Hatch Spacing

[Jst83]

Tried the search but have come up with nothing. I'm sure this has been asked before but here goes. I'm working on my hatch and was wondering what is a good space to leave between the side walls and the hatch? I have the tendency to make things fit to snug. Thanks, Scott

[asianflava]

I put scrap pieces of 1/8in ply on each side to shim it away from the wall. Who knows if it truly is 1/8in but that is how I did it.

[Jst83]

1/8" that's not much. Snug like I like it. You don't have any problems with it bumping the side when you close the hatch?

[mikeschn]

I made my hatch 1/4" smaller than the sidewalls... so yea, that's 1/8" on a side.

It worked fine for me...

Mike...

[madjack]

the ribs on our hatch are 1/8th inside the outside wall as well............................

[jplock]

I did an 1/8th inch on each side also, I had some abrasion on the peices last summer on my 2,000 mile trip that was before I got the bulkhead in and the galley started. It seems to be ok now though. I had 1/8th shims in it when mounting the hinge.
jplock

[Jst83]

Thanks all an 1/8 inch it is. Hope to have the hatch done by next weekend.

Scott

[asianflava]

I did an 1/8th inch on each side also, I had some abrasion on the peices last summer on my 2,000 mile trip that was before

The Hurricane hinge lets the hatch slide side to side so I have some abrasion on both sides.

[Jst83]

I did an 1/8th inch on each side also, I had some abrasion on the peices last summer on my 2,000 mile trip that was before

The Hurricane hinge lets the hatch slide side to side so I have some abrasion on both sides.

Interesting Has anyone else found this to be a problem?

How did you correct it or can you?

[ccdell]

I noticed a while back Dave Nathanson mentioned driving a screw into the ends of the hinge to prevent the hatch from shifting side to side. Check out the post from Dave (about two screens down from the top) in the "Hurricane Hinge, Hatch, Struts, Seals, Doors and More" sticky.

http://tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?t=11210

Scott

[Kens]

I did about 3/16 on a side. My hatch did move to one side and rub. I made hard wood rub wedges on each side to keep the hatch centered.

[SkipperSue]

Hmm, I have an idea about this problem. It entails the hood of a Triumph Spitfire bonnet (hood). let me do some searching, I'll get back on this.

[Jst83]

I did about 3/16 on a side. My hatch did move to one side and rub. I made hard wood rub wedges on each side to keep the hatch centered.

I was thinking about short metal spacers near the hinge to keep it from shifting. Probably around the same Idea

[Kens]

Thats basically what I did just make sure you taper them.

[SkipperSue]

Ok, back from my search. The Triumph Spitfire bonnet (hood) opens up about like the galley hatch on a TD, only in the front as opposed to the rear in the TD. The Spit uses these conical rubber bushings to keep the hood from moving around. I'm not sure if this is exactly like the problem you are mentioning but anyway here is my thoughts on the problem.

Item number 25 is the part I'm thinking might work. Prolly mounted at the bottom of the galley lid. The could be installed with the "T nuts" (I think that's what they are called, I think that Mike posted a pic of them a few days ago) The female end could be a big counter sunk hole about half the diameter of the cone. I'm not pleased with this pic as I had to shrink it down enuff in order to post it, hopefully you have an image program that will let you zoom in on it. I hope I'm in the ball park, just trying to be of some help here.