Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Well, I am finally making some progress, got the wall frames made, and hope to glue the exterior plywood to them tomorow. But before I glue the plywood to them, I want to figure out how I am going to make the hatch seal. Mike was the only one that had really detailed pictures of his hatch that I could find.

I like Mikes idea, but since I am skinning the sides with aluminum, I don't think his plan will work for me. I couldn't find any other good pictures of how to make the hatch seal. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Junkman:

I try to get a picture posted, but what I did was to attach a piece of bulb style w/stripping under the aluminum trim that goes on the sides.

I will also be installing another piece under the 1" X 1" alum. angle trim that will be attached to the galley hatch. This gives me a double seal.

LarryL

I did same as Larry. I used a "D" shaped w/stripping (thinks it's the same thing). Just plan ahead so there's a little gap between hard surfaces to accomodate the compressed stripping.

brickz

I used double "D" shapped weather stripping and it's working great. Placed the D's kind of like Mike's wood system. One D facing down attached to the lid and another D facing up attached to the tear. The water has to get by the first D and then go up and over the next D.

SteveH wrote:I used double "D" shapped weather stripping and it's working great. Placed the D's kind of like Mike's wood system. One D facing down attached to the lid and another D facing up attached to the tear. The water has to get by the first D and then go up and over the next D.

So when the hatch is closed, the two weatherstrips are next to each other?

The other question I have, is what do you put on the top edge of the side wall, the same aluminum trim that joins the walls to the roof?

Do tell... where do I find Mike's drawings? They might not work for you but perhaps it will work for me.

Salivanto wrote:Do tell... where do I find Mike's drawings? They might not work for you but perhaps it will work for me.

Woops, I meant Steve's pages (Mike's Diner)

Here's a link to the hatch section http://www.steve-frederick.com/diner15.html

I thought I had posted the drawings here...

http://www.mikenchell.com/lildiner/

but I just looked and there wasn't anything...

So it looks like I'll have to go digging for drawings...

Mike...

P.S. I'm sure there are some in the messages, if you do a search for lil diner... like this for example...


I'll dig up the rest for you real soon!!!

So when the hatch is closed, the two weatherstrips are next to each other?

The other question I have, is what do you put on the top edge of the side wall, the same aluminum trim that joins the walls to the roof?

Jeff,

Yes, when my hatch is closed, there are two weatherstrips, one nest to the other. One is glued to the hatch, and one is glued to the trailer wall. The trailer wall has a moulding simular to the one that covers the roof/wall joint. It is the same moulding that I used to cover the door edge.

I'm certain there are many more and maybe better ways to do it, this is just the way I figured out how to do it.

Steve, did your hatch have any leaks on the way back from LA?

asianflava wrote:Steve, did your hatch have any leaks on the way back from LA?

Rocky,

No, the hatch had no leaks. Wish I could say that for the door.

Coming back from Purtis Creek, we ran in rain from Waco to Georgetown and the widows also leaked. Learned there are some plugs in the widow frames that are supposed to be removed to drain the water, and since I mounted my windows essentially sidways from how they were designed, had to drill some weep holes in the frames. Now they don't leak.

I just replaced my galley hinge. I'll see if I can post some photos in a few dyas. We got some really detailed shots up close of the edges & everything. The most important thing is to make sure you get your (hurricane) hinge on facing the right way!!!

I'm building my hatch now also.

What about the hinge on top? how did you keep water from running through it? I'm think of using something like the stripping that you would put on the botton of the garage door so when you lift the hatch it would still cover the hinge.