Daylight through entry door seal on New 27FB
 

We have a week old 27FB International. I can see daylight around portions of the entry door while latched closed. This improves when I lock the deadbolt.

Is this normal? I expected a tight seal that put into use the gasket around the door. Thoughts?

As a newbie could also use help with the warranty process. (If this is not m, in fact, normal) Can I bring the trailer to any certified Airstream dealer? Bought at Leisure Time in OKC but Vogt is closest to me in Dallas.

Thanks!

You should not be seeing daylight. Follow up with your dealer.

It is possible the door is not tightly sealed if it is sitting at an angle, maybe with stabilizers down. The frame and shell assembly is quite flexible, part of its light weight construction. It can be twisted slightly and temporarily if on uneven ground. I wouldn't do anything until I was sure it was on level ground and the stabilizers are evenly adjusted.

If you're sure it's level and even, and the door is not tight, the door can be easily adjusted. The method sounds crude, but amounts to bending it. The latch bar on the sill can also be moved slightly to ensure it is pulling tightly. There is a video on the procedure from Airstream, but you may want to let the dealer do it.

I didn't trust them and did my own so I can close the door without slamming it, just a gentle push with the flat of my hand on the latch area. Sometimes I think I might still see light if the trailer is on an uneven site. Better way to inspect it is to have your spouse shine a flashlight outside the area at night, and look from the inside for light. Water can't come in due to the sill design, a tiny bit of air is ventilation, I don't worry about it. The door seal will "break in" over time and the door will close a little easier, if that is a problem.

Dealer service can be spotty from place to place, they gave us some crap (about the door adjustment, no less, 90 day limit for this, corrosion, other nickel/dime stuff) at our selling dealer and we never went back. We have not needed any warranty service, but for routine care, inspections, and maintenance we travel extensively and route a trip through Jackson Center Airstream Service Center every couple of years or so. They are as good as it gets and no crap.

This is NOT normal! We had exactly the same problem with Rocinante. Her door was horribly fitted, but now it's tight.

Take it back to the dealer and have them do whatever it takes to get the door properly fitted - under warranty. The seal should be tight, and the door should be easy to close as well as to open. Locking the deadbolt should make ZERO difference in how tightly the door is closed.

Given you have a 27FB, also check the front storage door (behind the propane tanks) to see whether it is water tight. One quick check: at night, turn on the lights inside the storage bin and close the door. If you can see any light coming out around the door, you do NOT have a seal. You can also try spraying the closed storage door with a hose and then open it to see whether water got inside. We had to have them work on that storage door repeatedly until they finally got it sealed enough to live with it. We still had to add some gaskets of our own to really seal that storage door, but in the end it turned out acceptably well.

Here's the Airstream factory door adjustment video.

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

AirDFW:

We had the same issue with a brand new 2017 Classic. We took the trailer after owning it a week back to the factory for something else and the technician worked on the door. Our gap was down where the door closes on the latch side at the bottom. It took the technician well over and hour to get it correct. The video posted by Doug is excellent but I do not think will fix your problem and I know it would not fix ours. I'd take it back to the dealer if possible.

Bud

Sounds like I have an issue that needs warranty service. Do I have to go to my dealer (3hrs away) or can I go to the dealer closest to me (20min away)? Not sure how this works with an Airstream vs a car, for example, which can be serviced at any dealer.

The door has a "double click" when closing. At first we found that we didn't close the door to the second click. It is harder to do from the inside without using more force than you would a house door in order to get it to the second click.

Try it from the outside, close the door softly and push until you hear both clicks. Have someone inside to see if that closes the gap.

Take it to the closest dealer. That is, unless you have a good reason not to. It's just like a car.

Daylight through entry door seal on New 27FB
 

Most RV warranties are not in fact just like Car warranties. However, fortunately for Airstream owners, all Airstream dealers are required to service Airstream's under warranty, regardless of whether they sold that particular unit. So, I would vote for your nearest dealer. Call first, schedule the work, etc. If they give you a hard time (stories here indicate that some dealers push you to the bottom of their service queue if you did not buy from them), call Airstream corporate and start practicing your complaint skills.

BTW, for SOB RV's the overall warranty is almost always associated with the dealer who sold it to you. Airstream is different in this regard, and it is one of the many reasons why we chose that brand.

Oh, and keep a running list of busted stuff you want fixed under the warranty. This may be your first warranty issue, but I can pretty much promise it will not be your last - though it may be the most significant one. For the first two years, each time you go in for warranty service, you will probably have a list of annoying little things. We sure did. However, by the end of two years, we had a unit that was literally as good as it should have been when it left the factory.

