Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hello,
Is there any subsitute for the Hurricane Hinge used on the Hatch. I noticed that a 5 ft. Hurricane would cost about $60 with shipping.

What about a heavy Piano hinge with some kind of rubber membrane under it to make it water tight?

thanks,
Bob

Bob,
Check with somebody who has a Shadow.
I believe they have a rubber membrane on the exterior side of the piano hinge.

Don't think you can beat the service from Grant at Lil Bear. I sent my check off on Wednesday and recieved the "Better than Hurrcane" hinge today (1 week). I love it and it will be watertight without extra work and thinking.
Is very solid!

Roberto, many folks use a HD piano hinge, preferably in SS...they go for about half the price of a hurricane hinge, some use a rubber membrane underneath and some on top...they work well but take a little more work to get correct...considering the overall cost of the build, I think the extra money is worth it for the convenience you get with Grants hurrican hinge
madjack

I got mine from Grant about a year ago, and finally put the hatch in a couple of weeks back. It was very nice not to have to overthink using a piano hinge covered with a strip of rubber cut from a truck inner tube.... I know it can be done, but building a tear is nothing but decisions from start to finish, especially the first build, where everything if new.... so not having to give the hinge a lot of thought was nice.

I used a stainless steel hinge.
I covered it with rubber roofing material.
I was able to buy everything locally. I am very pleased with it.
Very easy to install.

I am using a waterproof hinge, which is commonly used on the baggage lockers on Greyhound buses. Super strong, light and cheap. Hurricane hinge is not available in Australia, but this hinge is as good or better. Email Reiner at:-
[email protected].
as I have forgotten the name of the hinge, he is very helpful and uses this hinge exclusively.

I am using two 30" SS Piano hinges (from lowes) with a cut up inner tube under it. it has worked good for me. I did use #8 -1 1/4" SS scews instead of the little ones they came with.

Roberto-

I used a load rated continuous plastic hinge (both sources are in links, sources of supply):

http://www.monroeengineering.com/hinges ... -hinge.htm

It can also be purchased by the foot at McMaster-Carr:

Load-Rated Plastic Piano Hinges Click on an item first and then on the link to its Technical Drawing.
These load-rated polyolefin hinges provide smooth operation and long life both indoors and out. An alternative to metal piano hinges, they are designed to be surface mounted with screws, nails, or other fasteners (not included). They have a flexible webbed middle that's 7/32" Wd. x 3/64" Thick., and can be cut to length with a hacksaw or shears. From the folded position, the range of motion is 360° . Temperature range is -40° to +180° F.
To Order: Please specify color (black, gray, or white) and length from those listed below. The last length listed is the full-roll length as well as the maximum continuous length. Click to change image size
Cap., lbs./inch Open Wd. Available Lengths Leaf Thick. Per Ft.
100 1 1/8" 4', 8', 25' 1/8"
1588A2 $2.17
100 1 1/2" 4', 8', 25' 1/8"
1588A3 2.55
100 2" 4', 8', 25' 1/8"
1588A5 3.74
100 3" 4', 8', 25' 1/8"
1588A7 5.41
Click to change image size

Cheers,

Coop

Not sure, but think this may have been tried and it eventually broke. Would be interesting, though, if this is a newer and tougher material.... it does say it is UV protected..

Hey Arne-

The secret is using the LOAD RATED hinge, the one I used on my 6' w x 4'l+ Ctear hatch has a load rating of 100 PSI.

They do make a non LR hinge which would most likely fail...

Cheap enough tho!

Cheers,

Coop

Coop, if you use it, it would seem you would have to put the screws quite close together, or have a metal strip on top of each side.... because it is plastic/flexible.

But, the price sure is right, and it does not stick up the way hurrican hinge does.... (I'm always looking to cut air resistance)...

Arne-

Yep thats right! I tried using just screws and the hinge had a tendency to "pucker up" around the screw heads, problem solved by using a standard aluminum carpet binder strip as a cover...

Cheers,

Coop

Roberto wrote:Hello,
Is there any subsitute for the Hurricane Hinge used on the Hatch. I noticed that a 5 ft. Hurricane would cost about $60 with shipping.

What about a heavy Piano hinge with some kind of rubber membrane under it to make it water tight?

thanks,
Bob

Bob,

Hatch hinges can be a real can of worms here on the forum.. opinions abound and everybodys got one. I'm building a Woody TD and didn't want a big externally mounted aluminum extruded hinge. I decided to use the McmasterCarr Load rated, UV protected plastic hinge. Shil from Canada has been using one and I believe his only problem was nothing will stick to it and it flexed when screws were put into it... So here a short sample of how I am mounting my Woody version of that hinge in the picture below. Also just in case, and to appease the nay sayer in me, I am going to ad 2 nylon web straps to the underside of the hatch at each end in case it fails at 70 MPH.



Steve

Steve,

We use hinges like the one in you picture in the control surfaces of our model airplanes, only of course, a lot smaller. They work good, until they break. The thing that gets them is sunlight. It makes the plastic brittle and then they break. I know it looks like a good idea, but personally I would be afraid of it in an application that would get a lot of sunlight like on top of a teardrop trailer. Just my opinion.