Suicide Door Design - What were they thinking?

[Jim Flower]

Falcon Lake, Manitoba, 1963. Ski trip.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by Jim Flower

Suicide doors were on my 1947 Morris 8. Actually made ingress and egress easier for small spaces. Bad for catching the door on various objects while trying to exit during a rolling stop as some kids want to do. Jim

Attachment 366956

'57 Minor...👍 No backward doors though.

27 scream'n HP

Bob
🇺🇸

[Jim Flower]

My friend had one of those that we used for trying to snag a date. Clearly not the cars fault that we were never successful.

[PatB]

Originally Posted by Protagonist

Actually not true. If your trailer's floor plan includes the living room at the front and the bedroom at the rear, then one either needs a suicide door that can open fully, a regular door that only opens halfway before it bumps into the awing arms, or a smaller awning that doesn't even extend far enough forward to cover the door. (Or an entrance door directly into your bedroom rather than the living room, but that would be silly.)

So if you don't like suicide doors on general principles, choose your trailer's floor plan to include the living room at the rear and the bedroom at the front.

In total agreement with your getting old quote!! Made my day

[fwjumper]

On our 34 footer, it is a suicide door. If it opened forward, it would cover a window. As it is, it covers the front furnace vent. I guess they calculated that you wouldn't have the door open and the furnace on simultaneously. They don't know us.

We've had them both ways, and I do think about it some, so I lock the deadbolt and the handle lock when we travel. With that said, it's never been a problem. (I shouldn't have said that!)

[skyguyscott]

While I have not sat down at a drafting table, or perhaps I should say computer-assisted design station recently to work the problem, I believe it must be possible to tweak the floorplans of the airstream trailer to Maintain weight and balance, good airflow, and eliminate the suicide door so that when your deadbolt and latch fail at highway speed the door will stay shut, and not be violently flung open damaging both door and trailer. I just can’t believe there is not an elegant engineering solution to satisfy all of these objectives, And once designed and implemented it will be a most welcome improvement to the line.

Just looking casually at the current lineup, it appears to me that some of the 30 footers and 20 footers could easily make this change on the first day back to work with no problems.

[guskmg]

FWIW, I had suicide doors open on two different TT while traveling at highway speeds causing severe damage. One to a freshly skinned TT. Ouch! That was family error. The other was before dead bolts were standard which would have saved the day. I quickly installed a dead bolt. The earlier Bargman latches fit too loose in the door frame to kept the flexing door frames from releasing the beveled latches.
guskmg

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Originally Posted by Mollysdad

My 2017 has a rear opening door.
Has doors flying open been a big issue?
I'm certain the engineers looked at the design and thought, "If I have the door open forward, it will block the window and hit the awning support arm. Okay, let's have it open back."
Someday, I'll make one of those door wedges, but seriously, with both the door latch and the deadbolt locked, I just don't see it opening.
I worry more about being locked out than flying open.
P.S. Those Lincolns sure are beautiful.

Hi, Doors flew open on old Airstreams with what I call a Tongue latch that is similar to a house latch. Door wedges work good for these. Or good dead bolt, if you don't forget to use it. On newer Airstreams they use what I call a Claw latch that is similar to door latches on a car. Chances of this type of latch letting the door open at any speed is virtually impossible. [I still make sure that my door has latched on the second click, key locked, and dead bolt locked]

Random pictures of the two types of latches.

[Glen Carter]

Another thought, I would think more people drove off with the door open than doors opening while driving. In that case, the suicide style wouldn't catch the wind and try to tear the latch off the side of trailer.....

[riowerks]

On our '64 Overlander if the door was hinged on the right it would swing open and bump into the jalouse windows. When fully open it does block one of the kitchen windows, but the one behind the open door is fixed, so no risk of bumping. The awning track goes all the way over the jalousies, so awning interference isn't an issue.

The suicide door made my husband so nervous that he went for an overkill solution to prevent accidental opening on the road. He mounted a stainless steel pressure latch (??? I'm not sure what to call it) below the deadbolt.

The latch:



The door versus jalouses:

[HiHoAgRV]

Originally Posted by riowerks

On our '64 Overlander if the door was hinged on the right it would swing open and bump into the jalouse windows. When fully open it does block one of the kitchen windows, but the one behind the open door is fixed, so no risk of bumping. The awning track goes all the way over the jalousies, so awning interference isn't an issue.



The suicide door made my husband so nervous that he went for an overkill solution to prevent accidental opening on the road. He mounted a stainless steel pressure latch (??? I'm not sure what to call it) below the deadbolt.



The latch:



Attachment 367034



The door versus jalouses:



Attachment 367035

That is a very nice solution.

[dhroberts]

Perhaps an ill-advised, illogical design. That said, when would a rear opening door become a problem in transit? When we are in transit we keep the door locked. Never a problem over 40K miles.

[docflyboy]

Originally Posted by richw46

If you wanted a 4 door hardtop or convertible you had to have suicide doors since there was no "B" pillar for the door hinges. As far as I know, only the Lincoln had this configuration.

Would like to know if they were federally outlawed. This was about the time you couldn't buy cherry bombs anymore. The trucks and SUV's that have a rear hinged door are covered by the front hinged doors currently, ala Toyota FJ, etc.

[21Airstream]

I don’t think “suicide doors” have been outlawed, there is a version on the 2020 Lincoln Continental that has them (as does the Rolls Royce, for the more affluent).

[prairieschooner]

Our '58 18' Traveler has the door that opens to the right or forward. At some point we may want to upgrade the Awning to a Zip Dee but thinking that the door would hit the arms gives me caution. I have the Zip Dee awning on our Motorhome & know that it would be easier than the Pole Awning that we made for it.
If we sell the Newell Coach then who knows...ease vs authentic

[66Overlander]

While there are exceptions, the general rule with Airstreams is that the door opens "suicide style" (i.e. hinged on the rear edge) if there is an opening window immediately foward of the door, but the door is "non-suicide" (i.e. hinged on the forward side) if there is no such opening window. The primary reason being to avoid the door crashing into an open window.

More recently the presence of patio awning arms immediately adjacent to a door may also impact the door opening direction as well, as they prevent the door from opening fully even with the awning retracted.

That said, there have always been exceptions to this general rule, including the 1954-56 22' front kitchen Safari among others.

Some more recent Airstreams with opening windows immediately rearward of the door still have a potential crash condition, including the current 28-footers that have a suicide door to avoid the door crashing into the awning arm immediately in front of the door.

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by 21Airstream

. . .
. . . the 2020 Lincoln Continental . . . has them . . .
. . .

Thanks.

https://www.lincoln.com/luxury-cars/continental/
https://www.lincoln.com/services/assets/Brochure?make=Lincoln&model=Continental&year=202

Easier for the chauffeur to help the patron with the rear seating?



Peter

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by 21Airstream

. . .
. . . (as does the Rolls Royce, for the more affluent).

Now you're talkin' . . . !

[21Airstream]

Too rich (and ostentatious) for me...

[Fixintime]

As we were leaving for a 4500 mile family trip in 1969, my mother filmed the ceremonial departure (Dad just went around the block), as soon as he pulled away, the door flung open and it was caught in super-8 history. I don't recall it happening again, but we still laugh about it 50 years later.