When we bought our 2720, the former owner told me that I should replace
the turnbutton for the door. It was working and keeping the door shut, but
was obviously barely latching the door.
After 8 years of some use, some things just wear out.
The existing rivet was likely slightly bent backwards from the pressure of
the door when the camper was down, and the contact area of the rivet in
the wall was also slightly distorted from the turnbutton in use pressure.
To explain my thinking better, the expanded part of the rivet, inside the wall,
created a torque effect that slightly bent the metal around the hole so that
the initially perpendicular rivet was angled backwards slightly. What I am
saying is that simply adding a new turnbutton may not result in a return
of the perpendicular turnbutton angle due to the slightly distorted wall
where the rivet mounts.
Rather than try and correct the distortion, and maybe really make things
worse, I opted to try some compensation to make things work better.
I used a standard turnbutton with 2 small nuts and 1 small flat washer as
spacers. I also used a wood screw to mount all in place. To compensate
for the distortion, I filed an angle on one side of the nut that goes against
the camper wall. I put the nut into a small vise and filed 1/16" from one
side towards the outside center of the nut. If you look closely at the inside
nut in the picture, you will see that the side of the inside nut that is towards
the door is narrower than the back side by about 1/16". That is my guess
about the distortion from use, and the result is that the new
turnbutton is again perpendicular to the door. This means more bite to keep
the door closed. I used a screw with loctite, but believe in clockwise rotation only,
as somebody already posted.
Ok, you can also see that I added a small grab bar. That is added insurance
that the door will stay in the closed position. That idea was formerly posted,
and I shortened the bottom mount screws so as to not interfere with any
motion inside the wall. It is slightly higher than most grab bars, but still works fine.
So far, so good.
Happy camping!
