Hondo Garage's New Thing

Please post this on the GFC Forum.https://forum.gofastcampers.com/t/what-s-up-with-hinges-breaking/136/111

Just use multiple layers of good quality duct tape for a temporary fix

 

Did you have the new sealant on yours? Seeing these posts make me a bit nervous...

 

Mine and another had sealed campers when our hinges broke.

I have the same username on the GFC forum.

You can see what we discussed about this there.

 

That’s the plan. Duct tape, and in case of full failure cordage to the frame brace in the upper corners through the gas strut attachment of the hatch.

I’ll guess I’ll register on the gfc forum soon. It’ll be a little bit.

My gfc is all original. no reseal.

emailed gfc and awaiting response.

 

Never received a confirmation email for my gfc board registration. Checked the junk box too.

Got an email response from support. They think it is all the old design and the new sealing design will fix it. They gave me three options for repair. Two involve getting the gfc to the in Bozeman.

I may go with the bandaid solution for now since I use my gfc 2 weekends a month and winter is busiest. I don’t want to be without it for peak season for an unknown amount of time. I am skeptical of their delivery schedules after the install delays.

I duct taped the hatch and added limit straps for now. Still holding.

Long term I may look into the metal hinge someone linked earlier. One option instead of metal the whole length, I was thinking to put metal hinges on the outside two inches of each panel and keep the middle plastic or sealed somehow.


Not fun.

 

On the metal hinge, I wonder about something like four segments of stainless steel piano hinge along each side and maybe three across the rear. Then bonding on a rubber seal over top. The worst case there is that you could patch or replace the seal easily down the road. Segments of hinges would allow the panel to flex somewhat and relieve strain on itself or the hinge with temp swings and however you open it.

It would be a lot simpler that a continuous hinge.

Just a thought.

 

Piano hinges don't like being separated, if they don't line perfectly they will bind.

 

I completely agree there. A jig would be in order to do it properly.

The last thing that folks would want is a corrected hinge and a cracked aluminum panel.

 

Mine was sealed by them in the beginning of the year to be updated.

My hinge failed a month ago.

If I had known what a pain it would be replace I never would've had mine updated to be sealed. It basically glued everything together and the made the replacement more difficult.

At this point, I have no faith in the hinges lasting any meaningful amount of time and will consider them a wear item. I'd rather have the ease of replacing on an unsealed camper given I never had the nuisance leaks.

My post from the forum:

Got my replacement hinge and did the replacement.

I don’t know that the gasket has been that beneficial to me. I never had the nuisance leaks, and it looks like moisture has been trapped causing some rusting




IMG_20191007_172831.jpg3024×4032 2.71 MB


Also, as I theorized above, my frame is rusting internally, the bolts are corroded and the inside of the tube looks similar.


IMG_20191007_181306.jpg3024×4032 3.06 MB

IMG_20191007_181302.jpg3024×4032 2.52 MB

IMG_20191007_181258.jpg3024×4032 2.24 MB


As I thought, the gasket material held everything together well. It took pushing at the front while standing in the rear door opening of the truck for leverage, and then basically lifting from the inside like doing a squat to break everything free.




IMG_20191007_172737.jpg3024×4032 3.42 MB


Luckily I carry an Opinel in my pocket, that thin blade proved just right to slide in the Gap and cut the gasketmaterial. Once that was done it was easy enough to get the broke hinge free.

I replaced the hinge on the door and riveted from the inside out like a cylinder head




IMG_20191007_173748.jpg2138×2851 2.22 MB


It was easy enough to get everything back into place


IMG_20191007_182110.jpg3024×4032 3.44 MB

IMG_20191007_182027.jpg3024×4032 2.82 MB


But getting it just right sucked. It looks like I have a bit of a bow in my aluminum extrusions.

The hinge looks okay and lined up open, at least comparable to the other side


IMG_20191007_181624.jpg3024×4032 2.98 MB


But when closed looks like this




IMG_20191007_182110.jpg3024×4032 3.44 MB

IMG_20191007_182027.jpg3024×4032 2.82 MB


30 min of finagling and I’m over it.

