Cobra top hinge plate bolt failure

On May 22, 3:17*pm, Ken K wrote:
Does opening the top allow you to do individual bolt replacement with
no additional clamping? i.e the struts are fully extended and the
'lift' vector is almost vertical.

KK







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 !

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

What Dave said!

However the clamp does not need to be anything special. I changed my
bolts yesterday using a 2.5 inch C clamp that was quite a bit less
substantial than the one shown in Steve (GW)'s write up.

Trust us - It's far easier to clamp the parts while they are in
alignment than to try to get them back into alignment if you try
without clamping!

Andy (GY)