Re: [SilverStreak] Ken Wilson~new hinge installation procedure

[Keneth Wilson <ke5dfr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The body curve at the upper hinge was ever so slight.  You really have to look
to find it.
Otherwise the hinges and installation went easily.  You did a
great job on the instructions, just me a eieng an engineer, I look a couple of
steps ahead and may modify to suit me.  Without our instructions and insight,
it would ahve taken a bit longer to do the job.
My door still does not touch
the frame or drag when opening or closing.  Checking the gasket footprint
before and after, the door is in exactly the same location as with the old
hinges.  If the trailer is in direct west sun, the door will drag, due to the
thermal expansion of the materials.  The door is a perfect fir for the hole in
the wall.
 Ken Wilson 
KE5DFR@sbcglobal.net 
Cypress, Texas


----- Original

Ken,
I find interesting the body
hinge curve you speak of. This was the issue and 
purpose of using only a
new-in-the-box pattern. I find this very important 
topic.

The new hinge used
as a pattern, had no curves anywhere. This is important. 
I had access to my
old hinges and Ralph's. All of these were rejected as 
patterns as each had
curves, and each was different. There were body leaf 
mount curves. There were
plug-door leaf curves, and there were main door 
leaf curves. There was no
consistency. Now you mention yours also has a 
body-leaf to body-mount curve.
The body should be flat there.

Was that curve on both top and bottom? How can
a solid 1/4" thick pot metal 
7" long 2" wide piece have a longitudinal bend
curve? I hope you can see why 
there was the importance of using Ralph's new,
never installed hinge as the 
pattern?

Yours are the best condition hinges I
have seen. I would like to see those 
or even acquire them. I would like to
ship these to Ralph for comparison and 
even perhaps save yours for patterns.
Let's get together and closely compare 
yours with another manufactured set so
we can address this issue. I am also 
wondering if you had pulled down the top
set of rivets first, would that 
have made the new hinge more closely pull
down and close that gap, or pull 
the body back to flat-shape surface? I have
enough rivets if you care to 
retry that on the body-leaf with the gap. Can we
try that before you address 
the gap?

All parts of the Ralph NOS hinge were
perfectly flat. There exists no curves 
on any part of the attachment
surfaces. I wonder if Thomas Williams 
experienced any of what you described.
The slight drop you described upon removal of the top hinge with the main
door latched and dead bolted, tells me that your door is hanging on the
hinges, with no support load afforded by the latch or the dead bolt. That's 
a
lot of body-load, but not necessarily bad as latches and dead bolts should
have some slop and would not easily operate if they were load-bearing or
under stress.

I think a person should take a flat paint stirring stick and
tape that on 
the main door threshold and top opening as necessary to shim the
door snugly 
when closed and thus avoid the slight drop when the top hinge
rivets are 
removed. Also a person might temporarily put rivets as guide
dowels in one 
or two holes prior to removal of the last rivet. Maybe that
would be useful 
somehow.

Thank you for your report. I did struggle with the
length of the rivet I 
ordered as I wanted all the concealed load-spread
support I could get, but 
knew there would be a depth limitation issue on the
thinner plug door. Looks 
like I got the length correct, but the old rivet
must be pushed well out of 
the way.

The engineers at the rivet company
insisted the only solution was that they 
wanted all of us to disassemble our
trailers and the doors for installation 
and then reassemble. I insisted that
was not acceptable. Much effort was put 
into this rivet choice to avoid
disassembly of the doors or trailer body.

I suspect cutting and affixing the
tape as I instructed on the new hinge, 
then putting the entire hinge into the
freezer just prior to installation 
may indeed make the tape less sticky for
that last moment of line up.

We need more input about that slight body leaf
curve you mention from Tom 
Williams, and did he have any of that as you did.
-Eddie- Houston, TX