Replacing external access hatches

[Tim Ryce]

Hi all,

Two of the small, square access hatches on the outside of my Trillium have had their doors broken off. Subsequently, I'm in the market to replace all four hatches with new ones. Anyone have a lead on where to source these? So far, I've only been able to find larger, rectangular access hatches online... Ideally, I'd find hatches exactly the same size, so that the swap would be as simple as drilling out the old rivets, swapping over the hardware, and securing the new hatch with new rivets.

Thanks for any guidance or suggestions,
~Tim

[Al V]

Try Team Trillium to see if the new trillium uses the same size hatch. Joe at TT was helpful in getting parts like door hinges. Sorry I no longer have their phone number out in BC.
The shell on the Trillium is easy to cut if you find a hatch that is a little bigger.

[Donna D.]

Google for RV Hatches or baggage doors. There's a bunch of resources on the web.

[Tim Ryce]

Thanks for the replies. I've had an email in to the people in Calgary for a while now but had no response; I guess I'll be calling them this week.

Google is both a friend and an enemy on this topic... 118,000 pages of information and options isn't all that helpful! I was hoping that someone else had recently sourced out an exact replacement for the small square Trillium hatches; I'd like to keep the trailer as original as possible.

Thanks again,
~Tim

[Booker B.]

Hi Tim,

Are these hatches original - or by hatches do you mean the fridge/furnace covers?

If you do mean cargo hatches I have not seen 1300's with original exterior cargo hatches before so I was wondering if this was done by a previous owner.

Booker

[Tim Ryce]

Hi Booker,

I could be using the wrong terminology, so I've attached a picture of one of the broken hatches. The three on the other side are still functional, but pretty brittle. I also suspect that the waterproofing seal has all but disintegrated around these and should be replaced; I'll be installing LED exterior lighting this winter as well.

Please excuse the dirty trailer... this is a pic of when we got it in May; it already looks much more loved, I promise!

~Tim

[Booker B.]

Ah, gotcha!

I am also in need of replacement for all of my utility hatches but have held off for fear of crappy replacements.

David Swinnard (Vancouver 1976 Trillium Owner) was battling with one of these over the summer. You might find some information here that helps:

Trillium City Water Intake

[Tim Ryce]

Perfect. Thanks, Booker! I had the hardest time coming up with effective search terms for this part; I'll be sure to use "intake" and "outlet" next time.

I think I'll try to develop the 'Gardena' quick-connect system talked about in that thread, and head down to Go-RV (I'm in North Van, so it's nice and close!) to see if I can't source the other hatches. Just need to nail down the LED light replacements and it will be time to pull all the external hardware off the lower 1/3 of the trailer and paint it with a think coating of truck-bed liner.

That is, if summer didn't end for the Lower Mainland last weekend...
~Tim

[Booker B.]

Gads, I know, summer just shut right down last week. It was awful on the Island this weekend though thankfully I had planned on reno's and not camping =)