Most failures reported online are side doors.
My speculation is the longer the hinge and manufacturing alignment becomes tougher. Any misalignment on the longer hinge magnifies the force for splitting. Opening and shutting a longer hinge and any twisting is magnified as well.
Edit: typo
I don’t think that GFC reads their own forum.
Getting replacement hinges shipped out. They are out of rivets and I will source them locally to avoid further delays. Anyone know what size to use? Awaiting gfc response. Hopefully I find out before the hinges arrive.
I could have waited for gfc to have rivets for a couple more days but I am sick of driving around with a duct tape and ratchet strap contraption. I was going camping this weekend, but probably not now. I want to fix this ASAP.
In other news, according to the email they will only ship replacement hinges once before they require a unit to go back for resealing and warranty onsite. I don’t have time to drive 40 hours round trip for a drop off, or wait for a delivery run near me. Waiting a week or more is a long time when your rig is held together by ratchet straps and tape and bordering on unusable.
I have lost track at this point. Do we know of anyone with a later number (after the new sealing process) that has had the hinge break? Most of what I am seeing is earlier numbers.
I don’t know if it is good or bad that they have a policy about replacement hinges. Ah, well, I guess it is the downside of being an early adopter. I see the leaderboard is up to 930…perhaps will be a fine-tuned process/product by then?
@GFC, perhaps you can put together a field warranty team? ]
Posted this on TacomaWorld so Ill post it here as well.
I am not 100% sure sun exposure is a reason for the failures or not. I am build #96 and live in Middle Georgia where it is summer 9 months of the year, we also frequent the beach with the camper. My truck is my daily driver and it sits outside 100% of its life (no garage, lean too, awning, etc to park under). 95% of its life is in direct sunlight. I use my doors frequently given it is my daily driver and only vehicle. I have not researched the hinges but this conversation has intrigued me to do so.
I am dreading the day mine fails but I cant say sun exposure is or is not a contributor. I have been watching the hinges lately to see if there will be any warning of pending failure, nothing to report so far. I do believe the shocks have a big impact on failure, I am seriously considering changing mine to a much weaker shock (just enough to hold the door open under light force). I think this will also help with some water intrusion that comes from between the door and bar in heavy rain (shocks are bowing the door slightly outward creating a small space between the door seal and bar).
With that said, I would like to see @GFC address the hinges publicly and let us know what they are doing. So far I am not a believer in the “new sealing” process being the fix. I also dont want to have to baby my offroad camper, others that open my doors (friends, interested parties) dont know to “baby” the doors so that is always a risk. These should be rugged enough to handle that.
I do love my GFC and have no plans to sell or anything, but this is a topic of concern that needs to be addressed with all current and future owners.
Just fyi, I received mine a couple weeks ago. Just finished moving to new house, so haven’t got to installing it. Front one isn’t being shipped, rear one is. Rear one replaces the bar with a fastened alu “tube”. Looks like an extrusion connected to a flat plate that bolts to the tent frame with t-nuts. Don’t have any pictures, but I’ll post when I get to it.
We have not had a single person with the new sealant have a hinge break, except for a few customers (maybe 1 or two) who had their campers updated without getting new hinges as well. Being a year and a half old, we are still working and adopting new policies when it comes to warranty. We did not know the hinges would be stressed enough to still detach with the new sealant system. After the first issue, which has been stated here in this thread, we instantly adopted the policy of adding all new hinges as well. The reseal includes the following:
Removal of the old crown seal
Installation of the new Terason sealant on either side of the space frame where it connects to the tent and on top of the new hinges
Installation of all new hinges
Installation of the stainless steel water dams
All new gaskets laid on the panels (sides and front that seal to the space frame)
Realignment of the tent and space frame
It is in essence, more of a complete refresh than just a reseal.
Other than the issues stated here no new camper, with new hinges and new sealant has had a hinge issue. We are also working on an adhesive solution that keeps the hinges on the panels more flush, to see if that is something that may help, of course we have to test it to see how well it is removed and uses.
I am currently working on establishing the warranty program but it is quite the process. When I came on and we had like 10 employees total, there was a warranty, but it was not necessary framed.
There is a lot that gores into a program like this, especially for a small company and as a new company we have to test a few avenues to see what works. As it is now, I have done a ton of field warranty work on scheduled delivery runs and even on some unscheduled occasions, if it is a possibility. The warranty, while not super specific does state the campers need to be returned to us, by the customer, to our facility. But of course I have helped a lot of customers by bringing the campers back or doing on-site repairs. As I fine tune this program some things will change but I do have an outline of future implementations.
