Rivnuts

I finally got tired of my fishing partner complaining about the screws working loose out of the back seat pedestal base. I ordered some rivnuts and the manual tool that requires two wrenches to set the rivnut. I very pleased with how easily and well the tool worked. I had my worries but it set the aluminium rivnuts solidly. I used aluminium 1/4-20 screws, loctite primer and blue loctite.

We'll see how it holds up over time. Got a two day tourney this weekend that'll test it pretty well.

I use rivnuts to mount my trolling motor and 4 HID driving lights. My trolling motor is an older Motorguide bow mount and didn't want to deal with finding/paying for some sort of quick release mount. We take it off during hunting season so that's why I went with rivnuts. I've hit bottom pretty hard a few times while running my trolling motor and even use it as a handle with beaching my boat or moving it around the driveway. The rivnuts are plenty strong and hold my trolling motor down securely.

The great thing about rivet nuts is that their design allows them to be bucked down a little more by simply tightening the fastener. Just don't overdo it and strip the threads.

As for loctite, in some cases it may be necessary, but I would highly recommend throughly coating each fastener with Never Seize before installing. ESPECIALLY around salt water. Aluminum-to-stainless connections basically weld themselves together with electrolysis. If this happens, you will never be able to remove the fastener from the rivet nut, you will have to grind off the head. Then you have to grip the nub of the fastener in a chuck of a cordless drill, and use a small chisel to slowly turn down the diameter of the flange of the rivet until it's small enough you can push it through the hole. Kinda like using a lathe, but not as easy. (I know all this because I've had to do it, and it's a real PITA)

Never seize helps prevent it.