Latch and Gap closure Solution

Our 3326 TM recently developed a persistent door-side lower latch closing problem, with gap topside between shells, not the first time but this time the problem would not go away. I researched the archives here with excellent results, but the simple stuff did not help, and the serious stuff (involving a concrete block plus pneumatic lift) scared me.

I plan to visit the TN factory for a tune-up after the winter ice melts, but I did fix the problem at least for now.

With someone standing in the stirrup, the shell would just touch my door side lower latch. On the shell itself is a plate that holds a little bar on which the lower latch catches. Since I could not adjust the lower catch up any farther, I decided to lower the bar on the shell. In my case, I needed about a half inch drop. There are two lag screws, about two inches long, that hold the bar to the shell.

I looked in my "garage junk store" (in which nothing has ever been thrown away in 50 years ) and found a couple of half inch tall bushings that look like (but are not actually) these:

http://www.amazon.com/Bridgeport-TWB...LATING+BUSHING

I just unscrewed the plate, put the bushings on the screws, re-screwed, and it latched beautifully. I still need to obtain a couple of half-inch longer replacement lag screws so there will be the original length of screw in the frame, but it's a quick cure for hard-to-latch shells until more professional remedies can be obtained.

[rvcycleguy]

Good job. When at the factory, ask about the repair/update for the hold down bar that you lowered with the bushings. After thousands of highway miles, the lag screws wollered out and pulled out while traveling. I replaced with larger lag screws to get home but even those eventually pulled out as well. I called the factory and they sent a repair/ update kit to replace with a 4 inch plate and 4 lag screws that make the bar plate much stronger by running length wise and twice as many screws. Have been towing for a year now and it is much more secure. It's the bouncing due to the roofs flexing while traveling.

Thanks. I'll try giving them a call to see if I can get that repair/update kit.