Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Most rear hatches I have seen used are the full width, seal on top of the wall types (for lack of better discription). I have noticed some manufacturers use a rear hatch that seals on the "flats" of the rear roof. In other words, the back roof area is part of the "door frame" and the hatch seals flat down on that. Hatchback car style? (hopefully I explained that enough)(clear as mud, right?)

Ya, the rear opening is not as wide (only a few inches narrower), but would it be easier to seal. I'm thinking of using the galley more for storage than for a kitchen. We mainly stay one night, no more than two in a location, get up early, come in late kind of thing. Just looking for a place to sleep.

Whitney
S. INdiana

but would it be easier to seal.

For the average builder, probably not.

Rob

The biggest leak concern with a hatch is the hinge area. I used redundent layers of waterproofing at the hinge. The outer skin of my hatch lid simply lays on the wall as you described. I did use a garage door bottom weather seal attached to the top of the wall and have had on water intrusion in the galley and it sets outside 24/7. It currently is covered with 6 " of snow and ice.

An inset galley lid in my opinion would require so sort of gutter treatment to divert the water down and out much like a car trunk lid.

It's been done. I don't know how much "easier" to seal it would be but it's an option.

From the EVAC A SHACK:

We played with this before and I found this in my album.

The green is the sidewall and raingutter of the trailer. The red is an inner and outboard hatch rib that fits into the gutter eliminating any water intrusion. Water will daylight out the bottom of the gutter and be diverted to the ground. It will of course need to be fiberglassed or some othertype of waterproofing to protect the wood

Like mentioned it can be done, I'd think that you would want to incorporate some sort of a lip similar to an car trunk to help with the water diversion. Even on the full width ones I build an inner lip, or some sort of water diversion thing, works great when it's raining, keeps the galley dry. Doug

PArnold built his that way: