Entry Door Alignment Problems

[Denny_A]

There have been a few threads lately regarding misaligned and/or poorly operating doors.

One of the common misalignment problems involves the door halves seperating as the door swings thru the 90 deg. position. Enough to disengage. It can be frustrating. A little pressure on the door knob during opening can assure the doors will disengage.

The cure is fairly simple. I explained the technique in another thread, but words don't convey the message all that well. Additionally, the problem addressed in the thread was associated with trailer leveling.

The adjustment, to which I will provide a link, is to pivot the wall "inward", where it attaches to the lower door hinge line. Following adjustment, as the door opens, the swing thru 90 degs is slighly elevated (less seperation from the upper) - problem solved.

Go here to see the adjustment:

http://community.webshots.com/album/551430116XzTzlQ {Updated 6/16/06 @ 2342}

HTH

Denny_A

[Bill]

THANK YOU, DENNY! This has been an ongoing source of frustration. For me, door separation doesn't happen often, and when it does happen, it is usually because I missed getting one of the pins into its socket during setup. But after getting the pins in place, it still happens occasionally, and I can never figure out why. I NEVER use the stabilizers to jack the trailer to level, so when it happens I just cuss and live with it for a day.

Now I know what to do. Good pix, BTW - love them digital cameras.

Bill

[Cateye]

My problem is the opposite by 90 degrees. The door is separated when closed and the gap closes to normal when opened to 90 degrees.

[Denny_A]

My problem is the opposite by 90 degrees. The door is separated when closed and the gap closes to normal when opened to 90 degrees.

That sounds like a longitudinal (vs. lateral) alignment problem. Not having dealt with that, I can only guess.

Guess: If the hinge line of the lower, or upper door were tilted  (aft  tilt lower, or forward upper) the gap would increase on closure. Also the gap would be least when open and latched. When the door is being closed from full open, the gap would continuously increase.

If the above scenario is not the case, then some problem with frame bowing (permanent or as a result of twisting during setup) is another possibility. There is a current, extensive thread, dealing with door jamming, which may offer a solution.

Repeat - just guessing here.

Denny_A  

WOW! Thanks Denny! I've had that problem for quite some time, and just chocked it up to "my old TM"! I wasn't even aware that newer owners were having that same problem, thanks a lot!   ;D


[glow=red,2,300]Happytrails.........[/glow]

[nwhouston]

Denny_A, could you renew the link you posted back in '06 re door alignment?

Mine is getting progressively worse, even with all the stabilizer jack tricks.

Bill indicated you had some guidance on restoring the parallel alignment between the top and bottom. I can see that my front passenger side is no longer parallel. I don't know that that is the issue with the badly sticking door, but I am open to trying any ideas. The problem is new in the last two years; for the first two years of our ownership this was not an issue.

Thanks, Larry

[momto4girls]

Following this discussion.

What stabilizer tricks?

Our door works PERFECTLY when the camper is parked in storage. Happens to be pretty level. But both times we've camped, we've had difficulty getting the door to close. The only difference is that we used the jacks to level at our campsites. At the storage lot jacks are up--we never lower them in storage. Next time we camp, we will level using the wheels (Bal or Andersen) and just use the jacks to stablilize. Hoping that will take care of the problem.

[nwhouston]

My post of yesterday may be what leads to the 'stabilizer tricks' question. So here is my set up process to get our door to even seat into the left door frame slot for others to comment on:

1. Roughly level side to side with boards or plastic plates based on how the site looks to the eye. This is done when first backing in; not common but does happen, particularly in state parks. How much board or plastic depth to use is a guess at best since plastic and wood are of fixed widths, and the chances of you hitting the side-to-side-level lottery is low. But I do try this step if the site is clearly sloping sideways.
2. Next (or first) I level end to end with the jack. This should be an easy step assuming the site does not slope to an extreme. I use a carpenter's level on the front tongue area for this step with a secondary check with the level set on top of the awning.
3. Next I will make a finer pass at leveling side-to-side with the level now across both the back bumper and the front tongue area. I try not to over jack any corner but I do try to get a reasonably clean center bubble at both ends.
4. Then we pop up the ends, set the aluminium stops, and try to set the door. In the last two years, this is where something has changed on our rig. Consistently now the swing-out door jam piece on your left hand that has the short post that should slip into the clip on the rear upper section will be in a bind. I am talking about maybe a 1/16" or so out. Not extreme, but enough that I cannot push that side piece into place. So here comes the 'trick': I go to the rear, opposite corner, and over lift that corner with the jack, then I go to the front corner on the door (passenger) side, and let off a few turns. Typically somewhere in about one to two goes of this manual 'stabilizer bingo' I will find a position where the door jam piece will seat.
5. I put the stairs down, set my level inside on the floor, and check front to back and side-to-side. The front to back should be solid, but if it is necessary I will lift all stabilizer jacks about an inch, and then make the front to back adjustment. Normally this is not necessary but I do check as I sometimes miss the 'clean' bubble up in step #2. Now I finish the side to side by lowering both jacks on whichever side is low just enough to get a 'clean' center bubble, then I lower the other two jacks so they are just picking up load. No 'over' lifting to try and get absolute to movement in the trailer.

The above works for us, it is just more time consuming now that the frame, seems to be out of parallel with at least the rear top section.

We have not had the issue of our two door sections themselves not being parallel and coming apart. It sounds like that might be another effect of a 'not parallel any more' situation.

The reason I restarted this thread after all these years is to see if Denny_A has the guide he published back in '03 on addressing door issues.

Welcome all comments on above. We are heading out for a two week run to Colorado at the end of August, and getting some progress on this extended set up step would be welcome.

Larry

[HoMiPa]

WOW, you go to a lot of trouble! I think I'm too lazy, or in too much of a rush, to go through all that! I use an Anderson - I back into the site, shy of my anticipated final location by about two feet. I check the side to side level mounted between the tongue frame on the front of the trailer. Based on that, I place the Anderson behind the appropriate wheel, and back up onto it enough to level. This sometimes requires a few times of getting out of the truck, checking the level, checking the Anderson to see how much more I need to back onto it, or if I need to come off of it some. Once that is done, I drop the trailer, level front to back with the tongue jack. From there I lower all the stabilizer jacks, once they touch the piece of 2x4 I put under each one, I crank up about one full turn. I do a final check on the two small bubble levels on the front of the trailer, and that's it. Oh, once the stabilizers are down, I jack up the tongue jack one full turn. I do this just to give an ever so slight slope to the trailer, so if it rains, water will run off the back, not pool near the junction of the two shells (my rear shell is no longer higher down the center line). If I have trouble setting the door (which is sometimes the same problem as yours - setting the pin of the small left door jamb into the rear upper shell), I use a wrecking bar to lift the rear shell so I can seat the door jamb.

[Bill]

Originally Posted by nwhouston

Denny_A, could you renew the link you posted back in '06 re door alignment?

Larry -

Sadly, Denny_A has been gone from the Board for more than 10 years, so he won't respond to your request. I'll try to recall just what he advised, and post it here if my old memory cells disgorge anything. Or maybe one of the other old-timers can come up with something. However, could you give me a little more info about "the link" and "the tricks"? I'm not seeing those reference in this thread. Was it elsewhere?

Offhand, I'm guessing this is the issue that was solved by adjusting the wood-over-metal triangle that is on the floor just to the right of the door as you enter the trailer.

Bill