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Old 07-29-2020, 08:43 AM   #21
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I purchased new stainless bolts that use an Allen wrench ,and new tall self locking nuts...picked them up at the local hardware store
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Old 07-29-2020, 05:25 PM   #22
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Great info
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Old 08-01-2020, 08:28 AM   #23
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tjdonahoe View Post
I purchased new stainless bolts that use an Allen wrench ,and new tall self locking nuts...picked them up at the local hardware store
I'm currently having the spinning bolt issue as well and for the life of me, I cannot fathom why AS would use Phillips bolt heads. They strip out before you can apply adequate torque. I'm not talking about "gorrilla-torque," but just adequate enough to keep the hinges in place and prevent sagging.



I was toying with investigating if I could find a shallow external hex-head bolt that would fit so I could apply some appropriate torque, but the Allen head idea sounds great too. Would love to see pics of the bolts you picked up, if you'd care to share. Thanks!
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Old 08-03-2020, 11:02 AM   #24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ahroc View Post
Hi. This is such a good thread that I felt it was better to add to it rather than start a new one. I'm fussing about replacing my hinges, moderately corroded. I can see a plan for the trailer side in this thread. How do we disconnect-reconnect the hinge from the door side?

Happy Travles!


Far as I know you have to take the door apart. Meaning drill the rivets out on the inside panel.

Not something go would want to tackle!
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Old 08-15-2020, 04:19 PM   #25
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2019 27 Foot International Upper Hinge Failure

[QUOTE=DMT;2125501]In completing this repair I discovered why the hinge bolts had come loose. The lower right edge of the door was tight to the frame - so much so that there are wear marks on the frame, and the hinge. Basically the door was far out of “adjustment”. I say that in quotes, as anyone who has had the pleasure knows the way to adjust this hand build and hand fitted door is to bend it with a block of wood.

******
I have a similar bind in the bottom right and side lower right causing a bind. The lower hinge has a slight torque when you close and open. If you let the door swing to close slowly, the momentum is stopped and this bind causes the door to back up from closing, due to the bind.

(This is caused by this lower one inch trim piece attached to the bottom of the door as trim, when closing, binds the lower right corner and cutting into the door frame and causing the lower hinge to torque the door, causing the door unlatching to open difficult.)

Our Airstream Dealer has already fixed the upper hinge that came loose on a trip. The bottom screw of the top hinge was free spinning. I was able to get the top to tighten and taped the lower screw down... in the event it helped secure any movement.

The bracket used had fallen down between the inner and outer wall. We found it by drilling out several rivets, pulled the aluminum back and used medical 'pliers' to retrieve a shiny metal object... to discover it was what the two hinge screws would attach. One nut was missing on the bracket. That nut was the one the upper screw still retained the nut and I was able to use a large phillips screwdriver and pliers to torque the top bolt.

The Airstream dealer did the two 1 inch holes and double nutted the bolts.

This bind in the lower right corner of the frame and door area I am now filing the door edge to reduce the binding and it has improved the ease of opening and closing the door handles. The effort to open from the inside and outside was excessive. There is a groove cut into the door frame by the door edging rubbing into it when the trailer is being towed. The weld in the lower corner was being cut into deeply by the door itself edge.

I took the three phillips screws on the inside handle, loosened them and it moves maybe a 1/16" making that easier to open the door from the inside.

The sanding of about 14 inches of the door edge that contacts the entire lower hinge bottom right is getting to the point of having very little tension of the hinge.

I am trying to mitigate the difficulty of closing and opening the door as it already has failed once. The lower fitted hinge may be a problem, as well.

This is one of those... chasing the CAUSE to CURE the PROBLEM. This has gone on since new and then the door was coming off on top. This was a Jackson Center issue when the plate was being attached and the bracket nut was already off the bracket and the bracket fell down between the wall.

This is difficult to explain, unless you are standing there watching. I missed it when we inspected the trailer as I have never had a door hinge issue. I will be very experienced after chasing this fix. I hope the local Airstream Dealer can get this done and finished under the warranty. This trailer is just under one year old and everything else has been simple to fix. This door issue... a bit more complex.
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Old 02-10-2021, 09:53 AM   #26
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Did you guys need to remove the head knocker (white foam pad on the upper inside of the door) prior to removing the door trim piece for the upper hinge?
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Old 03-06-2021, 12:18 PM   #27
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Have to fix it NOW.

Quote:
Originally Posted by DMT View Post
Am I glad to see this posting. I have exactly the same problem...
My wife is working in the Covid Wards and self isolates in our 2021 Bambi...bought last summer...

The door has ALWAYS been and issue to close... this morning I noticed the top hinge very loose coming off the frame... WHAT??!! it's NEW!

But ah! that is the problem! Good.

Through a variety of steps I discovered the top screw would not set...and there was no obvious way to put a nut on the inside...as previously posted.

And too far away to go to the dealer where we bought it...and my wife is using it NOW...can't muck around. Need to fix it ASAP. And any warranty coverage...whatever...., they will do what I am going to do and I'll have it done before the shift ends.

THANK YOU all for these postings! ...and allowing me a venue to vent!

Saved the day!
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Old 03-08-2021, 09:17 AM   #28
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Best of luck with your repair!
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Old 03-08-2021, 10:06 AM   #29
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AS21 View Post
My wife is working in the Covid Wards and self isolates in our 2021 Bambi...bought last summer...

The door has ALWAYS been and issue to close... this morning I noticed the top hinge very loose coming off the frame... WHAT??!! it's NEW!

But ah! that is the problem! Good.

Through a variety of steps I discovered the top screw would not set...and there was no obvious way to put a nut on the inside...as previously posted.

