my guess is the problem is your #1 thought.
I say this because when I mounted the camper to the trailer I tried to save a couple of dollars by cutting off the long SS carriage bolts that CLC supplied rather than buying new ones of the proper length.
I threaded a normal nut onto the carriage bolt, sawed the bolt to length, then removed the nut thinking that this would chase the threads at the cut end.
I put the carriage bolts through the bottom of the camper into the trailer frame and used the nylock nuts. almost immediately they completely seized up. being stubborn, I tried 3 of them before I gave up. fortunately I was able to use a Fein tool to cut the bolts off. I’m sure the problem was the sharp edges of my cut shredded the nylon insert and caused the seize-up.