MORE HELP! Photos of your homemade galley hatch and advice

[tburick]

This is a continuation of my earlier post of "HELP! Photos of your homemade door and advice".

I've tried searching for the info using the "search" function in the forums but to no avail. I keep getting volumes of irrelevant hits...so I thought it would be better to just ask for help

So...I'm building a foamie teardrop to pull behind my 1962 Vespa scooter.

The challenge I'm facing is WEIGHT. I'm trying hard to keep the entire 40"W x 8'L trailer to a mere 125lbs. I'm on target so far with an aluminum frame and other weight saving measures.

I need a very simple, light weight method of attaching the rear galley hatch and making it water resistant. Can you guys show me some photos of your homemade galley hatch? I need a super simple, lightweight solution to seal the hatch when it's closed. I can't rely on a lot of pressure bc the side walls and are only 1" foam. Any ideas or advice? I do better with photos to figure things out so I'm hoping for a bunch of great photos of your DIY hatches and seals!
I've included a few photos of the galley area.

[pchast]

check from page 2 of my build. Others show a detail
of opposed molding and 2 gaskets.

Wood I used was western red cedar, the lightest I found.

[tony.latham]

This is my hatch seal system:



The hatch is on top, the wall is on the bottom. Now... how you can translate this to a foamie, is up to you.

Tony

[MickinOz]

In my opinion nothing is going to be simpler than a hurricane hinge for attaching your hatch.
If there is any reason you can't or don't want to use a hurricane hinge, I found this video by Trekker Trailers to be informative.
They show how they install a gasket seal made from a bicycle tube under a piano hinge to hang their camper door. Should adapt easily, I'm thinking.



As for sealing the rest of the hatch, I used a self adhesive 12mm D seal similar to Tony's.
Very cheap on Ebay.

The advice I got from somewhere was that the seal should be installed so as to be compressed no more than 50%
I installed my D seal in a groove about 5 mm deep. When I close the hatch and use the draw latches, I can see the seal pull in 3 or 4mm after the hatch makes contact.
The hatch has a mark right around the perimeter showing that it is making contact.
No dust has made its way in on dirt roads.

I didn't machine the groove. I laminated to hatch ribs together with a 5mm offset, one set for each side. These had the double effect of strengthening the side wall and forming the seat for the seal. I'm building another camper and will use the same technique again.

I hope these pictures illustrate my approach adequately.

Hatch seal 11.JPG (105.7 KiB) Viewed 1036 times

Hatch Sealing Method.JPG (32.57 KiB) Viewed 1036 times

[MickinOz]

It occurs to me that you are towing this thing with a Vespa.
So, probably
a) You won't being doing 80 mph
b) You won't be doing it in torrential rain
c) You will parked under a tree or a bridge or something if it is raining.

So the seal doesn't need to be super dooper.
Probably just needs to shed rain in a static situation.
Therefore, housebuilding techniques may suffice.
i.e. install flashing that directs runoff past the potential ingress point.
How about something like this, making sure the angle runs past the bottom of the hatch opening?
Over here, we can get plastic angle that might work, too. Probably easily bent with a heat gun.

Simple hatch seal.JPG (23.02 KiB) Viewed 1033 times