Re Classic Enterprises Hog Troughs

[Zedman]

'Hogtroughs' in stainless steel from Classic Enterprises have been installed in my Avanti II.  The final riveting of the End Caps being completed only recently; this final job being completed by a friend, not me.  As we are now looking at re-placing the Body back on the rejuvenated Frame I wanted to check the breed of the bolts that will secure the Frame to the Hogtroughs.... These are not UNF like the originals, but are in fact all 3/8" UNC. No Problem there, I just wanted to confirm. On checking from the front to the rear I come to the last hole- the one that rests on the little 'Tag' on the side of the Rear Spring mounting fixture and found NO CAPTIVE NUT in the Hogtrough. Thinking I might have a dud box I rolled over to the left side of the Avanti to check the same and once again- no captive nut welded in there. I checked my reference photos from waaay back when I shipped them here and sure 'nuff.... no nut.  The solution is to drill rivets, remove the endcaps weld in a 3/8'UNC nut, of course, but I'd really like to figure out whether I've boobed or has somebody at the factory.   Anybody got feedback on these issue 😕?   See photos with red circles...

Edited 20 hours ago by Zedman

[brad]

You could put a nut on it before you installed the end cap. Or, you can install a nutsert threaded insert after the fact.

[Zedman]

7 hours ago, brad said:

You could put a nut on it before you installed the end cap. Or, you can install a nutsert threaded insert after the fact.

Hi Brad thanks for your input.... "You could put a nut on it before you installed the end cap", ought to have read "Should Have" 😁- I feel silly missing this. now.   Nutsert sounds like a good idea but there's a fairly large hole there already- I will check it just the same, thanks.  Coincidentally, just yesterday somebody has put up a post on the Avanti II Owners facebook  platform, a commentary of his completed HT installation- and it features a picture of this same area WITHOUT a captive nut there. with another picture showing a nut welded into place later.  As Elmer Fudd said: " There's something scwewey going on here!"

Edited 39 minutes ago by Zedman