And too far away to go to the dealer where we bought it...and my wife is using it NOW...can't muck around. Need to fix it ASAP. And any warranty coverage...whatever...., they will do what I am going to do and I'll have it done before the shift ends.

THANK YOU all for these postings! ...and allowing me a venue to vent!

Saved the day!
Understandable. Our new 2019 came with the top screw of the top hinge stripped. The door was very difficult to open or close and a friend of ours pointed out the hinge issue. The biggest clue that it was a problem was the trim piece on the hinge, covering the screw heads, had been removed. Part of our 1st trip was to Jackson Center for the 'drill hole hinge repair'. They did a good job, the inside trim hides the hole, I probably shouldn't have looked in to see it in progress. Can't un-see the hole even though it's well hidden now. We are going back to JC for a couple of small items but to also have the door aligned better. The lock pin is too high for the latch. That didn't become an issue until shortly after we had left JC. I'll let them do the alignment as our travels this year will take us near JC anyway.
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Old 03-08-2021, 10:31 AM   #30
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Trumpetguy:

I just printed the tech notice you posted and noticed that it was step #7. Do you have the rest of the document that you wouldn't mind sharing?
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Old 03-08-2021, 11:10 AM   #31
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I did go back and replace the phillipps head bolt with an Allen wrench head..stainless..it is much tighter..all is well
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Old 03-09-2021, 08:04 AM   #32
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Fixed

Quote:
Originally Posted by trumpetguy View Post
Mark the location of the bolt head so you will know where it is from inside the
Use a 7/16 deep socket to reach the nut. In my case the nut was not present
Thanks for the support, Team!

Wow! The relief with this repair is like the proverbial thorn out of the elephants foot!

I am dumbfounded why AS didn't put an access plate behind the trim for hinge repairs...OR.... that a toothed lock washer is used to secure the mounting nut...the soft aluminum can't hold that washer with road vibration...thus failure.

I had wanted to use a stainless steel washer, split lock washer and nut, but there isn't enough space due to the internal door frame. In fact, I couldn't get my 7/16 socket into the space to tighten it! This is a 2021 19'Bambi.

Taking the suggestion of a previous post, used a stainless nylon lock nut. Had to do some fancy yoga to hold the star hole screw and a wrench to tighten. A real pain.

It is real important to use tape or a marker to locate spacing as Trumpetguy educates. Despite my attempt to being careful, the spacing was tight and my hole saw a bit aggressive; the hole drifted. I used some filler and a bit of touchup paint to make it unnoticeable. I was concerned about digging into the door frame, so avoided that. Good.

Again, I am dumbfounded by this mounting being so tight against the internal door frame.

My suggestions to AS would be to: 1. (I like the posted suggestion of) welding in a nut to the inside. 2. put an access plate behind the trim, 3. create more space to receive the proper locking washers and a 7/16" socket etc. 4. weld a piece of square stock to the door frame and use longer bolts with nuts just under the trim.

I purchased a full set of allen hole screws per suggestion with hardware, and put the hole saw into for the RV repair kit.

Couldn't get pictures to rotate, but you get the idea..

Thanks again for these posts.
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Old 03-09-2021, 09:10 AM   #33
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The Airstream bulletin posted by Trumpetguy indicated that the use of star nuts was discontinued in 2014, and a bracket with integral nuts was the replacement.

That doesn’t appear true in your case of a 2021 Bambi, as the pictures clearly show the star nut.

Airstream must have their heads up their ***. This is not an easy problem for an owner to fix and it happens on a component that is essential.

If I was buying new today for $100k++ and this happened I would lose my mind. Shameful.
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Old 03-10-2021, 07:33 AM   #34
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The question

well.....

So, I posed the question to AS Customer Service with the bulletin. The response was:

"No we haven’t used those for several years we use a bracket with tow nuts welded on."

I responded with: Why does my 2021 not have the bracket?
No response yet.

Don't want to get too far away from the usefulness of this thread, but thought it might be of interest.
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Old 03-10-2021, 09:39 AM   #35
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Received a very nice personal video reply from AS. The video showed that due to internal framing spacing, some units (Bambi) don't have the space for the bracket...thus a star nut is used. There is supposed to be an additional nut on top of that to lock it.

Anyway, the long story short... bracket or star nuts ...
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Old 03-10-2021, 10:54 AM   #36
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received a clarification...
No extra nut to lock when using star nuts...

Door hinges are mounted with either a bracket or star nuts depending on unit.
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Old 03-11-2021, 03:12 PM   #37
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So the bulletin fix cannot be used due to inadequate space and the conclusion was to use the old design which created the problem in the first place?? If that wasn’t so sad it would be comical. Good thing they don’t build airplanes.

Don’t get me wrong - I don’t mean to be disparaging to AS - but you should not have had to drill holes in your 2021 trailer to fix a problem that is so well known by AS they made a design change years ago to address it. They need to own this and make it right with you and any others in a similar situation.
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Old 05-17-2021, 08:57 PM   #38
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Door Hinge Saga Continues

2018 Flying Cloud 30RB, door hinge falling off...one of the bolts not catching. Same problem many of us are having. Any new fixes out there? I wonder about a snaptoggle anchor...one small enough to fit through original drilled out hole.
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Old 05-18-2021, 06:21 PM   #39
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I replaced mine with stainless bolts with Allen wrench head with stainless nylon lock nut. Got her good and tight
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Old 05-18-2021, 06:38 PM   #40
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What a joke, when I called AS, they said this isnt "common" LOL
after several Emails back and forth they sent me a new hinge???
Like thats suppose to fix anything,,,,this is simply piss-poor engineering
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