2014 Ranger Trail Trailer Fender board seems a little loose. Is this meant by design so when you load the boat you don’t destroy the fender? If not, can the fenders be tightened?
2014 Ranger Trail Trailer Fender board seems a little loose. Is this meant by design so when you load the boat you don’t destroy the fender? If not, can the fenders be tightened?
Nuts are underneath, don't over wrench them.
They are a flat head carriage bolt.
Mike
2019 Ranger 520L w/ 250HO ETEC G2
2011 Tracker 175TXW w/ 75HO ETEC
By fender board, do you mean the carpeted board on the inside of the trailer fender? If so, those are installed with pop rivets, not nuts and bolts. The pop rivets will loosen over time and cause the fender to vibrate. Over time, the vibration can cause the fender to crack. It happened to the fenders on my boats and here's what I did to solve the problem. Drill out all of the pop rivets and replace with stainless bolts/screws and nylock nuts. Put a big fender washer on the bolt/screw and push it up to the head. This will prevent the small head of the bolt/screw from pulling through the carpeted board. Push the bolt/screw through the carpet so that it exists under the fender. Use smaller washers and nylock nuts on the bolt/screw to hold it all in place. Don't worry about scratching your hull on the heads of the bolts/screws. Once you tighten them down, the pressure will pull the head and fender washer down into the carpet and will will be well out of the way of your hull when you load the boat. Problem solved...no more fender vibration.
"The man of system is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamored with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it…He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chessboard.” Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments
You're talking about the bolts under the little step pads on the back of the fender? I had one loose the entire 18yrs I owned my Ranger. Biggest issue you might have is that the bolt is all crudded up and corroded. The head of that bolt is under the rubber step pad. It's like a big flat washer, there's no "head" to the bolt, installed and then they put the rubber pad down on top with adhesive. I'd shoot it with penetrating oil for a day or so. If there is some of the bolt shank sticking down beyond the nut, you might be able to grab that with vice grips and tighten the nut with another wrench. Or, somehow apply some pressure on top of the bolt somehow, on top of the rubber step piece, and see if you kin torque the nut down.
Then there are the rivets JH mentions. Mine ended up corroding pretty pad.
2017 Phoenix 819
2016 200ProXS, s/n 2B359849, Mod 1200P73BD