Door Adjustment Bolts

[Larryjb]

Shane,
Yes, the triangle is supposed to keep the lower wall perpendicular to the floor. The little aluminum swing out bars should keep the shell wall in line with the lower wall.

HOWEVER, it seems that if the torsion bars weaken, they can pull the whole business out of alignment. Consider the x-axis the horizontal length of the trailer, the y-axis the horizontal width of the trailer, and the z-axis the vertical height of the trailer. The torsion bar, at complete rest, should naturally sit as such:

a) The length of the torsion bar should be in line with the y-axis.


b) As you look down the length of the trailer (along the x-axis), in line with the lift arms, the torsion bar should be perfectly perpendicular. On my trailer, the lift arm that was supporting the awning side of the shell had sprung and was no longer providing enough lifting force for me. In addition, it was no longer perpendicular as you looked along the length of the trailer and was pulling the wall of the shell outwards. There was enough force pulling on the shell wall that it also pulled the lower wall out, in spite of the triangle brace. I see you have a slide. I'll bet the wall is perpendicular by your door. I'll bet the lift arm on the awning side near the front is tipping outwards. I'll also bet that your front shell is requiring more effort to lift.

New torsion bars for the front solved this issue for me completely. However, I had the wrong sized torsion bars installed. For now, I'm assuming that my awning was added after production, but we all know that vehicle manufacturers make mistakes. If so, it's too bad that this wasn't noticed by the original owner because this could have been replaced under the lifetime warrantee.



c) As you look along the y-axis at the lift arm. the torsion bar at complete rest should sit about 10-20° past vertical. It won't actually sit at this angle because the pocket stop bolt prevents the shell from opening too far. This angle just gives enough push to help open the shell to the correct position and keeps an "opening" tension on the shell.

I hope this all makes sense.

[Bill]

Originally Posted by Larryjb

Shane,
Yes, the triangle is supposed to keep the lower wall perpendicular to the floor.

There is another purpose for the triangle, and that is to keep the wall of the front shell parallel to (in the same plane as) the wall of the lower box. In other words, the shell wall should not lean in or out compared to the box wall.


You can tell if the two walls are not parallel to each other. Open the entry door, and disconnect the upper and lower halves. Now hold the upper door directly over the lower door, and swing the two doors almost closed. Note the gap between the outer edges of the two doors.


Now swing the two doors to the straight-out position, and check the gap again. It should not have changed. If the gap changes, it means that the box wall is leaning in or out compared to the shell wall.


Why does this matter? If you have an older TM where the doors were joined with the pivoting nylon block, it really doesn't. The door will slide past the block, the gap will change, and it is no big deal. But if you have a newer TM with the cabinet latch that joins the doors, the gap can't change - the cabinet latch will force the doors into a fixed position even if they are not aligned. In other words, the latch will force something to bend. Door frame? Hinge? Wall structure? Whatever it is, bending something that is not intended to bend can't be good, and forcing it makes me nervous.



The triangle - actually the bolts through the floor - can be adjusted to change the lean of the box wall, and bring it into alignment with the shell wall. In other words, nothing has to bend, the door halves meet properly, and the gap doesn't change as they swing.


Bill

[Larryjb]

Bill, that triangle will keep the lower wall and shell wall parallel to each other at the door. However, on the slide models the lift arm / torsion bar can pull this end of the lower wall out, actually twisting the lower wall slightly. In Shane's picture, the wall alignment is out at the slide end, so the door and may be perfectly parallel.