Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

While picking up my trim pieces the other day, the guy helping me mentioned a way to protect the door hinge. He showed me an old trailer with the original aluminum hinges. Basically it's a piece of rubber roofing mat that is glued to the outside of the hinge. It appears to serve two purposes. If keeps most of the dirt and dust out of the hinge. It also keeps the black streaks you get from worn aluminum from getting on the trailer. I was wondering if any one out there has ever tried this and how it worked for them? Thanks.

Hi Steve,

That method of weatherproofing trailer piano hinges was very common in the day.

Here are some pictures of how I did mine, they aren't glued on, but rather just held by the hinge screws.
They work very well, but as with any fabric exposed to the great outdoors, at some point it will fail and need to be replaced.
Note that a dab of sealant at the top will keep water out.
Rob

Side access door;



Main entry door;

Here is an entry made in my Chuckwagon thread back when.


Was ambitious last night so I trimmed the excess material at the hinge point of the hatch. I used some 5" wide ice dam tape over the 2 edge of the 2 sections as my 1st water barrier. I then applied 1/16 " black neopreme rubber cut to six inches wide. I bloused it loosely over the seam and installed 2 sections of 1" by 1/8" aluminum flat stock. This flat
stock had been drilled to simply screw thru and secure the rubber membrane.







Note that the deflector runs long and the dog ears allow the water to channel
away from the sides.

I have 4 builds all done this way ! No runs no drips no errors !