I NEED 2 Hurrican hinges (CANCEL THE ORDER)

[fm-usa]

( updated this post, see below )

[Esteban]

TC Teardrops LLC sells a Teardrop Camper Trailer Hurricane Hinge with Rain Gutter in 4ft. 5 ft. and 6 ft. lengths through their E Bay store. It looks like a superior design.

[Graniterich]

The rain gutter looks like it is on body side, I thought the issue is when hatch is open water would run down hatch to hinge and leak through path of hinge as shown in earlier picture. What am I missing?

[Esteban]

fm-usa has an illustration earlier in this thread showing a potential path for water to leak thru an opened hurricane hinge. I tried to enter his illustration here and was unable to. The illustration shows a hurricane hinge opened a full 90 degrees, which I consider more fully open than needed...leading to greater potential for a leak.

Yes I too found out that with heavy rain the hurricane hinge leaks. It isn't the issue of coming off the ends, the water runs through the hinge in the middle. On my first trip I had little streams of water flowing into the galley. I kept some towels under it to mop up the water when hatch was open. I think it is still a great hinge and better than piano hinge but there are some tips to make it work better. For my first trip I had missed the one about a small D weather strip seal to make it waterproof (read on)

First as others have said leave 3/4 over hang son each side so rain drips off the ends. Second I bought mine from Grant when he had his business and he sent hand sketched drawings for install and you need to drill a small hold in outer hinge piece and put a screw (you can see it in the picture), and cut a small slot for the screw to rotate in the inside hinge piece in one or both ends of the hinge otherwise it slides back and forth when opening and closing. Finally to make it water proof you need to install a small D weather strip (Picked one up from Home depot and use 1/2 of the double D weather strip) along the hinge. This picture shows the brown D weather strip. When the hinge opens it presses and seals tight against the hinge and the rain runs over the hinge instead of through it into the galley. It is easy to replace if needed

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I didn't see any need for an offset so I went with the one without and mounted it flush. If you already have the offset one you can put a wood or aluminum spacer (usually 1/4") under the offset mount to make it level. All you need is about a 1/4" gap between roof and hatch lid for the hinge to fit when closed. Not sure you need any other measurements I bought mine a little longer than I wanted and mounted with a few screws tested it out then cut to length and then mounted with putty tape to seal.

I used one hinge on my galley and one on my tongue box. After the above mods neither leak. I do seem to have issues with the black screw cover shrinking (Must be the wide Colorado weather temp variations) as shown in the picture. I replaced it and left it long so one day I can trim and it will stay long enough. That strip is purely cosmetic and has nothing to do with the function of the hinge. You can also see where I trimmed the hinge ends to fit over the seal area.

Scroll to the bottom of this link http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?p=1045874 and you will see more info on correct placement of hinge and the weather strip to make waterproof

if you need more help just asked as I have other pictures I can post if needed. There are lots more on here also just search for hurricane hinge install.

Dan

Dan/kayackdlk' photo shows his hatch's hurricane hinge opened about 45 degrees. He added an exterior D seal on the hatch to eliminate leaking along the length of his hurricane hinge.

[fm-usa]

The 'D' seal looks good. As long as it holds, all is good.

I was thinking along the same line. If I used the HH I would'a use a 'P' seal, has more adhesive surface.

The hinge design kinda looks like it was made for a seal.
BUT caution, I wouldn't use a really stiff rubber, it could fatigue the upper hinge somewhere and break.

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