The "factory" A frame that I purchased from Avon with my new 4.7 in 1998 collapsed on my head, offshore about three years later. It was of a single tube design, bolted onto the transom with two rectangular plates. Both stainless tubes fractured just above the mounting plates. I was very fortunate that when it came down it didn't give me a skull fracture! Neither Avon nor the dealer was particularly interested in my issue.......
The moral to this story is that single tube A Frames are a bad idea. One might possibly get away with deck mounts on a single tube with support tubes going back to the transom but the dual tube "ladder" systems seem to be the only safe way to go.
i totally agree, my double aluminium aframe broke at the weld on the mounting plate to the hull, i only noticed it when i glanced over my shoulder in choppy seas and found the aframe hanging over the back of the transom.
i would prefer the more substantial self righting frame by choice for that reason.
i only noticed it when i glanced over my shoulder in choppy seas and found the aframe hanging over the back of the transom.
You were lucky! I noticed mine when I was struck a glancing blow on my left shoulder by the collapsing A Frame. The 3/16" thk. plate at the apex of the frame just cleared my head and smashed into the console just forward of the helm
