Classic motorhome door hinge replacement

[mayco]

I replaced my main door hinges on my 1982 310 Classic Motorhome this past weekend. The hinges were worn way past the point of the "C clip" repair. Upon reading through as many threads as I could find on this subject, I saw that there are many who have contemplated hinge replacement but have yet to tackle the project. So, if any of you have any questions regarding the process just fire away....I would like to point out a few things though;

1. I highly recommend purchasing your replacement hinges through Inland RV.
There are several web sites advertising hinges for the classic motorhome but
Andy at Inland knows the difference between a left hand (trailer) hinge and a
Right hand (motorhome) hinge. Plus, their price is competitive and service
was fast and accurate.
2. I believe it is imperative to have some sort of emotional counseling through
this project because it pretty much sucks. My humble thanks goes out to
Tony (Isuzusweet) for providing this component. You will need to "vent" a
few times during the installation and Im not talking about plumbing here.
3. There is an upper and a lower hinge and they are different. Disregard the
manner in which the back side of the hinge casting is marked. One had a
"U" which I assumed meant UPPER. The other had a "L" which I assumed
meant LOWER.......I assumed wrong weedhopper. I have no idea if they
were marked improperly or the markings are for some different language
but trust me on this one. If you tackle this project and after the install the
hinges bind like hell when you open the door about 18", consider switching
the hinges. Regardless how they are marked and how many times you have
Checked to make sure the U hinge was on top and the L hinge was on the
bottom. After a few hours of trying to figure out the binding issue, I threw
caution to the wind and flipped the hinges and .........voila...bind gone and
Worked perfectly.
4. Dry fit before proceeding with sealant....thank you again Tony....they look
Pretty straight ahead but in my case, they were on and off many times.
5. There are a couple different ways to access the nuts inside the wall. The
Upper hinge nuts arent too bad to get to, the lower are a bit more difficult
and I ended up having to cut a small hole in the interior, not bad, easy
patch. Highly recommend having some sort of rotary tool at hand when
Tackling this one.

If you have any questions on how I went about it feel free to ask. I hope these facial twitches I have now developed are not permanent.......

The door now swings and latches like a dream.....thank you God

Mike

[dadstoy]

Mike, good to hear of your success!


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[mayco]

Thanks Dean, Ive still got a ways to go. Reinsulate the door, interior door skins, little patch and what not but glad to be this far. No more slamming the door!!

[t7389sg]

I think the hinges are the same for the Airstream trailer as they are for the Motorhome. The motorhome has the hinges on the right hand side so they are installed upside down if you will.
Did you take any pictures while you were doing this? I want to tackle this on my moho so I am lucky to have you already blazed this trail. Did you use giant rivets to attach the hinges? That is how my hinges are originally fastened in my moho. Love to see pics of this project.


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[mayco]

You may be correct with the difference in the hinges but if you turn the hinges upside down then the hinge pin hole is facing upwards. I dont think that would be a good idea. I tried to get some decent pictures but the space is soooo tight where the nuts are that I failed pretty miserably. I can go through what I took and see if any are worth posting. I did end up using coupler nuts with a splined washer. That way I could stick the nut in a shallow socket and see that I was starting them on the screw correctly. On the 310, the jamb side screws are right in between the jamb and a rib, very very tight space. I needed to peel back one piece of interior skin and some window trim to get to them. Didnt need to remove completely. I could of saved myself a few hours of head scratchin if I would flipped the hinges earlier in the process but like I posted, they were marked U and L so thats how I installed them to start with....Upper...Lower. If you take a good look at the profile of the hinge they are angled in a manner to compensate for the radius of the exterior body. I believe that each model of MOHO will be a bit different as far as accessing the jamb side nuts. Different interior finishes. I used stainless tapered head phillips head screws for mounting. The door side comes with threaded studs in the hinge. Just now came inside after insulating the door with rigid insulation and cleaned up from yesterday. The screen door will be riveted back on.
Still need to get trim, skins, and a small patch done.

[Isuzusweet]

Great post Mike and I'm truly sorry....I had sort of forgotten about the U Hinge on the bottom and the L hinge on top. You can be forgiven in thinking U meant upper and L lower hinge but not in Airstream lingo. I'm very surprised Andy/Inland doesn't attach a memo concerning this. It was a brain worm thought when we were PMing, but I wasn't sure. John (Shepherd57) had already figuired that one out as he had done his hinge job first, so when he came down to help me do mine it was a 30 second conversation versus a two hour+ experience which I would have remembered.

