Flippac Hinge Headache....

[aventurero]

Well, Does anyone want a Flippac? I am considering selling because if this sort of thing continues to happen, what good is it if I am always fixing it. I didn't heed the warnings from other posts. For the record. Replacing a hinge on a Flippac is not easy as it looks.
My friend and I started by standing the lid and by a rube goidberg looking set up and getting some of the weight off the hinges. Then driving the torsion bar out was relatively easy. Then, the trouble started! We could not, for love nor money, get the old hinge out. See photos.
The tang was shimmed into the lid so tight that is wasn't going to come out. We finally manged to get it out, but not till after much head scratching and various attempts and processes. And, demo that I didn't want to do.
Flippac! WTF? Do they just not care or can't be bothered to engineer their product in such a manner that is maintainable and provide reliable customer service and have parts on hand? There is no excuse for what I/we had to do to remove the part. As I said in a previous post, someone out there needs to buy the Flippac portion from FRP and do it right. Brilliant idea, poorly engineered, under engineered, poorly managed, poorly executed.
I am considering writing to Flippac and telling them exactly what I think. However. They wouldn't read it! Just like the emails/pics they requested that I send of the broken hinge. The women I talked w/ asked. Who I bought it from. As if that mattered. A broken hinge is a broken hinge.
Not such a happy camper. Ciao
PS and the worst of all this. my spring plans, because of this have been all shot to hell!demo.jpgmorecrazy.jpgheadache.jpg

[RHINO]

sorry to hear of your troubles,, if you decide to get rid of it i am interested in another flip for another project i have.

[suntinez]

Really sorry to hear this, esp. sucks about your plans. Where are you located?

I'm lucky because FRP is near me, and have always taken care of my problems without charge or questions. They definitely have their problems in supporting this product.

[TACODOC]

Really sorry to hear this, esp. sucks about your plans. Where are you located?

I'm lucky because FRP is near me, and have always taken care of my problems without charge or questions. They definitely have their problems in supporting this product.

x2!

You should call them and speak to one of the techs - I had a cracked hinge on mine and they replaced it in about 2 hours at their shop. There must be a trick to it that they can help with over the phone.

[Martyn]

x2!

You should call them and speak to one of the techs - I had a cracked hinge on mine and they replaced it in about 2 hours at their shop. There must be a trick to it that they can help with over the phone.

Doc, I think the difference is, your hinge was new when it was replaced, so removal was straight forward. This hinge had been in there for years and was wedged, rusted, cob webbed into place. I think we have all been there, working on older vehicles and having that one bolt that won't come loose. Very frustrating.

[TACODOC]

Good point Martyn.

[ExpoMike]

This really doesn't bode well for Flipacs in my opinion. Regardless of the customer service side, Dave's FP is not that old (I remember when he got it) and already a broken hinge. I also know his handle broke as well. I have read of other with broken hinges and torsion bars on units not considered that old. To me, that sounds like a bad design and a company that doesn't see to care to fix the root cause of the problem. If this hasn't been an problem in the past on older units, then they need to look at their recent manufactoring source but if this has been a long term issue, that is still a current issue, they need to get some engineers in and redesign parts.

Hope things get better for everyone owning Flipacs. Not saying Four Wheel Campers are not without flaws but my 12 year old, unknown number of owners, is still going strong.

[RHINO]

your right, it doesnt bode well, but its the only option that i know of for us out there that want an empty camper in a small lightweight package at that price range. there are a few in OZ that i would love to own, but at 20k or so its not going to happen. i hope AT gets the flippac style camper done they are working on so there will be another option from a very good customer support company. in the mean time, hopefully i wont have any problems with my hinge since i did away with the torsion bar altogether.

[homemade]

Before condemning the flippac and its manufacturer so roundly consider the alternatives. If you want to haul around a slide in then get one, I have one and much prefer the flippac. There is a lot of information about defects and problems with the various slide in campers, especially as they get older. I also don’t want a roof top tent or a trailer or a ground tent. I wouldn’t want to spend $7,000 for an improved flippac clone (the current price of the Jeep product per another thread), that isn’t even in production yet for truck application and the Jeep product is at least a couple years into development and doesn’t seem to be flying out the doors so far, check that tread if you care. There isn‘t any product history to even tell if will be free of the usual flippac problems.

A useful feature of web sites like this is that you don’t have to go into a purchase without information about a product and its weaknesses and potential fixes and work arounds.

For what it is, and what I want and what I was willing to pay I’m good with the flippac, warts and all.

[RHINO]

i am tickled to death with my flippac, i got it used with a few problems but you wont hear any complaints from me.