Slamming the door - forever?

[Popcornkid]

Wow ; I thought I was the only one that had this problem, And yes have tried every trick mentioned above and many more to get that darned door to close in a civilized manner. I was given many excuses for this as well, most of them also mentioned above. The only thing that made the most sense to me was the chassis is very flexible ( maybe good maybe bad - not sure )so repositions itself every road trip ? ?. The only thing that worked for me was to remove the Stainless hinge pins , insert stainless washers thru so the aluminium did not rub and then lube it occasionally.
Another opinion is the curved door in incapable of aligning properly so this will reoccur forever. Replacing the expensive rubber seals will work for awhile as well.

I feel better now .....

[LiveStreamn]

Picked up our 2018 19’ Tommy from dealer and it really needed to be slammed to close. Dealer said that was pretty normal. Fast forward seven months with progressively harder slamming. Arrive at campground and door will not open. Eventually had to break in through emergency window for the entire weekend.

Called mothership and they sent parts to different dealer. The tech installed and said our entire door was out of alignment at almost every point. The constant slamming had destroyed the locking mechanism. Door now closes easily and thankfully we do not have to crawl through the window.

[gator.bigfoot]

I find that how you level the trailer can really affect the door closure. I know if I have a stabilizer too tight the door won't close right. I just back off the stabilizer and it usually works better. Far from perfect though, but most likely it has never been perfect.

[travlinchika]

My closes very well when my jacks are not cranked out when i'm towing it. My dealer also said to slam it. I think it is a leveling issue and I need to be careful the front is not the tiniest bit higher than the back. I have a 23D with the door in the front. I also took it to my dealer to adjust and they didn't fix the issue.

[worthy420]

Hi Folks,

I experienced the door alignment problem as well on my 2007 25' FB. I agree that temperature and a tweak of the stabilizer can effect the operation of the door.

My best solution was that I created a "C-Clip or E-Clip" out of a nylon washer and tapped in into place (small gap or tolerance) between the door's frame hinge and the doors hinge and around the retention pin. You can enlarge the gap by swinging the door (back/forth) a few times and lifting at the same time. (1/32 to 1/16")

Then tap the thin c-clip into place. I choose nylon so as to not wear out the aluminum hinge. As it wears out (and it will) I will simply make a new one and install. For me. . .15-20 minute fix.

Lastly I suspect that a permanent hinge adjustment as suggested by "martinod" is the best solution but I live too far away from the factory.

Try it. . .i found that it improved the problem considerably.

[delrossa]

I too think that slamming the door will do damage over time. When shutting the door on the outside just push the door close to the second click.
Closing the door on the inside by pulling the door shut to the second click. I was concerned about the possibility of breaking the handle so I attached a knob to a aluminum block. I did this so I wouldn’t have to drill holes in the plate.
It works great.

[SiverD]

We have a 2009 19ft International CCD and we have always had to give an extra tug to get the door to close all the way. When we leave on an outing I slam it shut. When it"s time for bed I pull the door with gradual force until I can latch the dead bolt. Good luck

[graywhale]

Our 2018 FC 25 (which we've had for 16 months) also has a stubborn door, which the dealer seems to think is just as it should be. It takes anywhere from a very firm, sharp push (and some luck) to a full-on slam depending on its mood. Between that and the loud, clanking steps dropping, I shutter at the thought of arriving in a campground in the evening; would love to be able to be inconspicuous, but no way!!

Larry

[KCCO]

As others have said - ours required the same slamming......put up with it last season, and when we dropped it off for some warranty work in November the door adjustment was on my list. Service rep agreed and said it would get it taken care of.

[AlinCal]

Our 91 Excella shuts with just a slight push and the 2011 needs a firm+ push so looks like 20-25+ years of use and they get just right.

[Special-Ed]

I dropped my trailer off at the dealer yesterday for some issues before warranty expires and my main complaint was the door. I had to literally shoulder check it to get the dead bolt to latch and the bottom was sticking out a bit. Stopped by today to get a couple things out of her and he had already adjusted the door (with the block of wood) works like a charm now and the bottom is nice and flush.

I used to have a mechanic at my dealership that resembled Mr Clean, He used to adjust the doors on the new cars physically without loosening the bolts on the hinge. He was big enough to do this and always got a great fit. I used to laugh when i saw him do it.

[Brandon T.]

Nice to see differences. I ha e to give a good tug on mine to close. Not a slam but a firm tug the last three inches of travel. There's no single finger closing on these doors.

[Oui-Ski]

We recently purchased a 2019 International Serenity FBT and soon realized it took quite a hard slam to get the door to close. Not being content with this, I searched the forum here for solutions. Some sounded reasonable and some sounded sketchy, but none of these seemed to actually eliminate the slam required to close the latch.

The one thing I found that helped initially was adjustment of the stabilizing jacks. After releasing the stabilizing jacks, I started with the screen door and realized that the upper latch side of the door was making the first contact and was actually out of contour. Using the block of wood method, I placed the wood in the screen door at the upper latch side of the door, and applied light pressure, making a very slight adjustment to the screen door and now the screen door closes very easily, by itself if you were to release it from 3" away.

This reduced the intensity of the slam required to close the door. However, I didn't like the idea of using the block of wood and a Hammer on the main door hinges as my first attempt.

