Yeah, the arms are the weak point.

I 'll pick one up tomorrow thanks for the heads up.

One of the arms on mine buckled one time on a windy day ... so, we took a piece of rod (don't remember what diameter anymore, just got some that fit) put a piece ~ 24" the full length of the arm and tack welded it into each arm with a mig welder in a couple of places and then just hit them with white paint. Remove the canopy first, though!! :eek: That was about 11 years ago and we still use it every time we go out. Not sure if they still use high tensile steel "U" channel for the arms or not, though, as our "old one" is still working fine ... just wish it had the vent in the top so it didn't catch and hold the wind so much. I suspect that if you cleaned the powdercoat off where you are reinforcing the arm, you could use a good epoxy and sink a clean piece of rod into the epoxy over the length of the rod.

Regarding the other post about the white color ... ours is white and it does a good job of protecting you from the sun ... don't remember ever getting heated or sunburn while under it. :D

We had 1 last year for the 388, it lasted 1 weekend, the arms buckled and I sent it back, You have to be careful in windy conditions. We had a custom made bimini, $800, 9 foot long, covers the whole cockpit, it works great. BTW, that is a good deal @ $99.

I know that I paid more than $99 .... 11 years ago!!

Really good deal IMO. If you add the reinforcement, they can last a long time (ours is a good example of that).

The original ones were the best except for not having the vent in the top. The 2nd gen. is not steel it is a form of plastic and I would assume the 3rd gen. is the same. $99 is definitely a good deal.

The original ones were made by Anchorshade company - that is the version I have. I think Taylor-made took over at some point.