Hondo Garage's New Thing

Damn. A new frame is a lot more than I thought you’d say. I’ll be driving my Tacoma for all of my trip, from what google maps satellite imagery and online searching shows I will be able to make it through everything. If not I have almost two months off work to figure out how to backtrack and get around the problem. I’d love to take one of my bikes but my dog will be with me so that’s not really an option this go around.

 

Nice. The route is about 80% FS roads, and nothing over a four digit number so they should all be passable. In most areas if the main route is impassable it looks like there are combinations of other FS roads that will end up in the same place. My main goal is to make my way from the Pacific to Colorado on as little pavement as possible.

 

What is the reason? Thank you for your information.

 

Damn! Adventure groms

 

Been there, extremely frustrating. I guess I was first with this problem.

Luckily drilling out the rivets and re-riveting wasn’t too bad. But I don’t have whatever that new sealant is between the frame and extrusion, so I dunno how that’ll work. I just slipped the new hinge material in with a friend’s help as it was awkward by myself.

The more I look at the doors now, the more I see that back corner on both sides, I really notice that it gets pushed up more than the front. Not sure if a slightly shorter/weaker throw from the strut would change anything or not.

I am considering asking them for at least one more replacement hinge for each side, because I think it’ll keep happening in the future

 

It might leak there. When they upgraded my unit, to eliminate leaks, they applied the sealant all around perimeter and I've had no leaks as the result.

 

The back corners of my unit raise more than the front corners. Mentioned that during my install and was looked at like I was crazy until the guy who installed it said "yeah, I have noticed they are pretty much all like that".

 

I was late to the sealant party (I have #43 and never paid attention to TW until my tent broke). But I have never seen any leaking from that area on mine. I’m sure it’ll come, and I was offered an overhaul if I give them the GFC for 8 weeks (ha.).

Man, I looked at my buddy’s too because I thought I was crazy. The back corners push up more! And, if you haven’t had the pleasure of your hinge breaking (welcome to the club @ace7196 ), you probably wouldn’t know it but the door won’t close when the hinge is cracked because the strut pushes straight to the sky. There’s something there that can probably be reengineered, but I’m not that smart.

I looked all over the innernets and could only find a UK company that makes struts that ‘pause’ called Camloc. After several emails between them and Suspa Springs going over all the details, they said they didn’t have a comparable model to whatever Suspa spring is on our GFC.

When I saw the door wouldn’t close because that back strut was pushing skyward, I suspected that, over time, was the culprit to the wear on the hinge

 

You’re handier than I am, I rolled for a couple weeks with two ratchet straps around the whole thing!! I hope they get you the hinge piece and rivets soon, took me under an hour to repair. Ask for extras!!

 

The fix would be a metal/stainless hinge imo.
Mine too raises higher in the rear.

 

I'm thinking that some type of stainless strap hinge that would span over the stock hinge and through bolt with nylock nuts to the door. The strap hinge would attach to the extrusion's T track via a metal plate mounted with GFC track T nuts. Perhaps use three per door and the stock hinge would provide the waterproofing. You would use plastic or rubber spacers to clear the stock hinge and provide isolation. Of course, it would be best if these hinges be installed before failure of the stock hinges. Paint or plastic coat the hinges to match.

I'm not sure if I want to be the first to do this. I'd like to see GFC's fix first.

 

I’ve seen some on trailers that have a rubber section doing the hinge ‘work’ and the rest is buried under metal casing. I don’t think it would be practical in a GFC application. What hinges have you been looking at?

The problems with a stainless steel piano hinge are that it’s not rust proof, nor would it be waterproof. Matching the hinge point on an overlay hinge outside of the stock plastic material would need to be very precise, for sure out of my engineering range. The door won’t open correctly if the hinging points are off, and may cause even more problems

 

Anyone interested in a GFC that is trying to get rid of a 4wc Fleet or Eagle?

 

Ha Ha.
I just was up at hood for the van expo and got to step inside one.
I think I want a more “livable” space. Just putting out the feelers.

 

BS! If you knew why you would say so.

 

Alternatively, you could explain to the folks here what you know (if you actually know something), or you could just not say that you know why if you aren't going to say why

 

Yeah, that looks good but it would have to be a factory install unless you are willing to deal with the old sealant mess, lifting, the extrusion, making sure its on straight, etc.
That's what they should've done in the first place.

 

While not a lot of lumber up there, it's still nice to be able to use the truck as a truck.

 

When did you snag those new rack mounts? I've been told "in a couple of weeks" for about two months....ugh