Tongue Box Painting and Hardware

 The tongue box was painted with the same paint as the exterior of the trailer. The interior was given three coats of spar urethane to protect if from contents banging around inside and any UV. The hinge is a 30" brass piano hinge held down by 30 8-32 brass machine screws through bolted to the lid and the box itself. The seal around the edge is neoprene, and the lip of the box overlaps it by about 1" to protect it. The lid is held down by two elastic pull latches. They are at a bit of a strange angle but appear to hold quite well. The lock is on center and catches a piece of aluminum angle iron on the interior of the front of the box. To minimize any water coming through the hinge, it was laid over a strip of waterproof fabric. Lastly, I installed a small strip of aluminum to protect the rather delicate thermistor on the front of the charge controller.