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Originally Posted by BrucePerens
The one on the other side, yet unmodified, is a bit loose, and difficult to tighten because it's hard to get a grip upon the square nuts where they are inside the bar. My version makes it easier to get at the back fasteners.
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I agree, your version does indeed make it easier. But in the OEM setup, you are not expected to get a wrench on the nuts. Just get a big screwdriver and jam the blade down between the nut and the surrounding metal (and hold it there while you turn the bolt head). The nut will jam tight against the screwdriver blade, so you need to insert the screwdriver on the side that tends to suck the blade down into the gap as the nut tries to turn, rather than spitting the blade out. This I have done several times, without incident. And of course jam the screwdriver into the opposite side when tightening things back up again.
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Once it gets loose it will indeed work the mounting holes larger until they tear. This all happened before I received the trailer.
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If it were mine, I would seriously work to prevent it from tearing out in the future. Your call, of course. But the latch really should not be loose. In addition to tearing out the latch, I would think that the rest of the shell could be damaged by the repeated impacts. You really don't want the shell's sidewall to pound loose from the roof, for example. The lag bolts that attach the sidewall panel to the roof panel are threaded into aluminum square tube stock, and can pull out if they pound hard enough.
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I was wary of unbolting the torsion bar, even with the shell up and it's weight holding the shell support bar down upon the torsion bar (don't ever do it with the shell down!). I don't know if there is any twist (and thus stored energy) in it in that position...
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I don't think there is any stored energy in the bar, since at the top of the swing, you can push the shell back and forth a bit without much springy resistance. But I have not done it, so I agree with the need for caution. On the other hand, I seem to recall that many years ago, someone posted instructions for adjusting the length of the support bars by bringing the shell to the top of the arc and supporting the shell with a jack and 4x4's. I'll see if I can find it.
Bill