EuroCarry hinges

[grozier]

Hello all,

I hope this finds you safe and healthy. I am using the quarantine to address deferred maintenance on our 2004 NAFTA JC.

The cast aluminum hinges on our EuroCarry bicycle carrier were badly corroded, so I thought I would repaint them. In removing them, one snapped in half! I am glad this did not happen on the road.

Alu-line says the hinges are still available (part number 100880) but I am having trouble finding it.

If someone has a pair in their storage, I will pay a good price and send you a pre-paid mailing label.

Many thanks,

Ted

[AndiP]

Hallo Ted,

hast du alle fünf Händler, die der Hersteller nennt, per E-Mail angeschrieben?
https://www.alu-line.de/eurocarry/haendlersuche/

Der Hersteller verkauft nicht direkt an Kunden, sondern nur an seine Händler.
Wenn die Halter nicht mehr verfügbar sein sollten, würde ich die in ähnlicher Form aus Aluminium nachbiegen.

Andi

[grozier]

Thank you, Andi. I have written to Frankana, Reimo, Movera, Fritz Berger and Camping-Profi. But I think you are right: the best solution might be to have something fabricated locally.

All the best from Vermont,

Ted

[grozier]

An update on this: I didn't hear from any of the companies, either because of COVID-19 or because my poor German made them think I was a spambot.

I went ahead with my own design in 1/4" (6+ mm) aluminum on emachineshopcom. This is a neat website that uses a facility in New Jersey (and apparently other CNC machine shops when they are otherwise idle) to do custom work. They have a simple CAD software that you can use (or import other CAD files) and they quote a price instantly online.

Four of these brackets, powder coated, were $183 shipped to my door. There's probably a similar website in Germany somewhere? This is probably not much more than the proper Alu-line ones and international shipping.

I chose to have the weight-bearing bar sit a little lower to make it a little easier to get the bikes up there (they still are well above the rear lights). This also has the effect of slightly reducing the load on the hinge.

I used 3/16" 18-8 stainless high-strength rivets from McMaster-Carr (again, there's probably an equivalent in Germany; maybe even Bauhaus has these) and carefully drilled the right size #11 hole and clamped everything up while riveting.

Before committing to the design I drew a little free-body diagram and calculated a safety factor of 16.

Here are a few pictures. After trying various glues and still losing the end caps every so often, I finally screwed those in place too.

If you'd like the design please send me a message and I will gladly share it with you!

All the best from Vermont,

Ted

2020-05-22 11.57.53.jpg (793.54 KiB) 1743 mal betrachtet

2020-05-22 12.31.57.jpg (1.29 MiB) 1742 mal betrachtet

2020-05-23 10.49.32.jpg (1.89 MiB) 1742 mal betrachtet

2020-05-23 11.36.17.jpg (1.66 MiB) 1743 mal betrachtet

[AndiP]

Hallo Ted,
das sieht sehr ordentlich und professionell aus.
Hast du daran gedacht, dass Aluminium und Edelstahl galvanische Kontaktkorrosion verursachen? Hast du das durch Isolation der beiden Metalle verhindert? Zum Beispiel durch Pulverbeschichtung, auch IN den Bohrlöchern. Oder (das wäre noch besser), indem du diese Halter aus Edelstahl fertigst...

Andi

[grozier]

Thanks for the compliment. They powder coated inside the holes too, except for a tiny spot on the larger hole where they hung the piece.

Eventually they will corrode but if I can get another 15 years out of them I imagine the rest of the van will be iron oxide thanks to all the salt they use on the roads here!

Ted

[AndiP]

I imagine the rest of the van will be iron oxide thanks to all the salt they use on the roads here!

Dann schütze deinen Wagen gegen den Rost. Oder willst du das Fahrzeug mit nur 30 Jahren, also fast neuwertig, verschrotten?
Öl und Fett in allen Hohlräumen helfen, den Wagen lange zu erhalten.

[grozier]

Yes, Fluid Film every year and every time I am underneath. But the salt here is terrible!

I had a reply finally from Fritz Berger (see below) and was surprised by reasonable price for a very custom aluminum casting. F-B is definitely the place to go if your hinges need replacement. You will need to figure out how to drill out and replace the stainless steel rivet, but because of the way the original hinge cradles the 30mm tube, it could probably be replaced with a through-bolt.

Ted

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Kundenservice Fritz Berger <Service@fritz-berger.de>
Date: Tue, May 26, 2020 at 4:41 AM
Subject: AW: [#KSC-71431]: EuroCarry Ersatzscharnieren


Sehr geehrter Herr Grozier,

vielen Dank für Ihre Nachricht.

Nachfolgend unterbreiten wir Ihnen unser Angebot:

·      1 St. Gußhalterung; Artikel Nr.: 230002FF;   Stückpreis  €  31,99

Lieferzeit: ca. 3 Wochen nach Auftragseingang. Bestand beim Hersteller vorausgesetzt.

Der angebotene Preis versteht sich inkl. MwSt. Es gelten die AGB laut Internetseite.

Wir berechnen € 2,95 Transportpauschale je Bestellung innerhalb Deutschlands und Österreich.

Wir weisen darauf hin, dass Sonderbestellungen von der Rücknahme und vom Umtausch ausgeschlossen sind.

Wir würden uns über Ihren Auftrag sehr freuen und sichern Ihnen schon jetzt prompte Erledigung zu.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen aus Neumarkt.  Günter Kürzdörfer
Kundenberater --
Kundenservice
Telefon   +49 (0) 9181 33 01 00
Fax         +49 (0) 9181 33 05 00
service@fritz-berger.de
www.fritz-berger.de

[Lincoln]

Hi,
maybe this link will help you:

https://shop.reimo-pan.de/ersatzteile-s ... ier?c=4618

Best regards,
Lincoln

[grozier]

Thank you Lincoln. I wrote to Reimo to see if that was for the 30mm tube or the 35mm, and they never wrote back. See below -- there are two different versions.

But seeing the plastic construction and the double rivet design gave me the confidence that the original sleeve fit wasn't necessary.

Best regards,

Ted

http://www.alu-line.de/eurocarry/produk ... -zubehoer/