tl;dr, always remove the hatch cover when loading/unloading luggage.
Okay, this is an instructive one. I've been packing the hatch for over six years by now. Last night, at the airport, picking up my nephew and his wife, the hatch was entirely cleaned out except for a blanket - to protect the hatch opening getting suitcases in and out, you see. Because it was after midnight - my bedtime is typically c. nine o'clock - I had not thought to remove the hatch cover, because of a long habit of keeping it in during road trips, to keep the direct sun off the interior where ice chests are. Thus, the hatch cover was in need of unhinging so that it would simply dangle by the cords. The pair of suitcases were huge and would not lay flat side-by-side, so, I lowered the lefthand rear
seat and pushed one of the suitcases, on its side/edge, through the hole toward the back of my/driver's
seat. In the space provided, my nephew's wife could lay her carry-on bag and of course the other giant suitcase was now lying flat. I closed the hatch and we rolled.
While we were rolling, the suitcase on its edge, in the hole of the lowered
seat, was holding the hatch cover higher on the left end than on the right end. The hinge worked its way under the shelf. When I stopped to get their luggage out, and swung the hatch lid up, there was this gosh awful SNAP sound. Shining a light revealed the righthand inner glass panel - that includes the hatch cover dangle point - ripped down! WTH!? For a long shocked moment I was incapable of processing what I was seeing. Then it came to me. The hatch cover had not ridden in a flat, horizontal posture, but because of the lefthand suitcase being on its edge, and higher, had wiggled in under the shelf, and when I swung the lid up, the strong hinge which is epoxied, held, and the cord held, and the little round dangle point held, and what had given way were all the clips and snapping edges of the panel.
I disconnected the dangle cord, and in the light of a cell phone, positioned the various - scary looking! - attachment and alignment points and open-palmed the panel back into place. The right edge was still feeling/looking a bit loose, so I slammed my palm in a fit of frustration into the panel and that seemed to do the trick, nothing felt or looked loose anymore.
Man! Don't use the hatch cover when fetching or delivering people and their luggage to the airport. Extrapolate this lesson to other situations that crop up and leave the hatch cover OFF.
I will add, that in all these years, this has never been risked because the hatch cover has dangled flat/horizontal on equally tall objects, such as a pair of ice chests, thus, no chance of the hinge on either side being low enough to slip in under the shelf.
