[toolmanmike]

I’m finishing my slider skirts and such and think I need an aft handhold to assist opening.
I’ve seen rear handles on sliders mounted on the top bar to help lift the rear from the outside. I do not want to drill my canopy. What options have you all used to help lift the back of the slider? I’m thinking side hand hold mounted on the skirt? Not sure this will work well though. Seems like it will add a twisting load to the canopy. My slider operates ok but it is pretty tight when closed and needs some lifting action at the back.

 

[Ralph Inkster]

I have tried:
-top rear handle handle, good quality rounded kitchen cabinet handle. OK but no advantage to side tab approach.
-top rear loop fashioned from 2x1x.25 angle. Kept snagging my finger in it.
-side smaller kitchen handles- later replaced with 3” 3/4x1x.125 angle, the handles tended to bend the side skirts
-I pretty much settled with the 3” 3/4x1x .125 tabs, rounded & polished before riveting on. Used this on a couple of builds & rebuilds

 

[rv6n6r]

Rear skirt side handle is what I'd recommend. It's pretty rigid once its all together, I don't think the twisting load will be an issue unless it's excessively tight (in which case you should address that). I'd make the handle as minimal as will work. The tight fit is likely to loosen up over time.

 

[wirejock]

I made two knobs from 1" aluminum bar stock. They are round on the end and powder coated to match. Tapped 10-32. Wide head screw. Just enough to get the canopy moving. Probably cost me a knot or two, but I couldn't open the canopy easily.

 

[Desert Rat]

I put a tab on my aft pilot side skirt and at least on my new canopy, found it difficult to get started, so I went ahead and installed a cabinet handle through the canopy into the spine of the slider frame just fwd of the aft skirt.

I drilled the holes in the plexi a bit oversized and them made smaller diameter bushings to sit inside them. The bushings are slightly longer than the thickness of the canopy assembly so that when the handle is screwed down there's a gap of about 1/32" and it actually doesn't touch the plexiglass. I glued the canopy to the frame with sika, so it wasn't a big deal to fill the empty spaces with the same stuff. The end result is that the handle is rigidly screwed to the frame, but isn't actually touching the plexiglass, and because the holes through it are slightly larger than the bushings, it has room to expand/contract without actually touching any of the hardware.