down and restrained from moving
forward. If you undo the bolts without restraining
the top, even on just one side, even just one bolt,
the gas strut will deliver you a nasty surprise
(as happened to me on the highway to Hobbs).
CAREFUL !

4) Spindelberger has replacement hinge parts
with a bend to move the top aft and gave me a
set.

5) I'm designing a clamp to safely hold the top
during replacement of the hinge and bolts...

When I get this sorted I'll post something with
pictures. Not this week as we're having contest
weather.

Hope this helps,
Best Regards, Dave "YO electric"