www.iFourWinns.com

On my return from a trip on the Columbia River I raised the electric engine hatch and had one of the two heavy stainless steel hinges lift off the boat. I had to replace the 1/4 inch diameter rods that thread into the hinge and then attach new flat washers, lock washers, and holding nuts. I used lock tite on the rod that screws into the hinge and self locking nuts at the other end of the rod in addition to lock washers to be sure I never have to do this again. It is a beast to get to the bottom side of the hinges and there is scarcely any room to turn the nuts. I also checked the other side and found that only one of the two threaded rods had a nut still on it. More washers and self locking nuts. If your boat is 10 years old like mine you may want to feel around for nuts on the bottom side of the engine hatch hinges. If you want to look at the threaded rods that screw into the hinge, you need to lay on your back with your head facing up and get your eyes behind the back of the engine. At age 64 I got in there but needed my wife to help pull me back out of the engine compartment.

This is not the first time I have had to replace nuts and lock washers with self locking nuts on my boat. FourWinns could improve their product for just a few dollars per boat and remove this source of maintenance frustration.

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2006 Sundowner 255, 5.7 GXi, 320 hp
"Simply Irresistible"

I just can't understand why they use plain nuts and spring washers. OK, if they're bolting down a thermoplastic part, the spring washer maintains load as the thermoplastic creeps under compression, whereas a locknut would not. Eventually though the thermoplastic may well have crept so much that the spring washer no longer does anything, the nut loosens and falls off. For most things though they're bolting rigid materials together and a locknut would be a better solution. It wouldn't fall off if they were using spring washers to compensate for creep either !