Door hinge options

[kentj]

Hey guys,

Looking at replacing the hinges for my door on my surfside. I've come across a few posts and people talked about using these Lee Valley Hinge Just wondering if anyone had any good sucess with them.

thanks
Kent

[Booker B.]

I believe Calgary Trillium sells replacements for the original Trillium's - and I 'believe' they should be the same as the ones on your Surfside. That said, if you don't mind patching the old door hinge holes the lee valley ones are FAR cheaper. I think the ones at trilliumtrailers.com were $80 before they pull the parts list.

[kentj]

What I'm planning on doing is fixing someone elses crappy work. I'm going to be filling the two sets of holes and then painting the whole raise section. If you check out the pic you'll see what I'm talking about.

Kent

[Booker B.]

Wow, that is some crappy work! The previously drilled holes don't match the Trillium hinge pattern (they are a 3 holes in a triangle pattern, not a straight line.

[kentj]

Just remember that this is on a Surfside and they used a strap type hinge, not the same as what a Trillium use, but yes it is a butchered job.

[lynneh]

Looking at replacing the hinges for my door on my surfside. I've come across a few posts and people talked about using these Lee Valley Hinge Just wondering if anyone had any good sucess with them.

Hi Kent,
My apologies, I said I would post some info on this but didn't do it. I was waiting for Peter to upload the pictures from his camera, he thought he had already done it, the usual husband-wife communication snafu thing.

Anyway, here are some pictures. First, here's the very ugly "Before":
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Here's the "After" with the new chrome flush hinge:
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</blockquote>Like you, we have old hinge holes to fill and repainting to do.
And here is a picture of the entire door:
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The hinges are only partially installed. Installation was mostly straight-forward but there was one twist. The door-side of the hinge is fairly long -- it extends about 4-5 inches into the door space. The door edge is only thin for the first couple inches. Attaching the 2 bolts at the door's thin edge was easy. The 3rd bolt is in the "thick" part of the door and presented more of a dilemna. We could have screwed it into the fiberglass but decided a bolt would provide more stability. So we cut a small access way on the interior of the door to be able to bolt it on and then covered the access hole with a nylon 'button' which is small and discrete. I don't have any pictures of the interior of the door but it would be easy to get one because we're at the trailer storage place frequently while we finish up the Scamp in preparation for our upcoming Yellowstone trip.

The hinges are only partially installed on the trailer because as we hung the door we noticed that our Surfside has a bit of sag in the front curbside part of the body and the door wasn't hanging straight because of that. We haven't taken the time to diagnose the problem -- still working on the Scamp this year -- and we didn't want to create more hinge holes that would need to be moved/filled so we only put in enough bolts to hold the door firmly. But new hinges HAD to be put on because the door fell off right after we brought the trailer home!

Another option for replacement hinges is the Kason Hinge, part # 139, flush mount. It is available from many online stores and from Team Trillium. The Kason #139 is a specific shape that fits the door molding for older Trilliums and would look nice on a Surfside as well. I opted for the Chrome Trailer Hinge from eTrailer.com because it looks like the hinge seen in some of the pictures of older Surfside trailers and I think it better matches the wider door molding that the Surfside has. But the Kason would definitely be easier to mount.

--Lynne

[Scott S.]

I have the Lee Valley one on mine. they work fine. I filled the holes left by the old ones.
I also have the vector art for new decals folks. ask and you shall receive... both the TM-14 and the large Surfside.
I don't know if the photo shows the hinges... but I'm happy with them.

[lynneh]

Hi Kent,

Here are more pictures, including the inside of the door:

Again, here is the exterior shot of the new chrome flush hinge:
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I swung the door open to take this next shot. The two bolts to the left are through the thin part of the door. To put a nut on the bolt for the third hole in the "thick" part of the door, an access hole was drilled. The bolt and nut are inside that hole, just too dark to see them down there:
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And then a nylon 'button' was added to cover the hole. When we repaint the trailer, I think that the button will all but disapear into the door structure:
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Hope that helps!

--Lynne

[kentj]

Thanks for the help

Just one more thing, for the part of the hinge that connected to the trailer is that bolted through the shell of the trailer like the door? or did you just screw it on? I'm pretty sure that you used bolts.

Kent

[peterh]

Just one more thing, for the part of the hinge that connected to the trailer is that bolted through the shell of the trailer like the door? or did you just screw it on? I'm pretty sure that you used bolts.

Hi Kent,

All of the hinges are set with #10 flat-head stainless steel machine screws, an over-sized washer (to spread the load), #10 washer, lock washer, and nut. The frame-side hinge is currently secured by just one screw per hinge: I'll install another two screws for each hinge when we've made some adjustments to the shell, which sags down a couple centimeters on the hinge side.

[Bob in Mb]

How did you access the inside of the frame side of the trailer to install the washers and nut ?

[Khalm]

Yes I’m doing hinges too. I cut a panel inside the Surfside to access where I figured the rotten wood was
Opened it up and no wood. Hinges were just into the Fiberglass

So wondering…can I use the same holes and just put wood inside to fasten it too. Is boils test have to redrill holes and fill the old ones? They just needed something inside to grab onto