The Crown mold or seal is a rubber gasket that looks something like this before it is squished between the extrusion frame and hinge:
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Here is my temporary hinge replacement with some hinges installed on the outside track. GFC sent me a replacement hinge very quickly but I decided to try this out instead. I didn’t want to replace the stock hinge by myself and wanted to wait for the P.I.T. I found some 4" hinges and used the existing rivet holes in the panels. It’s not 100% water tight but the bulb seals sit perfectly against the space frame and the latches still work like normal.
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Did you drill into the tent extrusion to attach the hinges? It looks good.
No I just used the GFC T-nuts. It was really easy to install and when the time comes it will be easy to remove.
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That’s some awesome ingenuity and I am excited to check it out when I come around for the PIT.
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That’s what I’ve been advocating for the last year or so. Good job! As long as the old hinges are intact you’ll have waterproofing. Did you use blank hinges and just drilled the holes to fit?
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Yeah I used blank hinges and drilled out all the holes so everything would line up. Even though it’s a temporary fix, I didn’t want a bunch of pre drilled holes in the hinges.
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Finally a design that is built to last!
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Did you ever hear back from GFC on this?
I have build #168 and I’m curious what they said about your camper and whether you have the crown seal or not.
Yeah, it seems they didn’t track which campers had the crown seal so Mike said he’d put me on the schedule for when the PIT heads my way.
Now that there is someone 10 units before mine that had a failure I’m very tempted to proactively add hinges like mattyd did when his hinge failed. Whether it’s justified or not, I’m paranoid about a panel popping off.
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Cool, thanks for the response.
I’ve reached to get added to the PIT as well…guess we’ll see what they have to say.
Anyone who wants to be added to the PIT will be. I have zero issues adding more stops to make sure everyone is taken care of. There have been plenty of people who just want a look over of the camper which I am happy to do.
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Emailed earlier, but wanted to make sure I’m included now as my hinge just popped today 
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Are the T-nuts really 5 bucks apiece?
if you find a good source for the hinges please share. This has had me looking harder at the hinge crease on mine and it seems super thin for the load that it is handling. Maybe I am paranoid but a rigid hinge of some sort to retrofit campers with would be a great move on GFCs part. I just cant imagine more hinges wont fail further down the line as time progresses. Hopefully I am wrong.
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I am following this just like the majority of GFC owners on this forum. Can people please identify camper numbers somewhere? Add this info to your profile. One and done.
Peace.
Are those stainless hinges?
I’m curious what hinges those are too. It certainly makes sense to back up my currently broken hinges like this instead of relying on the gorilla tape I’m using right now…
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I picked up some of these:
Once they arrive and I have a chance to install them I’ll post some pics of the result.
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yes they are stainless steel 4" hinges. I ordered them from amazon and was also able to find some at my local ACE hardware.
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