screen door: must have been attacked at some time

[Aage]

The screen door on my TT has had a rough-looking patch on the lower hinge since ever I've had it. Beyond just looking bad, it prevents the outer door from closing properly; you have to give it a tremendous slam, and sometimes more than one.

here's the good hinge:


And here's the bad one:


Here's the good hinge again, see how tightly it fits to the door frame:


And again, the "repaired" one:


Spacing of hinge to screen door (top or good hinge):


Spacing of bottom bad one:


From these photos, you can see that the way that the PO dealt with this problem was to put strips of AL over the breaks and rivet them on. This seems to be the root of the door closing problem: the strips add to the thickness of the screen door and prevent the hinge from getting tight to the frame and door, with the result that I mentioned above. Also, the hinge is somewhat distorted, I think. It's my belief that some tragic accident did all this damage at one time.

I need to get this fixed, and my first reaction was to find a new door to replace the old one with, but I don't think that this is going to be easy.

Then I looked up how to remove the door, and it will come off the hinge by merely drilling out the rivets. By the way, is a # 30 drill a 1/8"?

I'm thinking that I could get a skilled welder to repair the door by simply welding the cracks in it and thereby get rid of the patches and then be able to close the door easily.

Any thoughts?

[Aage]

update:

Looked up in the Service Manual the procedure for removing the screen door, and it's pretty simple.

Took it out yesterday and dropped it off at a welding shop I found off of Perth Road and will have it back when we return to Henri end of next week.

The patch was a mess and when I removed it, and some pieces of the door below the patches literally fell off.

My welder guessed at an hour's work, which he estimated would be about C$60.00

Well worth it, since the door will then fit and the entire assembly will close as it should. It does close quite nicely now, without the screen thus confirming the fact that the extra lumps the PO had stuck on it were interfering with the closure.

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by Aage

update:

Looked up in the Service Manual the procedure for removing the screen door, and it's pretty simple.

Took it out yesterday and dropped it off at a welding shop I found off of Perth Road and will have it back when we return to Henri end of next week.

The patch was a mess and when I removed it, and some pieces of the door below the patches literally fell off.

My welder guessed at an hour's work, which he estimated would be about C$60.00

Well worth it, since the door will then fit and the entire assembly will close as it should. It does close quite nicely now, without the screen thus confirming the fact that the extra lumps the PO had stuck on it were interfering with the closure.

Aage.

Fixing the screen door is OK, but you need to find out what is causing the problem, and then correct it.

Vibration is the cause of that failure.

Vibration can be caused by a number of things, such as an excessive rated tow vehicle, excessive rated hitch bars, lack of proper running gear balance, and/or bad axles. Any one of those can cause vibrations that allow the entrance door as well as the screen door shake.

Check the entrance door striker bolt and striker pocket. If either one of those show wear, then those parts must be replaced as well, as they contribute to holding the door tight to the entrance door jamb.

As a last resort. if the entrance door gasket and/or the screen door gasket is bad, they will also allow excessive movement of the screen door, when traveling.

There is an answer to your screen door problem, but you have to determine which answer is correct, and then fix that problem.

If not, the damage will happen again.

Andy

[Aage]

Well, I took the door off and had it repaired by a welder that's local to where Henri (the TT) lives. I think the welder did a good job, seeing as how there was a fair bit of aluminum actually missing from the door frame, and the door certainly works better than it did before. I have good faith in the welder now too, so when I get around to frame repair this fall I know where I'm going to go for that work.

There is no more of the floppiness at the bottom and in putting it back on, he had to drill new holes for the bottom hinge, and therefore had a clean slate to align it properly within the opening. Result: a door that is simple and easy to close, and makes a minimum of noise in doing so.

Some pics:







I was so pleased with the improvement in looks and performance that I (finally, some say) replaced the aging and busted screens in the door, plus put a screen in the frame of the window adjacent to the door. Every little bit makes it look and work better, I find.

I also discovered the probable "why" the outer door doesn't want to close easily: there is a definite kink in the skins near the lower hinge. To me, this supports my original thought that there was some kind of horrible accident that happend to Henri's door at some time in the past.

When I run lower on things to do, I'll have a closer look at it, but at first glance, there is not going to be an "easy fix" for that problem.

But there rarely is, is there?