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Which piano hinge is which?

G

gotyoke

Well Known Member
My fuse kit came with two different kinds of piano hinge, each 6-feet long. I don't know enough about these things to be sure which is which.

AN257-P3X6' - HINGE X 6'
HINGE PIANO 1/8X6' - 0.125 THICK PIANO HINGE

One is shinier and sturdier, with a wider flange. The other has MS20257-3 stamped on it. All my assumptions point to AN257-P3 being the same as MS20257-3, but I want to be sure before I cut anything.


IMG_0492.jpeg
 
I believe MS20257P3 (aka AN257) is aluminum and used for the seat hinges. The other one is stainless steel and used for attaching the cowl to the firewall.
 
Both hinges are aluminum. The shinier one (AN257-P3) has rolled hinge eyes. The other one that looks dull is anodized aluminum and has forged hinge eyes, and is stronger and also more expensive. The AN257 is used on my RV6 for things like flaps and cowl attach. However, for my cowl side hinges I used the forged MS20257 because that’s what I had. I don’t think you could break a hinge eye off from those ones and for me it was better in that location. The rolled hinges come in different sizes with different flange widths and they can be combined - wide flange on one side, narrow on the other in case you need that for proper spacing. Rolled hinges are more commonly used in various places like seatback bottoms. Hinge pins are stainless steel, however, the larger rolled hinge that is meant to be used on the cowl to firewall junction is shipped with 1/8” aluminum pins which are not used in assembly. Typically the firewall hinges use a slightly smaller SS pin to help deal with the curvature on the firewall.

Your plans will spell out which hinge should be used in a given location.
 
Scott Hersha said:
Both hinges are aluminum. The shinier one (AN257-P3) has rolled hinge eyes. The other one that looks dull is anodized aluminum and has forged hinge eyes, and is stronger and also more expensive. The AN257 is used on my RV6 for things like flaps and cowl attach. However, for my cowl side hinges I used the forged MS20257 because that’s what I had. I don’t think you could break a hinge eye off from those ones and for me it was better in that location. The rolled hinges come in different sizes with different flange widths and they can be combined - wide flange on one side, narrow on the other in case you need that for proper spacing. Rolled hinges are more commonly used in various places like seatback bottoms. Hinge pins are stainless steel, however, the larger rolled hinge that is meant to be used on the cowl to firewall junction is shipped with 1/8” aluminum pins which are not used in assembly. Typically the firewall hinges use a slightly smaller SS pin to help deal with the curvature on the firewall.

Your plans will spell out which hinge should be used in a given location.
Click to expand...
Another good location to use the forged hinge style is the trim tab.
 
Van’s has a list of articles that can be found on their website under “Support”.
Under “Tech Q&A”, there is one entitled “About RV Kit Hinges”.

Pete
 
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