I called Dave at Nicholas Smith (Great outfit by the way) to ask him to check another set to see if they had thumbtack couplers (like the MTH parts site shows and like @452Card has on his which he did.
Unfortunately the additional one they had left also had the same couplers as mine.
So Dave put it on the track they have and the couplers indeed rubbed against the bellows just like mine. A design flaw.
At first he suggested a spacer, but when he opened the car he saw what I saw. A spacer would force the mounting post downward and any screw would bind the truck preventing it from swiveling. All he could think of was cutting the bellows.
I asked him about returning it and he said, "of course". He told me I could keep looking for suggestions here on the forum and then return it next week if I wanted to or right now. My choice.
I would really like to keep the set so does anyone have a workaround for the problem in terms of raising the body or anything else besides cutting down the bellows and making a mess rendering it not returnable?
Thanks,
John