Corner Latch

I have noticed that my rear corner latch on the street side does not align. What I mean is that when I close the latch and buckle it about only half of the male part is in the female part with half of the male part hanging off the side. Sorry for the above poor description but I hope you understand what I am trying to explain. I would not think the factory would let the unit leave like this but all the other latches line up. Any ideas on what's wrong and how to fix it?

I have one that is mis-aligned, but not that bad. Only off by a quarter.

Factory needs some better templates.

[B_and_D]

Is your TM new? If so, I would ask the factory to have a dealer repair the misaligned latch. They might be able to use one hole already drilled, drill a new one, and then patch up the one that's not being used.

Ours have always been aligned as they should be.

Thanks for the replies. My unit is a 2003 2720SL. I just wanted to make sure I did not have something out of alignment somewhere or a more serious problem. I found an old thread where the person seemed to have a similar problem but I could not understand exactly how they fixed it and I do not believe that person is a member any longer.

[B_and_D]

Perhaps, is there something that is keeping your TM from closing properly? Do you have a hard time closing it down? Do you keep anything on the beds that would get in the way?

You might want to call the factory and ask them about this problem. We have found them to be be extremely helpful.

The unit seems to close properly and pretty easy. There is nothing kept on the bed. I don't know maybe the factory did miss this one latch since all the other latches seem to align pretty good but this latch would be hard to miss.

It seems that there was some sort of adjustment on the torsion bars that would account for the latches not lining up properly. I think Larry Loo had some experience on that - something about the adjustment of where the lifting bars attach to the torsion bars. I can't recall completely but the factory should be able to tell you exactly. Maybe Larry will chime in here - if he was the one who mentioned it before. (It seems like you had to loosen the four bolts at the bottom of the lifting bar and lift it with a jack and re-tighten the bolts. It had to be done with the shell open so there wouldn't be any tension on the torsion bar.)

[Denny_A]

Originally Posted by Freedom

It seems that there was some sort of adjustment on the torsion bars that would account for the latches not lining up properly. I think Larry Loo had some experience on that - something about the adjustment of where the lifting bars attach to the torsion bars. I can't recall completely but the factory should be able to tell you exactly. Maybe Larry will chime in here - if he was the one who mentioned it before. (It seems like you had to loosen the four bolts at the bottom of the lifting bar and lift it with a jack and re-tighten the bolts. It had to be done with the shell open so there wouldn't be any tension on the torsion bar.)

Hmmm... I recall something along those lines too.

If I were trying to eliminate fault conditions, I would get on a ladder, with the shells opened and in the normal camping position, and check for a gap between the aft shell and forward shell's aft "fluffy" seal. If there is a gap, on the street-side, then the latch misalignment may be as a result of the slippage(downward) of the forward, street-side torsion bar of the aft shell. The downward slippage would account for the shell gap. The same slippage would also force the shell forward the same amount as the the latch misalignment. That is as the shell rotates thru 90 deg, during closure, the shell would have tracked forward the same amount as the gap when open.

If that's not the problem, never mind. It's something else.

Denny_A

Thanks once again guys for the timely responses. It makes me feel good about joining. I hope to take the unit out this weekend and I will take a look and maybe some pictures of the problem. I will inspect the torsion bars and the gap at the top when open. I did have a problem with a gap between the shells when closed but the corner latch misalignment was still present. I fixed the gap between the shells when closed by replacing the bolts holding the main lock down latches in the center because they were rotating and allowing the gap to occur.