I truly hope so, and in a good and enjoyable way for everyone involved.
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I have a 3rd gen long bed, so it might have a glued hinge?
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This is great news. I hope it’s a huge success. Sounds like you’re doing it the right way! I’ll drop you a note soon so I can get on the PNW tour. Being in Canada it’s a bit of a pain because I assume you won’t want the hassle of crossing the border.
Good luck and Merry Christmas!
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It should yes, I am not at the shop today but I can check that out for you.
@Mike_GFCUSA, can you elaborate further on going rivetless on only long beds? What is the benefit of going rivetless? Does this mean that long beds that have rivets are at a disadvantage in the future? Is this more of an upgrade like one tent material to another or is there a defect in design? Basically for those of us with a long bed that have rivets is there something we should be worried about?
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Couldn’t they just reshape the top bar in the frame? Like a DOM square tube?
I am sure Wiley could specify why we chose that particular model but so far we have not seen a benefit to it in terms of customer performance. I have one of the original long bed campers and it is riveted and have had zero issues (personally I like the look) and Wiley has the original long bed rivet-less campers and has also had no issues. You should have nothing to worry about over your SB brethren as the long bed Tacoma camper has by no means the longest or heaviest/longest panel.
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I replaced my hinge with a new one, process was extremely quick. I got it done in about an hour. I wouldn’t mind changing these things out yearly if I could readily get them for a good price. The hinge came pre-drilled which was awesome, that totally made the difference.
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In time, I wonder if we’ll see hinge replacement become an infrequent maintenance item. If the new arrangement can be counted on for a minimum of five years of use, I’d be happy replacing them at that interval.
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If there’s a possibility of the hinge breaking every 5 years then I wouldn’t be comfortable going on a long trip without spares. There remains the possibility of a failure at an awkward time such as on the highway, at a rest stop at 1 AM or in a bad storm. I still think some sort of safety strap which would prevent the door from falling off completely would be wise.
You must take some long trips!
I meant that an expected service life of five years doesn’t sound bad to me, as in there would be no reason to expect failure within a five year period. It’d be swell if they could be counted on to last much longer, but a solid five years or so wouldn’t be so bad.
I’m not sure how a retention system would work without complicating the normal operation of the doors. A loose panel flailing around on the end of a strap doesn’t seem like much of an improvement.
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If I’m not mistaken, replacement of the hinges for newer units with the sealant is much more of a hassle. Am I wrong about this? Do you have to peal them off the sealant and then reapply sealant?
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I should’ve said some sort of positive, fail safe connection like my aforementioned small hinge at both ends of the door. Of course the worst case paranoid scenario would be the door flying off on the freeway and going through someone’s windshield. I’d much rather have the panel flailing around than popping off completely. It would give you time to pull over and duct tape it into place.
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Mine was easy on one side, about 10 minutes as well for that portion.
The other side though, don’t know if they really just got everything right or they used more sealant or something, but it was between 30-45 minutes to get everything cut away and ready for the new hinge.
I thought it was going to be easy given the ease of which I did the first side, but nope.
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Leer, ARE and other camper shells don’t just have hatches or windoors fall off. I don’t think a hinge should be a maintenance item based on similar products and use. Too risky to expect something so critical to fail and you can’t control the timing.
For those with glued side panels and no rivets it is even worse.
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Good point. Maybe the new installation method will make all of this a bad memory, and hinge failures will become an extremely rare occurrence, no matter the age. If so, that’s great; I wasn’t suggesting that GFC shouldn’t strive for a robust solution.
On the other hand, parts eventually wear out; the lifting struts are a good example. Like I said, I’d prefer a longer lifespan for the hinges, but I could live with a solid, reliable, fault-proof five years between replacement.
As for a panel retention system, I think a few very short, flexible straps could be mounted between the top of a panel and the bottom T-slot. If the hinge failed, it would just hang from the safety straps; otherwise, they’d go unnoticed. With the panel nested closed and latched, it probably wouldn’t flail around while underway, either. I hope nothing like that will be needed, but it’d be a simple safety system to make & install.
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I agree with a lot of that. I am not against wear items needing replacement. For example, even the best tents eventually need zipper repair or replacement. Shocks need recharging after a period of use.
If you look at other products, hinges have been figured out. Asking for a hinge to last long term on a camper shell is not revolutionary when compared to Leer, ARE, windoors, and others.
Safety straps are a good idea until proven in needed.
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They should always be pre drilled out, I take care of that for you once they are cut.
It is not actually terribly difficult to do this (having worked on one of the campers that was resealed before we knew the hinges would have to be replaced as well), it is much less tedious as the inner seal does not have to be applied.
@Mike_GFCUSA That’s good to know. I’ll reiterate what other have said that if these need replacing on some interval, that isn’t the end of the world so long as hinges are easily available and the process is documented well in the website. You guys might want to get ahead of this by putting some info on you site about how to replace the hinges as a maintenance item. That way, if they do begin to fail in a few years, resources are already available and GFC wouldn’t suffer the same backlash as you did from the original failure issue. I personally expect over ten years of use from my camper and suspect the hinges might not last that long.
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