I have just come close to having my day entirely ruined by a design
fault in the open Europa trailer.I was for the first time trailing my
newly completed plane back from the Gloucester Strut Europa evening.
Half way home I turned off the motorway to stop to talk to my inspector
(to tell him how impressed people were with the gel coat finish). In
walking past it I noticed that the ballhitch was almost completely
seperated from the main girder of the trailer, and waiting for just one
more bump before parting completely. This version of the (company
supplied) trailer has the ball hitch attachment bolted to the top leaf
only of the square section main girder.This top leaf had started to peel
upwards from the side elements of the girder and reached about 45
degrees when I found it, with the bent bit attaching to the beam looking
very sick.
The message for those of you with open trailers is to check the
design and if it is one like mine I suggest as a minimum putting new
longer bolts right through the complete box section with some sort of
spacer inside the box section and large washers underneath. David Joyce
402
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