Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hello, Ive been getting a lot of use in my teardrop in the last months, I've camped in -6` Celsius and stayed warm inside, although the water pipes and pump burst from freezing, travelled down over 400km of forest service roads and 2000km of highways. This little camper is the best thing, I can get it into places no one with a regular RV would be able to get to, it has been fun and a real attention getter!

My problem is when it rains (and it rains a LOT in BC) with the hatch open the water runs down the hatch along the hinge and than drips into the galley and of coarse the harder it rains the more water gets into the galley. Is there any ideas out there too deflect the rain off the hinge? Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks. I'll try and post a picture of this problem the next time I have it out in the rain.

How about creating a little diversion dam with silicon so the water is diverted to the outside? Or maybe attach a string across the gap that the water will follow?

This photo is from a members build here. I saved it for reference. Perhaps it may give you alternate ideas.

[img]http://www.salsaholics.com\trailer\WaterDiverter.jpg[/img]

Others here cut the hinge a little long just for this issue. With a little overhang, the rain water will drip further past the wall. Unfortunately, your hinges may be cut flush.

Two trailers with 2 hatches done the same. They are outside 24-7. Have camped in worm drownding rainstorms with the hatch up. No problems !









Stanley is my best friend........ Stanley hardware

All of the trailers with lift up hatches are simple stanley strap hinges about $ 2.50 +/- They are seen in my album if you can stand to wade thru all 963 pictures. I think I used 4 on the big teardrop and only 2 on the chuckwagon, make it far cheaper than the big $$$ Hurricane hinges The strap hinges were applied to the framing long before the final skin. After this I then tape the whole mess with ice damn tape. This is the 1st barrier ! The skin goes over as much of them as as possible (generally all but the barrel). With the skin now applied I retaped , this is the second barrier. The black rubber final skin is neopreme rubber sheets available at any good plumbing supply store. This is the 3 rd barrier. The picture of the green ( now black) teardrop's cover is rubbermaid rubber shelf liner. I placed a 5' section of 1/2" pvc under that one to act as a support making it into a wall of sorts to divert the rain water to the sides if the hatch is open in the rain. It works flawlessly. Spring gathering of 09 was a friday night wash out we simply placed the ezup with rain sides over the hatch door which was left open and cooked and partied on. Not a drop got past the hinge point and into the galley. You will notice the dog ears on the green one they act to carry the water away from the sides and droop to seal the ends.

You could put some drip molding on the roof in front of your hinge. Check out Grant's Lil' Bear's rain gutter aluminum:

http://www.lilbear.teardrops.net/parts.html

Thanks for the ideas, here is a picture of how much my hinge hangs over I thought it would be enough but still getting water. I'm wandering if there is a way to now attach something added to the hatch or wall or hinge that will not get in the way of closing the hatch?

Another View: I also plan on adding to the hatch edge, an edge moulding same as the roof mouldings (with a longer leg)you see in this picture. I just haven't yet and will need to include this into any ideas.

The rain diverter I make fits in the gap of the hurricane hinge tight to the body side. Make one and you'll see how it works. Danny

Thanks Danny, Did you use aluminum angle to make this piece, in the pcture it says you welded a household hinge ? not sure how to make what your talking about.

I have a Kedar/awning rail attached and use a tarp to shed rain. It has withstood a couple of very heavy rain storms. CR is more or less flat roof but the principle should work. The Keder rail is attached with 3M VHB tape so no holes.

We had the same problem originally. I used silicone caulk to create the flow of water off the edge of the tear rather than into the galley. It was easier than many of the other fixes I considered. I haven't had a problem since.

Greg(and Laurie)

JeepThing wrote:Thanks Danny, Did you use aluminum angle to make this piece, in the pcture it says you welded a household hinge ? not sure how to make what your talking about.

The welded household hinges referrs to the gas strut. It's an old photo in my album.

I use a 3/4" piece of aluminum angle about 3 1/2" long and notch it out on one side of the angle to fit into the hinge gap. The notch is cut at an angle to fit snugly to the bottom of the insert molding. On my TD it ended up as a 3/4" long piece of half of the aluminum angle. I bend it to the appropriate angle to match the hinge angle in relationship to the trailer so the rest of the unmolested angle is plumb with the level trailer. This piece of angle when properly caulked makes run off from the roof edge of the hinge run down the side of the teardrop wall. Danny

I had to make a pair of rain diverters for my current build so here's a picture.
You may or may not have a 15 degree angle at your hurricane hinge.
I put it in a vice to cut it, a much safer way.
I Put the top part in the vice and used a dead blow to bend it so that the 15 deg cut was flush to the vice.
Hope this helps. Danny

What an excellent solution ! There are SO MANY helpful people who have "been there.. done that " and we can all learn from them..

A hearty THANK YOU to all !!