Another design fault of the Europa trailer is the lack of safety chains.
Most states in the US require safety chains by law, and even if they
were not required it makes a lot of sense to have them.
The first thing I did when I got the factory trailer was to put safety
chains on. It takes only a few dollars and a few minutes.
Twice in my life I have had trailers separate from the ball for one
reason or another, only to be saved by the safety chains.
Bill Stewart
----- Original Message -----
From: david joyce
Subject: Near Disaster with Europa Trailer
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
|