My front hurricane hinge for the roof hatch...

[Micro469]

I'm partial to the plastic hinge as well. No, I haven't got one but devinately considering it, maybe, kinda. I think you should give it a try at the front, it can always be changed at a later date....

Steve, how long have you had your's on for? Got any closeup pictures??





O.K..... So I'm a slow typer..

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

Steve,
You really got me thinking now...

[jdarkoregon]

Steve, I'm interested too, is there any rating on life of the plastic/vinyl both if stored indoors or out?

John

[RAYVILLIAN]

Dean
The Warrior hinge has to be water tight both directions and water will leak back through that type of hinge when the hatch is up. The way I solved the problem was to put a 3/4 aluminum angle right up against the back of the hinge to act as a gutter. Work fine no leaks.
Gary

[mikeschn]

Gary,

I am planning on using rubber over my hinge, like Endo did...



However, that plastic hinge has me wondering...

Mike...

[Steve_Cox]

Steve, I'm interested too, is there any rating on life of the plastic/vinyl both if stored indoors or out?

John

John,

The hinge in question is made of polyolefin plastic. I have read manufacturer claims of 1,000,000 full travel cycles. But I'm sure that was with perfect alignment between the two hinged parts, not something that happens in the real world. I think a good question is how many times do you think you would raise the hatch on a tear drop in your lifetime?

I just happened to have a little piece of this hinge on a home made plastic bait bucket lid. It's been outside for about 8-9 months now, so far the UV hasn't affected the hinge, the bucket is getting a little brittle looking on top though.

Mike,

Endo's hinge w/cover looks like a pretty nice way to go on an aluminum skined trailer.

[Arne]

If the plastic hinge is installed on top, does it need to have metal strips over it to keep it flat? It would seem that it would need a lot of closely spaced screws to keep it from buckling..... interesting concept.

[Arne]

Mike, is it worth the effort? You need hinges, rubber, aluminum strips to put it together....

What is the source of the rubber?

[mikeschn]

Arne,

What ever I choose has to be weathertight in both directions. A hurricane hinge is not. That's why the polyolefin plastic hinge sounds so interesting...

We got the rubber from a local roofing place. It was scrap from a job they did that day. They just gave it to me! Free!

Mike..

[Psychohillbilly]

Just my two cents worth.

I used the hinge from So-Cal Teardrops for my galley hatch.
This hinge is water tight in both directions. It's expensive but I
am very happy with it.

Psychohillbilly