@MechEMike Around 80, maybe 82 or 83? I have the old sealing method, so mine is not updated yet. I was working on getting that done.
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Welcome to the club. See one of my posts above where I link to my fix.
Sorry to see it happen to another person.
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@Borrego_Taco I may give that a shot, I will see what I can do with zip ties as well and post it up. Im just worried we are trying to do some trails as well.
@glachow mine broke camping at night on a trail on a road trip. Not a terribly long or rough trail, but on a trail. My field fix held back to the highway then 12+ hours home at freeway speed.
It is still holding today while I await replacements. Just make sure the seals line up, the ratchets are tight, and the tape prevents wind getting under the panel edge.
Check to ensure the straps or cord are not fraying from sharp edges periodically.
YMMV
If you come up with a better field fix, please post it. Mine is by no means the best or easiest field fix, but it is working for me.
Here’s my fix, I pulled off the door, drilled out the top rivets, loosened up the bolts that hold the tent to the space frame, slid zip ties in between the tent and space frame, and just zip tied it up. The door doesn’t function with this hack, so just lock the locks and it should be good to go.
Note, make sure you have the panel fully closed before pulling the zip ties right, this will keep alignment. I did not, and as you can see in the last picture, the aluminum panel stiffener is rubbing the bottom tube, so I put some painters tape to keep wear at a minimum.
Edit: Tools to add in your GFC field repair kit to complete this task, two 13mm open ended wrenches, a 13mm socket, a ton of zip ties, pliers, a drill and a bit.
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I’m planning to go on a month long road trip this Winter to the Southwest. I’m tempted to somehow make a semi-permanent fix. I probably won’t open the doors a lot in the Winter and I’d rather not have them fail 1000 miles from home and have to cut my trip short especially in the middle of the Winter. I have the XL thus have plenty of room to access stuff without opening the side doors.
Anybody have an idea on how to make a easy semi-permanent and cosmetically clean fix that would tide me over until GFC comes up with a permanent solution? I’m still thinking of fabricating some extrusion mounted hinges but that will be a project and I just want to get on the road.
If you don’t open them, they won’t break!
I was tempted to use some safety wire and connect the upper gas strut bolt to one of the other bolts in the space frame in order to prevent the panel from falling down and hitting the truck if it snaps randomly. If you make it tight enough, it should hold everything up in a pinch.
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@glachow
I thought that one of the failures was spontaneous while the door was closed. I may be wrong though.
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I absolutely understand, and we are continuing to do what we can to improve design, function and safety. The plastic hinges are rated for much more than they are doing, for upwards of a million cycles and are easily the best option when it comes to waterproofing. I am assured by production in the fact that the new sealant at least takes out the variable of stress from the crown seal. Of course there are other variables, but we are working on every avenue. It is a very small trend, but I understand your skepticism there. I mean I have camper 40 something and use it daily and haven’t updated it (customers first of course) and haven’t had a single issue. And Wiley has the literal first camper on his truck, completely original, minus the wrap, without one issue either. The of course we have the first production model up here that was on Jim Bob’s truck and has had multiple owners since, and that hasn’t had an issue yet either. So I am with you on at least checking every possibility on what could be stressing the hinges to failure. At the very least I will continue to support you guys as much as possible as we figure it out. I do what I can, within my means, to ensure everyone has a functioning camper and I push production to do the same. We will continue to do everything we can to make sure you guys are getting out and having fun. That’s the whole point of this anyway.
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I have absolutely no unread emails in the support box for warranty issues but if you can shoot me an email to mike@gfcengineering.com I would be happy to take a look and get you started on a support ticket.
Honestly the best field fix, if conditions allow, is to take the panel off completely. This minimizes damage possibilities to any part of the camper or truck. I do understand this is not always possible.
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If anyone is interested in buying the hinges usplastic.com sells them. Just search Monroe living hinges on their site. If mine ever give up I’ll probably go this route and change the rivets to screws. Luckily I don’t have the sealant to mess around with.
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Thanks for providing more info.
A million cycles by supplier specification is obviously different than a million cycles in the real world. Under what conditions does the hinge supplier guarantee a million cycles?
What temperature? Humidity?
Length of hinge? UV damage over time?
Opening and closing force? Angle of force?
Evenness of force across the hinge length?
Tolerance of hinge seating?
Twisting or torsion applied?
Can those specs be met on a camper? Clearly for many early builds the answer is no.
The new sealing and hinge seating can be cycle tested for some confidence. What is not easy is to simulate other factors like time and UV damage.
I want to see you guys solve this, if you have not already.
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What about the fact that the hinges are sitting on a round surface not on a flat surface? For an optimum installation it might be better if the hinge was sandwiched between two flat surfaces.
For safety, some long reach hatch hinges like these could be retrofitted by spanning the gap, through bolting to the door and attaching to the extrusion with T nuts. Just leave the current hinges in place to keep the water out.
https://www.amazon.com/White-Water-Reach-Hatch-Hinge/dp/B01MR7EESA/ref=pd_ybh_a_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=7582A35Q7M6CGBZ311FC
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Pretty much hit the nail on the head. Toyota did recalls on the floor mats of certain vehicles because the pedal got stuck when it slid underneath. Does that mean that it will never happen again? No, it just means that the floor mats will not cause the issue (hopefully). And they are a giant company who has been around for a long time. I think people seem to forget that we do have a team of engineers as part of our staff who go over all of these issues and test out our designs (within our means), we are not just some guys who accidentally made such a bad ass camper by slapping some random components together. Unfortunately we are still young. So longevity is always going to be a continued test here in the beginning with us relaying and using as much information as is available about the products we use because there is no way for us, or anyone new to simulate time. Only time can do that.
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It is possible, but that does not mean that its the case. I will look into whether or not we have tried that and what the outcome was or why we did not.
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Have all the cracks started at the end of the hinge, or have some started in the center? I wonder how the hinges are cut to length. A small crack or nick from a bad cut during manufacturing would propagate over time. I wonder if the ends of the hinge could be reinforced in some way, or be rounded to reduce stress concentrations. When cracks start in structures, small holes drilled at the crack tip are usually enough to stop the crack from propogating. If anyone starts to see a crack in your hinge which hasn’t fully propagated yet, you might try drilling a small hole at the rack tip. That will buy you some time.
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My rear hinge cracked in the middle and did not fail completely. The hinge was elevated at the edges due to the seal.
My side hinge failed so quick and completely in the dark, I don’t know where it started. It previously had no cracks. I had been inspecting it daily due to the rear hinge failure.
That sounds like an alignment issue. Thanks for the info.
My hinge is breaking. I’ll post pix soon. Because of this forum and TW I’ve been keeping a close eye on everything. My passenger side hinge is broken from the back of the GFC - it has crept up 5-6" - so failure is imminent.
My build number is in the 40’s. No other issues.
I have to fix this ASAP - this is my daily driver and I keep the dog back there. I can’t dick around with a canopy I can’t open…
Help!
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