Accordion Door Warranty Issue?

[wayner61]

Folks,

My 2008 27FB is currently at a well respected dealer for a few small warranty repairs. One of the things that I wanted them to fix was the accordion door between the kitchen area and the bath.

When we picked up the trailer, I noticed that the edge of the door was bowed out a bit and twisted at the bottom. I really thought that I could just "bend" it back into place, but the plastic or nylon that it is made of is tougher than me.

I asked the dealer to fix or replace it, but he says that Airstream has refused the claim saying that it was "normal" for this door to be this way.

Three questions:

1. Do you think that I am just being too picky and this is really "normal" and acceptable?

2. If it isn't really normal, what is the best approach to get A/S to change their mind about covering it under the warranty?

3. If it isn't really a warranty repair issue, can you think of any way to fix it short of replacing the door?

[overlander63]

I don't know about "normal", but almost every one I've seen has been a little warped.

[Lumatic]

Originally Posted by overlander63

I don't know about "normal", but almost every one I've seen has been a little warped.

Are we still talking hardware?

[Silvertwinkie]

Mine does not look like that at all FWIW.....

[Westfalia]

Both of mine do.

[overlander63]

Maybe it has something to do with the sun beating down on the trailer for months at a time. I see the people that are noticing this are from what I would call the "sunbelt states", Texas, California (Florida), and the one that hasn't seen the issue is from somewhere close to the frozen arctic tundra. Chris, do you get a lot of sun and extended periods of high temps where you are?

[Gene]

I don't know about warping, but the latches on those things aren't too great.

If you have a warranty issue and the dealer won't take care of it, contact Airstream and ask to have it fixed.

Gene

[Goin camping]

Mine has been like that since new. It just never bothered me.

[Silvertwinkie]

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

I don't know about warping, but the latches on those things aren't too great.

If you have a warranty issue and the dealer won't take care of it, contact Airstream and ask to have it fixed.

Gene

That's just it, the dealer told him that Airstream denied the claim as Airstream is claiming this is "normal" for this door. Dealer seemed willing to do it until Jackson Center said no way. Of course some dealers are not as trustworthy as others......but I can easily see this happen (denial of claim) because Airstream, like other RV builders still in business are really, really tightening their belts.....this might have been a non-issue and the part simply replaced 3-4 years ago.

The latches are fairly weak. I had to have mine adjusted or the latch replaced as it wore out after something like 12 uses?! It was done at the factory service center.

[Gene]

The dealer said Airstream denied the claim, but the system used for warranty work means the dealer follows guidelines set by the company in most cases and may not actually talk to someone. If you contact Airstream, you may be able to persuade them differently. It's worked for me.

Gene

[wayner61]

Thanks for all the feedback. I am going to try and contact A/S to see if I can convince them that they should take care of this. If no-go, I will either live with it, figure out how to fix it myself or replace the whole door later.

Glad to know that I am not the only one that has a door doing this. It was like it when I picked it up and didn't get any worse in the heat last summer so I think that it must have been this way from the beginning.

[wayner61]

Well - Even after hearing from several folks saying that these doors just look like they are warped, twisted and crooked sometimes, I still wanted to fix it.

I will never understand why certain things bug certain people, but I guess that's what makes the world go 'round.

Another forum member generously gave me two brand spanking new doors that had never been installed. He ordered his unit with the doors deleted.

I picked up the doors from him a couple of weeks ago [thanks again Kevin!] and decided to swap them out today.

Before I did the swap, I carefully looked at the new ones to make sure the leading edge piece was straight and true. They looked perfectly fine.

Swapping these things isn't too difficult although the hot weather we are having made it a little warmer in the trailer than I would have liked. It was a bit over 90 degrees at 7:45AM this morning here in the DFW area.

Once I finished though, the result is EXACTLY the same . The only change is that I now have gray trimmed doors from an International CCD instead of the light brown doors from my Safari.

In the end, I think A/S was right. Sometimes you just have to listen to people. The major complaint that I had was with the door between the kitchen area and the bath. I really think the only solution would be a deeper storage pocket. Not sure if that is even possible. I have no idea if it could be modified or re-engineered to fit.

Because the ceiling has a slight curve to it, the track isn't completely flat and level. I curves along with the contour of the ceiling. This alone will make the bottom of the door naturally stick out more than the top. Because the pocket that it stores in is a little too shallow, it compounds this problem and makes it appear warped and twisted when you secure the door with the strap in the middle. It is pulling the door back into the pocket and against the wall of the bath. This causes the leading edge of the door to bow a bit and twist.

While a part of me is unhappy that I haven't been able to resolve the problem, a much bigger part of me is happy to find that the dealer as well as Airstream were telling the truth. While I initially was a little aggravated that they would let me be unhappy over something that couldn't cost more than a hundred dollars or so, I know now that nothing would have changed no matter what they did unless they decided to re-engineer the way this door is installed all together. Simply installing a new door would not, and did not, fix it. Maybe if the pocket was a little deeper and the track was installed off center so the door hung closer to the bath wall, then maybe the appearance would be different.

But maybe not.

I will probably continue to tinker with it this fall when it is a bit cooler. If I figure out some way to correct it, I will update this thread.

Wayne

[AlumaCave]

I had a different experience. I also had the same problem and went to the dealer. They replaced it with no problem. They only had gray in stock, my was brown, but I told them Grey was fine. The dealer also replaced my entire floor. It had dis-colored under the table. I tried to clean it and they said they would replace it. My dealer has been very good with everything except the corrosion on the tail light housing. The shop manager said he had someone that would take the housing home and buff the housing and re coat with clear coat. They came out better then new, $50.00. While I still think the factory should have taken care of it, I was happy with the new look.