So back out to YouTube for more options where I found what I believe is the effective solution. Using the "Two Click" method I can now close my door without a slam and the door is closed. Hearing the "Two Click" method, you can be assured that your door is properly latched.

The door can also be closed the same way on the inside but takes a little more practice. I saw in the following post where someone added a handle to the black area to avoid pulling on the factory installed handle. I'll be looking at these options next.

https://www.airforums.com/forums/f45...ml#post2190745

Check out the following YouTube video and let me know if it works for your slam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsY2dqSW5cA

[GetawA-S]

Since this thread is a couple of years old, I hope Acheron2010 has found his solution and will not be slamming his door... forever.
One fix I did not see mentioned is to check the striker post on the door frame for tightness. On our 23FB FC, it loosens up every few weeks, like clockwork. I can slam the door for hours without it catching. When I twist that post tight with my fingers, the door latches as it should.
Not the fix for everyone, I’m sure, but if it happens to me it is happening to others.
Happy camping!

[kittmaster]

Originally Posted by Oui-Ski

https://www.airforums.com/forums/f45...ml#post2190745

Check out the following YouTube video and let me know if it works for your slam.

We bought our 2019 Serenity from Pete's RV and Randall has been my main dealer service guy...great guy to talk to, easy going and very customer centric focused. We have had a great experience and he is the main reason we didn't give up on our AS after all the mess we've been through with it...if I were to buy another AS, it would be from Pete's of VT. Not a shameless plug, just my experience from day 1.

We just got back from JC for the 3rd time for last warranty and other upgrades.

On the list was the door....for the 3rd time. This time the DW got involved in the blessing of when it was truly "right".

The very first thing they did was add a washer to the striker bolt...it was clear after 2 years of slamming the door like He-Man that the striker was not out "far enough" and causing the striker to be start to be rounded off on the hex bolt part.

By moving the striker out, the door had immediately become easier to close without slamming. I was super excited and told DW everything was fixed....and she shut me down fast...

The door issue started because she could see light from the outside via the bottom of door, so it wasn't sealing properly even though it was closing with a lot less effort.

In the process, the head foreman of the shop, Brent, found and acknowledged that the door was not aligned properly and needed a lot of rework.

I KID YOU NOT....it took them nearly 6 hours to adjust. They found that one of the door hinges was loose, the weld joints were prematurely wearing out the screen foam, the screen was in the way of the arc shape for the outer door, the outer door both hinges needed to be realigned and tightened...they literally had one tech holding the door up while I had to grab something quick from inside.

It was NOT a DIY type of fix, but in the end, closing the door from the outside is very easy and the double click thing was always there, but now, it is very little effort form the outside and it is sealed. From the inside closing, you still have to give it some gusto to close, but may 2/3 less energy than before the fix....so at this point, it is "done".

They say the doors for each unit is unique, taking my door and sticking it on identical model will require all that work to be done again...and I believe them. I think we just had a bad installation from day one.

And the key thing to take away here is.....from slamming the door so much, in my opinion, I believe over the 3 years we've had it....caused the hinges to loosen up due to all the mechanical shock to get it to close making things slowly worsen over time...I may be wrong....but that is my belief.

[JECTJC]

Our 2018 International Serenity 30 is the same. In order to lock it, I have to shove carefully directly on the lock area and give it a good push. No matter where we travel, even from the inside, must be very careful. On our old 22 International, that door was great.

[JECTJC]

I live in Port Angeles, west of Seattle. Is it worth the trip to Ohio to get this fixed correctly? I thought I would just have to live with that misaligned door.

[kittmaster]

Originally Posted by JECTJC

I live in Port Angeles, west of Seattle. Is it worth the trip to Ohio to get this fixed correctly? I thought I would just have to live with that misaligned door.

Since your not under warranty, the shop rate was $155/hr if I recall...it took them 6 hours to get it right....930 bones?? Travel to Ohio from Seattle...using my Yukon XL 2016 as example, AAA calculates $1100 round trip....plus....everything else....

I guess only you can decide if it is worth the trip... it took the THREE times to finally get it right....and my dealer tried twice when they had it....

Tough call.

EDIT: picked near city as it didn't allow for direct selection of Jackson Center.

[kb7our]

To finally obtain perfect door alignment for the EASY press, two click closure you hear about, here's what I did:

Drill out the 2 rivets in the jamb which allows the striker bolt to move vertically a bit in order to line it up (centered) with the "jaws" inside the door latch. I needed more adjustment so I removed (unscrewed) the striker bolt and elongated the bottom of the bolt hole with a dremel to provide additional vertical travel. BINGO! After a few trials to get the correct elongated hole size (removed material from bottom of hole), the result is PERFECT alignment of the door latch. Striker bolt is perfectly centered with the latch jaws. An easy palm press on the door is all that is needed to hear the two clicks closed.

WARNING!!!!! If you remove the 2 rivets and striker bolt, you absolutely MUST use a wire or similar inside the jamb to keep the latch from falling inside the wall. Take your time because if the latch falls, it's not going to be easy to retrieve if it's even possible.

[Mollysdad]

I watched a video where the guy tightened the hinge bolts and made the door close perfectly. See if your door has some play when open if you lift up on it. It looked like a simple fix.