Mak'in life easier?

[Isuzusweet]

Shepherd 57 (325 TD) and I (310TD) have both got door hinges that will need to be replaced. I'm going to order the hinges from Inland RV on Monday.

John took me over to his stripped Argosy to show me how the hinges are mounted and what it's going to take to R&R them.
It struck me that there are new modern fasteners that could take some of the work out of removing interior trim on the frame side, which would be a beatch in my case as I have a drywall lower section instead of a dinette.

Have any of you used these? They clamp versus crushing.

They of course would not work on the door side as the bolts are studs and hidden.

Rivet Nuts/ Threaded Inserts | Steel Rivet Nuts/ Threaded Inserts | Threaded Inserts | Buy Rivets | Rivet tools & Other Fasteners

Pro's and cons anyone?

Also I'm guessing, but to replace hinges. Attach hinges to frame first, then fit door into opening with shims and lastly tighten down hinges to door?

[idroba]

I am not sure what you are going to do with the riv nuts, but they have been around for a long time.

They are somewhat limited in strength, especially the AL ones. The hole must be exactly the right size or they will spin and be useless, as well as difficult to remove and find a way to replace. Once the hole is damaged, there is no slightly larger size to replace the riv nut with.

I have used them, have the special pulling tool for them and so on, but have found I don't use it very often, once I found the limits of the system. So, just a heads up on that.

[bkahler]

Tony,

I have to agree with idroba, I don't think rivnuts are the answer. Rivnuts are good for some things but in a strength application, especially one subject to the stresses those hinges go through they wouldn't stand up to the punishment.

I've swapped several doors around and I would be hesitant to use anything but what is currently in place.

You are right, it's going to be a royal pain to gain access to the nuts inside the wall. My best suggestion is to buy one of those stepped drill bits and drill holes centered over each of the bolts. Even with this method you have to be careful in the length of bit that you use. Also you have to drill part of the door frame flange in order to get inline with the bolt. The hole needs to be big enough to easily get a deepwell socket into.

The nuts are covered with vulkem so you have to dig that out of the way. The biggest problem I had was the nuts were so close to the edge of the door frame I couldn't get a socket on the nut so I had to enlarge the opening enough to get a wrench on the nut and then I used a really big screw driver from the outside. It was NOT a fun task.

If you ask me the way they should have been fabricated is with a captured nut plate on the inside of the wall. This would allow the door to be removed without worry of the nuts falling inside the wall.

Sorry there isn't an easy anser to this one

Brad