myredracer wrote:
westend wrote:
Those self-tapping/self threading bolts are the devil. Seems to be the way of the world with fasteners these days. I see many different fasteners in different products and most of them are so soft that any extra force tears them up instantly. I assume that these soft-body fasteners are imported from overseas but I don't give US mfgs any more respect than what they deserve, either.
Especially on the smaller sizes.
Just replaced the ones in the tongue area, only to have one break less than a week later. Pffft. At least the tips have a flat that you can use a wrench on to remove.
The other bad thing about them is the plating quality. They rust in no time flat. Most of the ones under our TT were rusty less than a year. Probably getting it delivered in the winter doesn't help with salt on the road. Another project some day will be replacing them, maybe with stainless. But are stainless steel just as weak?
Have you installed a screen door on your house lately? the fasteners included are barely adequate. This is with a $300 door! Yeah, plating is bad, too. So is galvanization. I have a 75 yr. old steel lifeboat project in my yard. The galvanized hull plate looks like it was made last year, not a spot of rust. Take a new galvanized pipe and place it outdoors. It will look like an exhaust pipe in two years. There is just a bad shift to poor quality in all metal working, IMO.
