Dangerous engine cover bottom hinge removal- replace with something else?

[Joel_CA]

Finally had a chance to take my boat out with my family yesterday. All went well except we had an issue where my youngest daughter stubbed her pinky toe against the engine cover lower hinge and ripped her toe nail off. It looks a lot worse than its sounds. While I've stubbed my toe on the same hinge a few times before, I guess I never thought how bad of an injury it could cause.

With that, I'm looking to replace it with a different latching mechanism away from the base of the engine cover, and relocate it to the sides of the cover where it would be out of harms way. I researched and found the latching mechanism that I need, but each SS latch comes out to roughly $70 each from West Marine. (I will need 2). I've found similar latches at Home Depot that were less costly, but they were made of materials not suited for a marine environment.

Before diving into this project, I wanted to see if anyone else has run into this and what kind of modifications were done to prevent it from happening again? Any input would be appreciated.

J

 

[Ten Years Gone]

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[Joel_CA]

Whenever I do maintenance work on the engine, I tend to pull the lower hinge pins out and remove the entire cover for access instead of just tilting it back. This is what lead me toward the SS release latches from West Marine. I'll go to several more HD or Lowes stores to see if I can find any more options. My closest HD store had a brass latch which design would work- if only they had it in SS or chrome. A neighbor of mine suggested I look into a Jeep CJ spring loaded hood latch like in this picture:

I need to see one in person to see how bulky they are. Thanks for your input!

J

 

[Ten Years Gone]

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[gerryb]

Although I see the problem and agree they are very bulky looking latches, I wouldn't mess with the latches. I would create two small covers for the latches using brown carpet similar to what's there. Place the carpeted 'latch covers' on top of the latch when you are using the boat. 3/8 plywood or even a sheet of aluminum as base, with carpet glued on should work and allow for close to custom fit over the latch.

 

[dpmulvey]

Although I see the problem and agree they are very bulky looking latches, I wouldn't mess with the latches. I would create two small covers for the latches using brown carpet similar to what's there. Place the carpeted 'latch covers' on top of the latch when you are using the boat. 3/8 plywood or even a sheet of aluminum as base, with carpet glued on should work and allow for close to custom fit over the latch.

+1

I'd just to that a strip of Velcro or a strip of the fastening tape used to hold a toll tag to the windshield to hold them in place underway.

 

[villain style]

Since you remove the hatch to work on engine anyways what about removing the latches and replacing with a nice piece of teak mounted to the floor at base of hatch? Choose a size that's not too big so you're still kicking your toes or too small that it doesn't hold the hatch in place..

 

[Bob & Sue]

1) Just my opinion I would go with the SS latches and move them, or move the existing ones if possible.
I wouldn't consider any material that isn't marine grade in that area you will regret it ( I learned the hard way ) when you have a rust stain or similar problem. $140 is cheap compared to the feeling you had seeing your daughter suffer. Look over the rest of the boat to see if you can find any other dangerous things you may want to change before another accident happens. If you move them be sure to fill the holes with some kind of epoxy or 3M-5200 to stop water from leaking in there.

2) You could make a cover out of some sort of plastic or starboard and carpet them but someone will probably stub their toe again.

You want to make some good memories with the family not have them afraid to go out. Just my thoughts from making some mistakes myself.

Edit: I'm changing out some what was supposed to be SS bolts on the gunnel right now that I bought at a great price off ebay they're totally rusted from one season.

 

[Joel_CA]

After talking about it over dinner, it turns out every single member of my family has stubbed their toes on this hinge at one time or another. With that, I've decided to just do away with it altogether instead of attempting to cover it. That area is particularly high in traffic with nothing but bare feet, so I need to make sure no more avoidable accidents of this type occur. I will proceed with a 90 degree latching system at the sides of the engine cover.

J

 

[Joel_CA]

I finally bit the bullet and went ahead and replaced the dangerous lower hinges of my engine cover with a 90 degree latch from Perko. I installed them up and out of the way where they wouldn't be accidentally kicked or bumped. They work awesome and snap securely into the latched position.

I'm very happy with the results!

J

 

[alwhite00]

Looks great, Nice fix.