-Repairs that can be done on a scheduled delivery run will absolutely be easy to take care of on that run, it would just likely require you to meet us at a delivery stop or meet.
-Free pick up of a camper that needs large repairs or update on an already scheduled run. This does not include re-delivery. That means that you as the customer would have to come pick the camper up, or pay for the gas to return it to you, likely also on a scheduled trip, so it would only be the portion of the gas needed to get to you from the previous stop.
-Of course for certain issues we can send DIY materials to you as the customer if you have the mechanical ability to do the repair and it is an uncomplicated one, that will not affect the warranty.
Anyone who has come to us with a warranty issue, we have done as much as we can as a company, to ensure a smooth process including, going far out of our way for more than just a few customers . If we were any other camper company, the camper would have to be returned to us for work, pretty much period but we are not any other camper company and will continue to do what we can to build a better warranty program and do our best to ensure a smooth process.
No we have not had any issues, except for the stated issues where the hinge was also not replaced. On all NEW campers that went out with the Terason sealant and hinges we have had zero issues.
I posted more than once on here for those who needed the aluminum tubes to send me an email with that as the topic header, I had a running list but that has faded out somewhere. I am pretty sure there was a thread on here specifically about them as I responded in it and have slowly been sending out the rear tube as I can since we are also putting them on newer production models and can only do limited runs currently. I have also been returning every call on our call request sheet and have not one message from the site about rear tubes or warranty issues. I would be happy to give you a call if you would like to DM me your number. I would also like to say for anyone reading that the website form is super simple to fill out, and we have more than one person making calls now so if you dont actually fill it out (as simple as putting your name, number and reason why you are wanting a call) it makes it much more difficult on our end.
Word. I keep expecting to see you guys amble down the hallway on that TV show, Shark Tank.
Haha, I mean, I wouldn’t mind being on that show just to do it and have them laugh and scold me on national TV but we already put our own capital in, with no outside investors, and have zero debt as a company. It takes time to do things the right way but it is absolutely worth it.
Thank you for the updates. This goes a long way.
@Mike_GFCUSA what is the current thinking on the struts? Has there been consideration in using struts with less strength?
Well, there is some mixed feedback there. We get some people who complain that the struts don’t open enough, or some of them, if they are not charged properly, prematurely soften and don’t open all the way and we get complaints of that too. It would be hard to find a strut that would open enough to make everyone happy but not too much to place any stress on the strut, but that doesn’t mean we are not looking.
Realistically we spend a lot of time trying to improve products and processes in production of the camper. Of course we are small and everyone is wearing a lot of hats so this is a slow process but we are never stagnant and we are never okay with that’s good enough. It may be good enough for now, but we are still going to try and improve it.
No problem. I have been on the road for some 21 days and just got back last week to a mountain of work so I am trying to back log on here. We also have some new guys at the shop who are on here more but if you guys ever have any warranty questions you can tag or DM me and I am pretty speedy at responding that way when not on the road and then even still its about a day.
GFC, thanks for responding and providing more information.
Excuse my continuing skepticism of the plastic hinges. They still were functional on those builds before resealing and no one saw enough damage to replace them during resealing. Six months ago no one had broken an original sealed hinge yet either.
Time will tell. In a year or more we will know how the new seals and hinges perform.
As an early adopter, I was willing to accept a functional but less refined design. I was not willing to accept catastrophic failure of critical components in <14 months of use. It was not a one off but part of a trend.
I understand warranty issues and programs are tough with something that can’t be shipped easily in the mail.
I hope things are turned around. I may sound negative, but other than the hinge failures I have really enjoyed my camper. It is a huge “but” though.
I just emailed them a bit over a week ago asking for new hinges since I saw mine were starting to crack, still haven’t gotten a response. I just opened them to load up the truck for a camping trip this weekend and heard the snap. Looks like I’m out of luck for awhile…
I use my truck occasionally on the weekends, so its not like I open the doors a lot. When I camp I do open them pretty frequently.
Edit, I am build 80 something and do not have the new sealant.
The door that broke was the one that I frequently use. I probably use it 100% more than the other side door and 50% more than the rear door.
@glachow What is your build number? Did you have the unsealed design or the newer crown seal the @Mike_GFCUSA discussed his earlier post?
