Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I had planned on building a barn door for the galley, but am now going for a lift up, using a hurricane hinge from Grant Whipp. What a guy!

Here's my question; does the hatch go between the sidewalls or does it actually cover the side walls? Hopefully that makes sense. My side walls are 1/2" ply and are built out to 1 7/8" on the inside.

I'm trying to figure out what configuration will keep my galley driest. Hopefully my question makes sense. Thanks in advance.

On top of. Between would pretty much guarentee leaks!

Well,
The curved ribs go between the walls, but the outer skin overlaps the walls. The seals go between the overlap and the top edge of the wall. Some combination of trim pieces makes the overlap a little more sturdy. There seems to be some variety in how people execute this.

The main idea would be to give your weatherstrip an easy job to do, and the best way to accomplish that is to have the hatch on top, the sides below, and the weatherstrip in-between. Both above posts are correct. I used 1/8" aluminum to reinforce the hatch lip which the weatherstrip is attached to.

I'm going to need to do a little re-engineering then. Since I built the thing so that the roof sits between the sides, so for the hatch, I'm going to need to cut down the sides by the thickness of the roof (hopefully the same amount on each side) and buy wider plywood. Whew! I'm glad I asked before I went too much farther! Thanks all!

Some pics would probably go a long way to helping with suggestions.

Can you add some narrow strips, couple of inches wide to frame in the back opening, giving a wider edge for the existing piece of ply to land on?

I am just about to start the hatch build myself, so I can't speak with direct experience, but what I did - following advice from multiple sources, was route off 1/4 inch on each sidewall just behind the hinge point. This is to accommodate the bits of trim and weather seals that will go on top of the roof edge and under the roof overlap. It basically looks like a little 1/4 step down and the radius just continues to the floor.

I'm hoping to finish my hatch rib template today.

Pretty much got the hatch skinned. I built it in place and it worked quite well. I will have to add another short panel to finish the bottom. The sides are flush with 1/4 space between hatch ribs and sidewall and 1/4 between sidewall top and hatch skin, where the seals will be.

nevadatear wrote:On top of. Between would pretty much guarantee leaks!

Not necessarily.

I do mine totally different than most.

I go between the side walls.

Heres an old answer I gave on the subject earlier.

Junkboy999 wrote:What happen to the one you built last week?
Ha ha hahahah

You doing anything special for a seal on the sides of the hatch?

I do, but I can't find pictures of it at the moment.

I always run the outside molding through the hatch area, a continuous run, front to back and build the hatch area in about 3" each side.



Another trailer but maybe a better view.



I run a second insert molding on the inside of the hatch on the body of the trailer. This becomes the seal for the hatch.

I make the Hinge, and I use an offset hurricane hinge" 2/3" shorter than the distance between the 2 outside moldings which is a 1 1/2" on each side overhang. (+-)

This gives the water a 1"(+-) channel for it to escape.

For water to get into the galley it has to run down, make a right or left turn, run up hill and jump over a 3/8" barrier.

Be at one with the gravity! Waters like talkin to a teenager, no matter what you say, it'll do what ever it wants. And then say Duh!

Photos to come.

Yet another trailer.

The troth the water goes through

[url=http://s26.photobucket.com/user/len19070/media/100_4092_zps696068f4.jpg.html]

This is the old way I did it. Now I run the upper part of the hinge 1 1/2" over the edge of the lid as in photo #3.

Happy Trails

Len