Quote:
Originally Posted by Travis Schuh
xWe used these latches last year for our first time and had problems with them latching by the end of the season. The bumper had shifted size a little, so it was hard to get the latches over the latching pegs. Also, the little metal pieces got bent and so they didn't stay latched well. Part of what contributed to that was if you put the bumper down on accident with the latches in the closed position, it would bend the metal.
They worked great for the first 2 competitions, it wasn't until the tail of the off-season that we could no longer get the bumpers on or off. Have you seen any of these issues with these latches? Perhaps you were using them in a way that was better for the latches.
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It looks like we played around half as many matches overall (season and offseason) in 2016, so we probably don't see as much wear as you do. That being said, we build pretty rigid (one piece) bumpers out of bent 1/8 6061 T6 aluminum sheetmetal. They really don't change shape at all during the season. This probably helps the latches avoid some problems.
Could you provide more information on your mounting setup? We mount our latches so that the 1/8 L brackets supports them and should take all horizontal forces. All the latch should be doing is holding the bumper down.
When putting the bumpers on, we always have two people, one for every two latches. We are pretty careful to set them on the peg without bending the latch.
Even with these precautions, we still do experience some wear, but nothing that renders them unusable. Our 2014 bumpers lasted 4 competitions and several years of outreach and we never had to do any maintenance on the bumpers that I know of.