Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I'm partial to the plastic hinge as well. No, I haven't got one but devinately considering it, maybe, kinda. I think you should give it a try at the front, it can always be changed at a later date....

Steve, how long have you had your's on for? Got any closeup pictures??





O.K..... So I'm a slow typer..

Steve,
You really got me thinking now...

Steve, I'm interested too, is there any rating on life of the plastic/vinyl both if stored indoors or out?

John

Dean
The Warrior hinge has to be water tight both directions and water will leak back through that type of hinge when the hatch is up. The way I solved the problem was to put a 3/4 aluminum angle right up against the back of the hinge to act as a gutter. Work fine no leaks.
Gary

Gary,

I am planning on using rubber over my hinge, like Endo did...



However, that plastic hinge has me wondering...

Mike...

jdarkoregon wrote:Steve, I'm interested too, is there any rating on life of the plastic/vinyl both if stored indoors or out?

John

John,

The hinge in question is made of polyolefin plastic. I have read manufacturer claims of 1,000,000 full travel cycles. But I'm sure that was with perfect alignment between the two hinged parts, not something that happens in the real world. I think a good question is how many times do you think you would raise the hatch on a tear drop in your lifetime?

I just happened to have a little piece of this hinge on a home made plastic bait bucket lid. It's been outside for about 8-9 months now, so far the UV hasn't affected the hinge, the bucket is getting a little brittle looking on top though.

Mike,

Endo's hinge w/cover looks like a pretty nice way to go on an aluminum skined trailer.

If the plastic hinge is installed on top, does it need to have metal strips over it to keep it flat? It would seem that it would need a lot of closely spaced screws to keep it from buckling..... interesting concept.

Mike, is it worth the effort? You need hinges, rubber, aluminum strips to put it together....

What is the source of the rubber?

Arne,

What ever I choose has to be weathertight in both directions. A hurricane hinge is not. That's why the polyolefin plastic hinge sounds so interesting...

We got the rubber from a local roofing place. It was scrap from a job they did that day. They just gave it to me! Free!

Mike..

Just my two cents worth.

I used the hinge from So-Cal Teardrops for my galley hatch.
This hinge is water tight in both directions. It's expensive but I
am very happy with it.

Psychohillbilly