Minor upgrade to rock guards

[HoMiPa]

Yesterday I made a minor upgrade to my rock guards, after reading what others here had done. I've hated the wing nuts (1st photo) on these from the beginning, and since the bolt inside the channel can freely spin, I have no idea how anyone ever thought they would stay locked in place. I've rarely had my rock guards up, because it's always such a battle to get the wing nuts to tighten on that free spinning bolt inside the channel...

Luckily, I had screws holding the brackets onto the trailer, not pop rivets, so it was easy enough to remove the brackets (shown in 2nd photo).

Once the bracket was removed, I slid the bottom half of the support arm off - not easy with the little 'dimple' inside the upper arm.

After the bottom half of the arm was removed, I, like others, drilled out the dimple in the upper arm.

I used new bolts (although the same size as the original), square nuts, and small clamping knobs. I had to grind down the bolt head so it was thinner, and grind the nut to make it thinner as well - otherwise it would have all been too thick to fit within the channel of the lower arm, and then have it slide into the upper arm.

I still need to get rubber washers - but I improvised with wooden "washers" (3rd photo) for now since I had to tow my TM to my mechanic last night, for brake & wheel bearing check today. But the clamping knob is SO much nicer than the wing nut, and with the square nut inside the channel, the bolt can't spin. Wheeee - should have spent this $20 years ago!