Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I am building the Kuffel Creek Cubby. The plans call for the sides to be notched by 3/8 of an inch at the rear along where the galley hatch fits to the sides. This is for the "old" style hurricane hinge which has a 1/4" offset.

I have the "new and improved" hurricane hinge which does not have any offset.

Do I now need to notch the sides in the hatch area by more than the 3/8 of an inch noted in the plans? Should the notch be increased by the full 1/4" inch for a total of 5/8 of an inch?

I have searched for everything I can find on hurricane hinges but couldn't find the answer to this question.

Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

I just put my Hurricane hinge on today, so it's fresh in my mind. I still need to trim it some, but need to wait until the roof trim and hatch trim are added.

I did a 3/8" notch in my side walls and have the new hurricane hinge without offset. (from Lil' Bear). I wished I had not done as deep of a notch. I think 1/4 inch would have been better. In some areas of my hatch I ended up with up to 1/2" gap. I think it will be ok as I can fill the gap with heavier weatherstrip and also, I will be adding counter top edging to the top of my galley walls . This should close the gap more. I may even fiberglass the bottom edge of my galley overhang to add more strength and further close the gap. Another problem with a 3/8" gap is it is harder to find trim that will drop down enough to hide the notch and weatherstip. Right angle ally trim is available, but then its hard to bend and won't match the RV style trim I'll use on the roof area.

So to answer you question, you only need a 1/4" to 3/8" notch with the new hurricane hinge. Don't start adding even more to your notch in efforts to adjust for no offset. You'd end up with way to big of a gap and really be in trouble.
Grant Whip actually likes to taper cut the notch from about 1/4" up by the hinge, to 0 about 12 to 18" from the hinge. With proper trimming, weatherstip is often not needed.
More pics in my album.
Jerry

Jerry Bleeg wrote:


I just put my Hurricane hinge on today, so it's fresh in my mind. I still need to trim it some, but need to wait until the roof trim and hatch trim are added.

I did a 3/8" notch in my side walls and have the new hurricane hinge without offset. (from Lil' Bear). I wished I had not done as deep of a notch. I think 1/4 inch would have been better. In some areas of my hatch I ended up with up to 1/2" gap. I think it will be ok as I can fill the gap with heavier weatherstrip and also, I will be adding counter top edging to the top of my galley walls . This should close the gap more. I may even fiberglass the bottom edge of my galley overhang to add more strength and further close the gap. Another problem with a 3/8" gap is it is harder to find trim that will drop down enough to hide the notch and weatherstip. Right angle ally trim is available, but then its hard to bend and won't match the RV style trim I'll use on the roof area.

So to answer you question, you only need a 1/4" to 3/8" notch with the new hurricane hinge. Don't start adding even more to your notch in efforts to adjust for no offset. You'd end up with way to big of a gap and really be in trouble.
Grant Whip actually likes to taper cut the notch from about 1/4" up by the hinge, to 0 about 12 to 18" from the hinge. With proper trimming, weatherstip is often not needed.
More pics in my album.
Jerry

Jerry, you could always add a piece of 1/8" aluminum flat stock to the galley wall edges to fill it in some. Danny

halfdome, Danny wrote:

Jerry Bleeg wrote:


I just put my Hurricane hinge on today, so it's fresh in my mind. I still need to trim it some, but need to wait until the roof trim and hatch trim are added.

I did a 3/8" notch in my side walls and have the new hurricane hinge without offset. (from Lil' Bear). I wished I had not done as deep of a notch. I think 1/4 inch would have been better. In some areas of my hatch I ended up with up to 1/2" gap. I think it will be ok as I can fill the gap with heavier weatherstrip and also, I will be adding counter top edging to the top of my galley walls . This should close the gap more. I may even fiberglass the bottom edge of my galley overhang to add more strength and further close the gap. Another problem with a 3/8" gap is it is harder to find trim that will drop down enough to hide the notch and weatherstip. Right angle ally trim is available, but then its hard to bend and won't match the RV style trim I'll use on the roof area.

So to answer you question, you only need a 1/4" to 3/8" notch with the new hurricane hinge. Don't start adding even more to your notch in efforts to adjust for no offset. You'd end up with way to big of a gap and really be in trouble.
Grant Whip actually likes to taper cut the notch from about 1/4" up by the hinge, to 0 about 12 to 18" from the hinge. With proper trimming, weatherstip is often not needed.
More pics in my album.
Jerry

Jerry, you could always add a piece of 1/8" aluminum flat stock to the galley wall edges to fill it in some. Danny

The Cubby plans call for putting AL over the galley sidewalls and that should take care of the extra room.

Hey Jerry Bleeg, if you put some "L" trim so that it drops over the side, that should give you some coverage where you have a gap. It will allow you to stuff more weather stripping in and give you more water protection to boot. Just something to think about.

It seems I have hijack this original post. Thanks to all who have replied with suggestions on "Closing the Gap".

Jerry

No problem from my end. If I end up with too big of a gap, now I'll know how to fix it.

That's how I learned. Too big of a gap.

I found some channel aluminum that fit over the arched edge of my plywood perfectly and was soft so it bent in a nice arc. I lucked out because it did fill the gap just right for some weatherstripping.
I think the stuff I found was at Menards.

I agree that 3/8" is too much. I did that and ended up with two sets of weatherstripping to close the gap. Grant's hatch seal will compress down to nearly nothing, so start small!

Every day I read this forum and learn more. A big thank you to all the posters. I am on my way, and all these post help be visualize what I have coming up.



Thank you,

Greg (and Laurie)

I guess the hatch skin thickness plays alot in deciding how much of an offset you need. I bought some luan at home depot and it is 5mm or 3/16" thick. I was going with a 3/8" offset but now I need to re-think.

...that gap is to accommodate your hatch seal/edge trim and said seal should compress around 50%...a hollow core seal such as Grant sells, will work better than a solid piece since the hollow core will retain its shape better(learned that the hard way)...you need enough room in the notch to handle the seal and any trim you put over the edge...the plywood skin doesn't matter as long as it is the same as the roof skin, if not, adjust as needed........
madjack

I don't have my copy of the "Cubby" plans in front of me, but I seem to recall that the reason Kevin spec'd that 3/8" notch was to compensate for his hatch framing method as well as the way he trimmed out the edges of the galley wall and the hatch edges with common aluminum angle. Even with the original "Hurricane Hinge" 1/4" upward offset, his design needed that extra 3/8" notch in the walls. The amount of notch needed depends entirely on how you frame & sheath & skin & trim your hatch lid and how you trim your galley wall edges.

As Jerry already stated, in my own builds, I generally start with a 1/4" notch at the hatch hinge beam, then taper it off to nothing in 12" to 18" (depends on the wall profile) ... but, I sheath my lids with the same 1/8" luan that I do my roofs, and I trim my galley wall edges with counter-top molding (I also "skin" the underside of my galley lid's overhang with left-over aluminum sheeting, either .032" or .040"). Other factors may come into play depending on profile chosen and whether or not the hatch is full-lenglh, but I think you get the idea ...

Hope that helps. Good Luck, and as always ...

CHEERS!

Grant