It was as good as I could get it, but I’m sure now my camper is less than sealed, the hinge will probably break again, and I’m just over it.

At least next time this happens I won’t have to deal with gasket material sticking everything together and I’ll probably be in the driveway of our new home as opposed to an apartment complex parking lot.

 

Also, as for a metal hinge, I don't know that it'll work honestly, or at least on my early build.

I seem to have gentle curvature through the frame and panel. The thin panel and the plastic hinge seem to accommodate without issue.

I don't know that a metal hinge will do that.

 

My extrusions are bowed too.

My extrusions are bowed too. It sorta looks like when the roof assembly was glued together they didn't use enough pipe clamps. The bowing sometimes makes it more difficult to close the tent because the roof extrusions aren't evenly spaced between the corners and the top extrusion will slightly contact the corner piece.

 

I have to pull the whole top slightly to the right to close as otherwise the lips on the extrusion interfere with each other and I cannot close the tent, the delrin slider won't go into its hole.

So yeah, I think we got the same Monday/Friday build, lol.

Some powder coat or whatever it is has started to wear there as well.

I have a bow as well across the whole length from the hydraulic ram that seems more noticeable now. It was always there, but I feel it's really obvious now the gap isn't consistent.

There are more choices now for this kind of setup, but none at the GFC price point. So I deal with it. Guy can dream though.

 

I think GFC is going to be proven wrong about that. Seems like there have been at a least a couple folks with broken hinges that also have the new sealing design.

 

Sometimes I have to pull the the roof assembly too. I have to pull to the left. This doesn't happen all the time but especially if the wind is blowing from the side I think that it creates a slight shift in the alignment. This is something I can live with but it's a source of irritation. Late Friday builds indeed.

 

Thanks for all the helpful tips everyone. I’ll put it on the gfc board if they let me register.

Well this sucks. Rear hinge still cracked in the middle but holding.

Side hinge just completely failed. No warning. My back hinge was elevated on the ends so I was worried. Side hinges looked ok. Fuck me. Gotta ratchet it together so I can drive home tonight.

New sealing sounds like repair is worse, and is not a sure thing.

 

I’ve been super careful to pull down evenly in the middle since the first one cracked too. Not happy.

Warranty turn around will vary depending on the number of repairs in. Hmmm.

edit:
Got my gfc forum confirmation email, but it says link is expired.

 

what build number were you?

 

Build 20 something. With the build numbers jumping around I don’t remember exactly.

This would really suck if just running errands and no tools were in the truck.

I am skeptical of plastic hinges even in perfect alignment. It is impossible to pull down perfectly even, there will always be some twist and uneven pressure.

UV resistant plastic is not UV proof. It just means it will fail later than normal stuff. Cold temps down to lower 30s each night make it more brittle.

Tried to register for the gfc board again.

 

It isn’t customer use or temps that cause it to fail, that’s just belligerent blame gaming done by GFC to the customers for using an inferior, off the shelf product in the wrong application.

Half the major components have been redesigned, in some cases more than once, and yet they’re still having issues with fitment, bowed extrusions, hinge failure, water ingress both internal to the camper and the frame. Call me a critic but it’s plain to see that while some focus was given to the design and implementation of components of the camper, that the larger picture was drastically mishandled and overlooked. It’s amazing how much has “evolved” in such a short time, and none to make it better, just to bandaid a problem not to cure it - like preventing water ingress that still doesn’t work.

I am baffled by the strength of the hype train, but I understand the fact that customers are married to these issues and whatever options to fix them might be now and in the future, since the option is to sell and be without or to reinvest in another option, which is hard to justify for many. Particularly when the resale of a gently used GFC with broken hinges, water and rust stains, and can only be closed “correctly” by a trained person isn’t as hot as it used to be.

I’m glad the wait time has decreased, but for fucks sake, how about a long hard look at component selection and proper engineering? All we hear about is how great things are going at the shop, and that’s fine and dandy. Campers at the shop should be. It’s campers in the driveways that seem to be churning out the issues and not to the fault of the owners.

I hope you guys get taken care of, for the money spent with a company who is so up their own ass with cocky over confidence, I’d be livid.