Broken frame part on my Bimini cover

Bentley59

Has anybody had a problem with a bimini frame breaking while trailering. I was always concerned how much the cover bounced while in transit (folded down properly) and this week a piece of the frame actually broke while in transit on the trailer.

HAs anybody seen this before?  

1pointofview

yep, mine broke just a few weeks ago.  I am upgrading to a steel frame because I take mine on 900 round trip miles 1 time a year and to the lake which is 80 miles one way to our preferred lake several times a month.   you have to upgrade your connections to steel as well.  I am looking forward to making the change next week.  I was going to do it one way or another but now, was kinda forced to do it. I was a little frustrated because when I bought the boat I actually asked that specific question and they told me it would be no problem.  It broke at the plastic connector.

In the meantime, I rigged up a fix that kept me going til the new one comes.
 I took 4 pipe clamps that cost about about $1.5 a piece and a piece of aluminum stock and braced it up.  It is not a long term fix but it as worked so far for $10

Since my brake was inside the plastic piece, I took 2 of these pipe clamps and connected them with the ground side facing opposite of each other. 2 more below the brake.  I took the aluminum stock which came in about 18" length and cut it in half.   ran it through the ground hole on each side and it has kept my pole together but it is still very week. I put some lock tight on the screws so it would not lose it's grip on the pole.  I also had to take a bungee and connect it from the ski poll to the top of the bimini top because airflow created too much lift on the back.

It is some redneck engineering but it has allowed us to stay covered on the water until the new one arrives.  We tubed all day yesterday without an issue.

from what I see, the new 2014's come with steel polls so I assume this was an issue thus they made steel standard. At least they have been on every 2014 I have seen.

I really wish we could lay the top all the way flat as so here would be no issue with wind resistance.