I'm sure Airstream did it on purpose to completely drive people nuts so they would drive to Jackson center and have them do it. Very Ford of them

Cheers
Tony

[mayco]

I was stumped and like so many things Ive run into on this rig, was reluctant to trust my intuition that they might be reversed.....eh, they are on and the door closes so sweet now. A note from Inland sure would have been nice though. Thats the main reason I wanted to post this thread.
Thanks again for your help Tony.

[mayco]

Check out what I just found poking around on the ol interweb;

Airstream recently added a backer plate for the Airstream Trailer main door hinge bolts; the hinge bolts over time can become loose and would need tightened. Gaining access to the back side of the bolt to hold the nut was not an easy task. Now with the new backer plate you do not have to access the nuts from the back side, just use a Phillips screwdriver to tighten.
New backer plate with nuts makes keeping hinge bolts tight easier.
Hinge bolt
Hinge backer plate with nuts

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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
<title></title>
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Not sure if that picture is gonna copy but it shows the new Airstream backer plate for the door hinges. Tony, I think thats exactly what you had described to me about how you did your hinge replacement.

[mayco]

wbcci.org/general-information-and...2012/427-schus-news-october-2012

Try the link above. Or google "schus news october 2012". I dont think that I could have squeezed that backer plate into the space I had to work with between the door jamb and the rib but other models might be different. THIS is how they should have been designed from the get go....

[martin300662]

Originally Posted by mayco

wbcci.org/general-information-and...2012/427-schus-news-october-2012

Try the link above. Or google "schus news october 2012". I dont think that I could have squeezed that backer plate into the space I had to work with between the door jamb and the rib but other models might be different. THIS is how they should have been designed from the get go....

[mayco]

Thanks Martin. Hehehe, Im not too good with the computer. Obviously

[martin300662]

Originally Posted by mayco

Thanks Martin. Hehehe, Im not too good with the computer. Obviously

.... wouldn't say that mayco, I found it fine from your instructions!

[mayco]

Martin, if your interior skins near the door are still off, it might be well worth investigating these backer plates for your door hinges. Sure would make for ease of tightening and small adjustment to the door in the future. Just a thought. Youre doing such a thorough, and beautiful I might add, job of your reno....

[martin300662]

I was thinking the same mayco; but I have a dilemma. The door is swinging/sealing perfectly at the moment. Am I likely to cause more problems by undoing the hinge bolts to fit the backing plates? Little pain now better than a lot of pain latter I guess.

[mayco]

They could be installed one at a time without removing the door. But, I hear ya. Reading through the threads regarding the main door hinges, MH or trailer, youll find a whole lot of people doing a number of different things to try and deal with hinge wear.........not many on HINGE REPLACEMENT. The point being that the hinges will loosen and wear over time, its a common problem, and a real pain in the backside to repair/replace correctly. Those backer plates would eliminate the need to remove interior skins to access the nuts in the future. I know you dont need something else added to your extensive list but........

[Isuzusweet]

If I recall John (Shepherd57) told me about these backer plates being installed by Airstream, maybe his 325 had them; HOWEVER he also stated that the backer plate wasn't physically attached to the skin of the Airstream. When you undid your bolts for the hinges the backer plate could drop down the wall beside the door. The hinge would have a gasket or sealant stopping water intrusions but no sealant for the backer plate holding it in place.

So for all those out there with backer plates installed thinking you have it made....when taking off hinge on jam side you will want to take out one screw, loosen off the other and try to swing the hinge out of the way so you can reinstall the bolt you took out into the backer plate and tighten, BEFORE taking out the other bolt. Use some washers on the bolt so the head doesn't disappear through the hole in the outer wall. Repeat for lower hinge and reverse process to reinstall.

My backer plates are sealed in good and solid with Vulcum and Premium Pro.

[martin300662]

So I'm thinking backing pates but sitting in some small z-brackets to allow it to move left/right and up/down for adjustment?

[mayco]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7-PprGeESE

Of course there is always this method........where you beat it into submission.

[martin300662]

I was cringing as he beat on a panel that was being held in place by a rivet claiming 'there is some give in the rivets' and only remove the rivet if you need it to move more than 1/8" of an inch....and we are surprised they leak?

[dadstoy]

I loved watching that video!


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