Back to the main site

Bimini Top bracket....

R

Rick C

Member
Messages
10
Reaction score
1
Location
Central Florida
Hi

July 16, my wife and I had our 2012 20' SL Bennington out for a day cruise. We live in Fl. and had our toon on the Rainbow River in Dunnellon FL. This is a beautiful spring fed river that is idle speed only. To make a long story short we were running about 1200 RPM maybe 12mph wind. The bimini was up as usual. ALL of a sudden the "middle" two square tubes that hold the bimini onto the boat permanently, were totally disconnected from their brackets that hold them fastened to the boat rail.

This was very very strange, the whole bimini was hanging to one side, but the front supports and the rear supports were still in place. I called the marina after we got home. They said this has never happened before. They asked me to bring the boat in. This AM I got a call from the marina and the service man said would you like to have the new aluminum "round" joint that connects the bimini to the boat instead of replacing the u-shaped aluminum joint that you have now? Now I told my wife a solid round donut shape bracket would be much much better.

I told the service man YES I want the new parts!!!

I searched the forum and could not find anyone else with this problem.

Sorry this is so long....

Rick C
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hey Rick......did you happen to take some pics so we can see exactly where they became disconnected and how????????
 
Pics would be great. We've never had a problem with our bimini even at 38 mph.
 
No, Unfortunately I thought about pictures after we got the boat delivered to the marina. In fact the marina called this AM and they offered me the same center aluminum C-shaped connecter that attaches to the boat OR Bennington has a new type connector that the service man called a "donut connector" that replaced the ones that came with the bimini. Again this is the center square tubing that the bimini pivots on. I said sure put the new donut shaped connector on. He said this one cannot break or come of the fitting that it connects to on the boat.

Also resterday in the mail we received a recall-notice from Yamaha. My 50 HP 2012 Yamaha has a "portable fuel connector" and squeeze bulb. These can leak gas when removed from the eng. The marina replaced this with a new line that looks similiar to the old or original connector we are all used to on older model engines.

Rick C
 
I had my bimini top come loose at about 20 mph.. only once. suprised the hell out of me.. the two supports towards the front of the boat popped out and back went the top. It actuall came loose at the black clip at the bottom of the rail where you shove the black clip forward and it pops onto the horizontal metal rod that is just about as wide as the side rail. It flew back with such force that it bent one of the square channels slightly. Not so much that I couldn't bend it back by hand, but enough that it was obvious to the eye to see the bend. I have no Idea why it popped out.. both sides simultaneously, and it hasn't happed since.. I was sure the black clips would be broken... or something more severe.. nope.. just popped it right back into place and that was it? Things that make you go "hmmmm?"
 
If you don't have the black plastic quick release clips, it sounds to me like the square Bimini poles were in their brackets, but the retaining pins were not. There could be enough pressure from the bracket onto the poles to keep them in place for some time. I'd suspect someone needed some pins, else they got up and walked off by themselves.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top