Electric Cord Feed Cover

[Bigbit]

The plastic cover & electric cord / plug holder that's in the rear of my Elkmont has come loose. It is held on with 3 phillips head screws and caulked - I noticed that 2 of the screws had come loose and appear stripped. The cover is moving and will fall off soon if I don't take action.

What is the best approach to repair this? I don't feel like hauling this trailer 30 miles to the dealer for what appears to be a relatively minor issue.

[cochise]

The plastic cover & electric cord / plug holder that's in the rear of my Elkmont has come loose. It is held on with 3 phillips head screws and caulked - I noticed that 2 of the screws had come loose and appear stripped. The cover is moving and will fall off soon if I don't take action.

What is the best approach to repair this? I don't feel like hauling this trailer 30 miles to the dealer for what appears to be a relatively minor issue.

First of all, as the owner of an Elkmont 24 I have discovered that in the process of assembling these trailers, the person/s doing the job just drive in the screws with a power drill. I have had so many screws falling out because the holes become too big to accommodate the screws. Where possible I have replaced the screws with a larger one. BUT I would suggest also using a bead of “Liquid Nails adhesive”. This is a small tube purchased at your local hardware store I believe the number is LN-207, (printed on the front lower left corner). I have used this stuff to attach fiberglass wall joint tape over the large openings in the top and bottom screen in the outside refrigerator vent area and it is holding up just fine. So if you try to use a bead of this all around the flange and than the next larger size screw, you should be fine.

On both sides at the front of the Elkmont I used 3-M’s exterior double sided tape to attached those little hooks to hold the baggage door open. I did not bother with screws and that too is holding up just fine.

Hope this helps.

[brulaz]

Yes, the sheet metal screws routinely fall out. Check the screws holding your propane gas line underneath the trailer. Half of mine were falling out. But I did notice that the ones that were holding had a much finer thread than those falling out. Apparently the factory just uses whatever it has around.

So I replaced my loose ones with pop-rivets. Maybe not appropriate for your problem though. Liquid nails sounds fine too me.

[AstroBruce]

I don't know how TM expects sheet metal screws to hold in tinfoil. I would suggest trying Molly Bolts.

[Bigbit]

Thanks All for the tips. I'm going to tackle the repair this weekend, and will report on the outcome.

[Wavery]

I (and others) have found that aluminum pop-rivets work quite well in this aluminum skin (don't use steel pop-rivets). If for some reason they need to be removed, the head of the rivet is easily removed with a drill and the rivet pushed through the inside of the hole.

[Bigbit]

Well, I tackled the repair today. When I removed the cover, the first thing I noticed was that all 3 screw holes had become elongated. Going to bigger screws wasn't going to provide a fix. I decided to try a different approach to the repair, since I had already purchased the compression nuts that Harveyrv had recommended in another thread. I drilled out all 3 holes just large enough to accommodate the nuts, compressed them to sit them in place, then removed the screws. I then replaced the cover, and screwed the 3 screws in to within 1/8" of tight, then silicon caulked around the edges, and finally tightened the 3 screws and cleaned up the caulking edging.

It looks good and sturdy. But boy, is that aluminum layer thin! :eek::eek:

[Wavery]

boy, is that aluminum layer thin! :eek::eek:

That's why sheetmetal screws are not a good option.

[Scott O]

I run the cord out under the bumper cover as was suggested by someone on this forum, and don't use the little plug holder at all. Works much better and the cord is easier to coil...

[cochise]

Yes, the sheet metal screws routinely fall out. Check the screws holding your propane gas line underneath the trailer. Half of mine were falling out. But I did notice that the ones that were holding had a much finer thread than those falling out. Apparently the factory just uses whatever it has around.

So I replaced my loose ones with pop-rivets. Maybe not appropriate for your problem though. Liquid nails sounds fine too me.

Usually it is the other way around: In unstable and flimsy material one uses coarse thread screws for better hold. Look at the so called "dry wall" screws. They are all coarse thread.

[Wavery]

Usually it is the other way around: In unstable and flimsy material one uses coarse thread screws for better hold. Look at the so called "dry wall" screws. They are all coarse thread.

Drywall screws are course tread because drywall is thick. Each thread on the screw grips a larger amount of the material as it passes through. A fine thread screw used in drywall would simply pulverize the chalky drywall material and would fail to grip anything. The fact is, drywall screws are generally meant to pass through the drywall and screw into the wood behind it. The TM has no such wood behind the aluminum.

Sheet-metal screws are generally a finer thread because the material is thinner. However, the sheet aluminum used on the TM is very thin and the fact that it is aluminum on top of that makes it a very poor medium for any screw (no matter how fine) to grip. It is better to use a fastener that opens up inside the wall (behind the aluminum panel) and grips from the other side.

[shemele]

I run the cord out under the bumper cover as was suggested by someone on this forum, and don't use the little plug holder at all. Works much better and the cord is easier to coil...

I installed a battery shutoff switch in the little plug holder. Works great!:new_bdays