Wow my 2016 M-250R2 isn't that bad. From what I've heard it's all luck of the draw with these latches. Some latches are bent ever-so-slightly differently and it makes all the difference. But they're nothing like the 80s bail latches. From the 80s to 1991, the M-250R2 latches were very tight. Like the Unistyle latches. The M-250R1 latches were sometimes loose too, but for whatever reason those didn't seem to loose their doors quite as often as the M250R2s from the past several years.

Yeah it could be from the rough handling when it was shipped to me. The seller didn't put any packing in the box. It was shipped like it was, packed at the G.E. plant. With the refractor in a corner of the box separated from the fixture by a piece of cardboard.

That's how my M-250R2 was shipped, but my M-250R2 left the factory as a single unit, so it was packed a little better than the units that are intended to be shrink wrapped. Most sellers don't realize the packaging is not sufficient enough for single carton shipment. You had actually brought that up to me. I figured all the lights were boxed good enough to ship. Mine was though since it was a single unit that came right from the factory to another enthusiast's house and then he forwarded the box to me.

Yeah usually the minimal packing is sufficient because utilities buy them in larger quantities. So the boxes are stacked on a pallet and shrink wrapped.

When I've ordered single cobraheads from the electrical supply houses, the fixture is shipped in its factory box, inside another larger box. And there was pieces of foam to keep the inner box "floating" inside the outer box, leaving a couple inches of extra space around the inner fixture box. However, when I ordered my 150 watt M250R2, when I went to pick it up, they told me it was shipped on a pallet all by itself

Hmm mine was in one box but there was foam sheets inside so the light was rigid. It was shipped with the refractor enclosed in a cardboard thing. The light was at the bottom of the box laying on a sheet of styrofoam. The refractor was on top of the fixture toward the front.

Maybe it's because yours is heavier, (250 watt ballast) and a glass refractor. Or maybe they changed how they pack them.
Remember, I ordered mine several years ago. They're also lighter though, smaller ballasts, and acrylic refractors and full cutoff glass.

Maybe... An acrylic refractor would be better to pack. Don't really have to worry about breaking it lol.

I get these from time to time with the loose bail latches. I just zip tie it together after I close the fixture. Now that we switched to cooper for our 400 watt fixtures, it will be interesting to see if I notice anything with their style latch.

The Cooper latches seem to be pretty good. The latch is based off the Westinghouse design, so that's probably why they don't have issues lol. Good ol' Westy. Here NGrid puts a ring of tape around the light right over the center of the refractor if the bail latch is loose. Looks stupid and blocks light too. The ziptie thing is clever. Never thought of that! Do you have to cut the ziptie or does the ziptie usually break if you forcibly pull on the latch?

Depends what Cooper fixtures they are. The OVX has the Westinghouse style latch, but remember, the OVF has a paddle type bail latch. There are quite a few OVF's here and I haven't seen many lose their doors, if any.

Yeah but Tony's utility uses OVXs. Agreed, the OVFs here never loose their doors either, but I've seen some M-400s loose their doors.

@ Mike, usually I cut the zip tie since they are pretty strong and don't want to bust up the fixture anymore. The R3's usually loose there door from pole hits that don't take the pole entirely out or from A-frame arms from the bouncing they tend to do from wind.

Yeah the M-400s and M-400R2s here loose their doors from the jersey barrier being hit nearby the pole and the shock opens up the door. The latch used on the M-400A and M-250A was probably the best at avoiding opening under that kind of vibration. Same for the 60s M-250R and M-400.