Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Folks,

For those like myself who have limited resources, experice, skills and tools, the hatch looks formidable (well, so do the doors) So, as I went to order my 5x5x1/2 for the floors, I was thinking about the hatch. Here is what I came up with.

Make the Hatch lid about 1/2-1 inch wider than the walls on each side. Have 'rails' attached to the hatch lid which come down OUTSIDE of the walls by 1-2 inches. Have the join between the hatch lid and the side wall filled with weather stripping etc so that water cannot get sucked back up and into the hatch.
Advantage is that the rain etc falls outside the walls of tha hatch and, if you make the 'rails' wide enough, the seal on the hatch would be nearly impossible for moisture to get into the hatch.

Aesthetically this is not elegant, though it need not be UGLY. Thoughts.
Bad consequences I have not thought about and should?

Jim

As I understand it you will have a 2" lip overhanging the edges of your TD. I'm not a guru on aerodynamics BUT I think you will create one huge problem when towing at speed with water ingress, for one, and the hatch trying to fly off or bulge at the edges due to the wind resistance created at that point. Just my 2 cents worth.
Cheers
Paul

Jim,

Believe me, you can build your trailer's back hatch. Go into the Generic Benroy Plan link at the top of the page and you'll see a fine way to do it. And that's not the only way. Just keep asking questions................and don't feel like you have to start until you think you know what you are doing. Take your time. There's lots to learn before you start. If you start before then, you'll make a lot of mistakes.

Jim
I lost the link where you build the hatch and tear then cut the hatch away. That's the way I am building mine. Why am I doing this? Because I cannot put the hatch on afterward. Still have to figure out how to get all the sealing and stuff done without moving it. Maybe someone could find it for us.
Miriam

The hatch is not as hard as you think. I really dreaded doing mine. I put it off until the aluminum was on the rest of the tear and had no choice to to it. It really wasn't hard at all when I did do it.
I think if you overhanged it by 2" at the back it would force water in if driving in the rain. Just get some aluminum and aneal it and make a lip. It also wasn't difficult, Just time consuming.

Hi Jim,

I do believe you just described my hatch, more or less. It doesn't leak either !! Sorry I don't have better pictures of the sealing surface but here is the hatch open picture. I think there are more pictures of it in the hall of fame photos. Good luck with the build, by the way, Chris is right, whatever plan you use, you can do it. Building a TD is just many small projects all tied together.

Steve

Steve_Cox wrote:

STEVE! I went to all that work to finish the side of your TD for you and went and stripped it all back off!!

PS: No hijack intended here!!

Kerry,

Not to perpetuate your hi-jacking of the thread, I used this picture for Chris' benefit, something about the truck in the background upsets him.

Steve

Miriam C. wrote:Jim
I lost the link where you build the hatch and tear then cut the hatch away. That's the way I am building mine. Why am I doing this? Because I cannot put the hatch on afterward. Still have to figure out how to get all the sealing and stuff done without moving it. Maybe someone could find it for us.
Miriam

Is this it? http://www.richardflake.com/galleyhatch.htm

Steve_Cox wrote:Kerry,

Not to perpetuate your hi-jacking of the thread, I used this picture for Chris' benefit, something about the truck in the background upsets him.

Steve

OH, YAH! I remember that now!!

Steve,

Yes, that is what I was thinking of doing. That is one beautiful
T! I am not sure why, but when you first posted this all I saw was a little square (no picture) and this time, bingo! good picture.

My thought is that having the hatch extend over the wall does not add much to the Bernouli effect but DOES create turbulence--which you addressed with the trim line extending around the cabin, matching that of the hatch.

Bingo! That is what my crazed mind was thinking about but had not connected to the idea of the trim line to lessen the turbulence.

I will continue to think and look. I would like to know how you did your weatherstripping etc.

Thank you again, Everyone! This is a fantastic board--great teaching and support....great place to kill bad ideas, too <G>

Jim

Paul,

Thank you for raising the issue of turbulence. I thought of extending the hatch just wide enough to accomodate the rails which would come down over the outside of the cabin walls. If I used 3/4" for the rails, then that would be the width of the hatch over the walls so that the rails and hatch were flush.

Jim

kayakrguy wrote:Steve,

Yes, that is what I was thinking of doing. That is one beautiful
T! I am not sure why, but when you first posted this all I saw was a little square (no picture) and this time, bingo! good picture.

My thought is that having the hatch extend over the wall does not add much to the Bernouli effect but DOES create turbulence--which you addressed with the trim line extending around the cabin, matching that of the hatch.

Bingo! That is what my crazed mind was thinking about but had not connected to the idea of the trim line to lessen the turbulence.

I will continue to think and look. I would like to know how you did your weatherstripping etc.

Thank you again, Everyone! This is a fantastic board--great teaching and support....great place to kill bad ideas, too <G>

Jim

Jim,

I'll send you a PM later tonight with a photo of the weather stripping as you requested. So far I've driven in rain about 500 miles between 60 and 75 miles an hour and no leaks yet. But Paul was right a 2" overhang would cause some real stress at speed. My trim only has a 3/4" overhang. with a 3/4" radius on the corners, the water rolls off pretty well from what I could see.

Steve

Steve,

Thank you! I wasn't very clear in my original note. I meant overhang total, not on each side, but my note previous to you last one tried to clear that up...Paul was, indeed, right...a large overhang would create quite a bit of stress/turbulence.

Jim