Hondo Garage's New Thing

Just a thought for those who's hinges have broken.

My camper is 41 or so, one of the earlier ones. My hinges thankfully look good, and there doesn't seem to be any extra loads on them.

But, I noticed that my bulb seal is barely in contact with the frame on the bottom edge at the ends, and there's slight gap in the center.

When my camper was re-finished with the new sealing technique, it also received sealed latches. These latches didn't have the set screw installed internally and don't pull my panels as tightly to the frame as the original latches. I had thought of getting set screws to pull the panels in tighter but seeing as how these have failed recently and mine seem okay I think I'll leave it alone for now.

In short, how tight do your latches pull your side panels to the frame? Looking at the failure I can image a load at the bottom from everything being pulled by the latches translating into the force at the top that causes the failure to occur.

Mine have almost no stress on them barely sealing and at the moment my hinges look fine.

 

I have #43. I was sent a new set of latches after I noticed water coming in the old ones. They aren’t “sealed”, but they’re one-piece and don’t let water in that I’ve notice.

So I don’t have the old set screw latch anymore, and I still see my doors sealing at the bottom. Haven’t had my GFC re-sealed, yet, but I’ll look hard at it whenever that finally happens!!

 

I'm using the term sealed, but they look like the original latches with like a rubber backing. They're more sealed than the originals, that's for sure.

But yeah, when they changed to those my panels aren't pulled as tightly to the frame as before. They're just making enough contact to seal.

I was wondering if that's the difference in the load that's causing the failures.

 

It sounds like you both now have the same latches.

I have the newer style latches (late 40s build number) and mine pull pretty snugly against the frame.

My side panel hinges look fine, but one side of my rear panel is showing concerning wear.

 

So same latches but different in terms of how tightly they pull the panel to the frame.

My rear panel is only tight because of the new longer seal that was put on it when my camper was reinstalled. It too, isn't pulled that tightly against the frame.

 

Up until now, I have been kind of impartial with peoples issues with the GFC camper. I placed an order for one this spring knowing a few and not having too much of a problem with others that popped up, but this hinge thing is worrisome. I really don't see it as a long lasting component, which will cause problems considering how difficult it is to replace. Their response to problems seems to be pretty good, but I hope they are really working hard to find a better solution to this.

 

The hinge problem is weird. I've had mine longer than most people and use it a lot and have no problems.

 

I wonder if this is partially user caused. Some people grab the doors while they are open with one hand on one end to close them and causes stress unevenly.

Some people like me who don’t slam stuff shut either use two hands or one hand in the middle and guide the door all the way to closed with no slam.

Not trying to accuse anyone of abusing their stuff, just trying to apply my observant nature to figure out the problem.

If it is caused by the uneven stress, this should be accounted for by GFC and not assumed that the users will treat their camper like fragile pieces of glass.

 

I am gfc build 20 something and my rear hinge looks similar. Not as bad though, but similar stresses and just starting to split.

On mine it looks like a build issue. Where they stuffed the seal under the edges of the rear hatch, it raises the hinge corners causing stress on the hinge.

Mine is still all factory, I have not had anything rebuilt on mine by them or me. I definitely have not used it for pulling myself up, propping it open, or anything other than opening or closing. I just use it like a normal camper shell hatch.

 

Same, the thought of anything other than opening or closing doesn’t even cross my mind. I don’t slam my doors but I’m not treating them like glass either. The stress I see in mine could be from the bulb seal underneath, but I think a heftier continuous hinge material would solve all problems

 

If anybody is looking to sell their reservation for an earlier build date please PM me. I'm needing to go full size. Thanks in advance!

 

There is an almost complete Tundra 6.5 bed GFC for sale on their forums depending on what vehicle you're moving to.

 

Thanks, do you have the link to this forum? I don't have a tundra but I do have a 6.5 bed, could work, who knows.

 

https://forum.gofastcampers.com/

 

It's for a 5.5 foot bed on a 2016 Tundra. https://forum.gofastcampers.com/t/fs-gfc-xl-316/190

Wrong size. See above.

 

Thanks for the catch. My bad.

 

Here’s an interesting article on living (one piece plastic) hinges.
http://web.mit.edu/2.75/resources/random/Living Hinge Design.pdf
The implication is that a properly designed and manufactured quality hinge should not fail due to flexure from hinging. Failures are due to other loads. Does GFC use an off-the-shelf hinge or is it custom? Given the length, it seems like it’s purchased as a continuous extrusion, and cut to length. Another design guide I looked at suggested that long hinges should be made up of molded 6” sections rather than a continuous long piece, and that extruded hinges are more prone to failure. Just speculation ... no suggestion that GFC’s design is inadequate.

 

Excellent 9 page read, I know so much now (after looking up a few words).

I will note that the replacement hinge sent to me was package flat/unbent and rolled. I suspect it was manufactured flat rather then bent, which is probably more ideal for the GFC application.

 

Excellent reference material.

The pressures at the ends are probably causing the failures. This can be due to the bulb seal underneath causing the hinge to not lay flat as in the pics posted by @mac_2_nite . It could also be made worse due to the gas strut pushing up in the corners due to the attachment points on the panels.

I’m interested in any permanent solution or temporary road fix. I’ve had no major issues with my gfc, I am very happy so far. However, I feel a hinge failure is probable in the future. I want to be able to deal with it on the road when it happens, or ideally fix it at home so it never does fail in the first place. I like the idea of the storm hinge or multiple sections of hinge so a split doesn’t go all the way across.

 

I don’t have a GFC and have never seen one up close, but is the hinge attached in several locations. Or can it be? I wonder if cutting it up into several segments might reduce stress and also provide some redundancy.