Aluminum top Cobra trailer leaks - how frequent?

On Mar 29, 6:24*am, John Cochrane
wrote:
On Mar 29, 6:59*am, AK wrote:

A few people told me that their Cobra trailers with aluminum tops
developed leaks. I wonder how frequent this problem is. Obviously
aluminum top is nice to keep it looking good, but one of the the
purposes of a trailer is too keep the glider inside dry. In New
England we sometimes get 4 inches of rain in a day. Thx, AK

I have an aluminum 2001 cobra, and have had several leaks. The major
problem is the seams around the tail doghouse. Artful application of
silicone sealer has stopped the leaks, but it took several tries. *I'd
be curious to hear of better fixes. Obviously, drilling out all the
pop rivets and then reassembling it with new sealer would be best, but
that is a huge pain we'd all rather avoid.

Next time, I'm getting the fiberglass top.

John Cochrane

Don't laugh . . . but, Capt. Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure (really!) is
some amazing stuff. See: http://www.captaintolley.com/

It's water thin, so wicks in using capillary action, dries clear so no
mess. Fairly benign stuff but sure works well. I once did a test to
see if it would also seal fuel. To make the test as difficult, I
drilled a small hole in the bottom of a plastic polyethylene bottle,
and then made a one inch cut from the hole with a razor. Applied a
drop of Tolley's and waited 24 hours. Thin filled the bottle with
100LL avgas . . . no leaks after several days. Did the same with
MoGas, no leaks. Since the stuff is designed to seal water leaks in
small voids, I'm real sure it'll fix your trailer leak in the overlap
seams.

bumper
Minden, NV
On a non-related note . . . just 2 days left to order MKIV and QV at
old prices.