I haven’t had a bolt shear off yet, but I have found several of them back off and come loose. All four bolts where the suspension mounts to the tunnel, the lower front arm bolts, and the two bolts that go thru the revolver plate were both backed out almost an inch. Fortunately I caught that taking it off the trailer yesterday morning. That would have ended in a trailside breakage for sure. I am also having the issue of the rubber pins mushrooming out in the revolver assembly. Since I have never taken mine apart, I want to take pictures for Jeff first. I’ll be interested in what he has to say. For now all I can suggest is remove every bolt I the skid, clean all male and female threads, and apply red loktite. Even if this was supposed to be done from the factory, many of the bolts have gotten missed.
I forget which thread I saw this on, but as an engineer I might be able to shed a little light on the bolt strength issue. I realize that we are talking metric grade bolts, but the analogy is the same for SAE hardware. A grade 8 bolt is stronger in tension and is harder than a grade 5 bolt, however; it is also harder and more brittle. A grade 5 bolt is in fact stronger in shear because it will deform slightly before is shears off. A grade 8 will usually form a hairline crack and break right off. I completely agree that the bolts are backing off and then shearing, but moving to grade 8 hardware will not solve your problem if the bolts continue to back out. Also, someone mentioned stainless steel hardware. Bad Idea! Stainless steel and aluminum get along as well as brother and sister siblings. If interested, do an internet search on galvanic reaction. In summary, you create a battery between the two dissimilar metals. Never use stainless bolts in contact with aluminum.