One more thought: make the effort to build a first-name relationship with your local dealer's service department. Work with them, be friendly but assertive, and keep pushing until they are fixing stuff the way you want it fixed. That also worked for us, though the dealer clearly had determined they needed to improve their service department and at the same time made a concerted effort to get better over time. In our particular case, at the end of the two years our dealer's service quality had noticeably improved, and we were friends with the service manager, the service writers, and even some of the techs. They actually went to bat for us against Airstream corporate on a couple of warranty issues that would otherwise have cost us a lot of money.

We have the same issue with our week old FC 25. I have to really push on the door to get it to lock. There is also a gap under the bottom door trim on the inside. Should it be flush to the floor? A little off topic, but the sheets were wet from condensation where the mattress butts up against front storage box on our FB. It was 23 outside and the inside was 68, but I also felt cold air blowing up along the nightstand. Please tell me this is not normal. Thanks.

Not normal, specially on a brand new coach. Be sure your door frame is checked. It could be tweaked. Adding a thicker seal is not a good fix.

great video...thanks

Great info re the Jackson Center. But you can check around for decent dealers, but get your manual and warranty paper and read the fine print and follow up here on Forums with very specific questions. The devil is always in the details about the fine print warranty and most lay customers rely too much on dealer say so without reading and understanding the warranty. Maybe call Jackson Center and talk to get educated and then get with your selling dealer.

Especially on a new Airstream trailer, your entry door should form a nice tight seal all the way around. No gaps, no light, no air, no nothing. If it's not doing that, you should be able to get it serviced and resolved under warranty. The same is true of the exterior door(s) to your storage compartment(s). Nice tight fits are required, and expected.

Regarding cold weather camping, it is not unusual to have condensation on exterior-facing walls. Proper ventilation, even in cold weather, is the only real cure. Otherwise humidity builds up inside the trailer and then condenses on the exterior walls and windows, as if they were the outside of a glass of iced tea on a warm afternoon.

Given that outside storage usually lies beneath the bed, and there is little (or no) insulation between that compartment and your living area, it is not unusual to feel an associated chill when near that space, though you should not feel a flow of air, per-se. Early on we noticed that in cold-weather camping moisture can also condense on the wooden platform under the bed, which can lead to a moldy mattress.

Here's how we solved the mattress problem:

• We carpet-taped a layer of Reflectix to the plywood base for insulation. We have enough Reflectix for a second layer, though we haven't seen a need to add it yet. This insulation reduces the risk of condensation somewhat.
• On top of that we placed an old flannel sheet to protect the Reflectix.
• On top of that we added a layer of Hypervent https://hyperventmarine.com/, which permits air circulation between the mattress and the Reflectix. The circulating air helps prevent moisture build-up and mold. This stuff was a little tricky to cut to size (we used big kitchen shears), but it's awesome.
• On top of that we placed the mattress
• Then we added a memory foam topper - we had a foam shop cut a standard topper to perfectly fit our bed with 10"radius corners.
• Last, we added a typical mattress pad, sheets, etc.

Some folks also insulate the bottom of the board on which the mattress lies, above the colder interior storage space. We have not done this yet.


Meanwhile, have your dealer, or Jackson Center, provide your doors with a good fit and a tight seal. It is what you paid for, you should have it. :)

Again, be sure the Airstream is on level ground and the stabilizers are evenly and lightly torqued. Airstreams flex, and when they do the door will not fit as well as when everything is level. If I understand you, there should be a little gap at the bottom inside between the screen door and the door sill. But the main door should close tight, normally.

From our experience, camping at 23 degrees is really pushing the limits of Airstream design. Condensation is the problem, not heating or insulation. Ventilation and limited cooking and bathing are the best solutions, but still may nt be enough. Ventilation is not built into the aluminum shell design. There will be dew points inside the trailer at various locations and condensation will form. It's a three season trailer design.

When the temperature drops at night, we have had good luck running our Dyson heater at the opposite end of our bedroom, and air flows gently through the sleeping area and under the bed somewhat, enough to have kept us from condensation forming. We also open the vent above our bed, and shower and bath vents. Squeegee the shower after bathing, and hang the towels and wash cloths outside to dry.

Good point, forgot to mention that if you torque the trailer by over-doing the stabilizers the door might not close quite as easily. Given the flexibility of the trailer, that can certainly happen. However, for us the requirement isn't as much parking on level ground as much as it is about leveling the trailer as best we can and setting the stabilizers the way dkottum suggested. If the door becomes troublesome after we set up, then we experiment a bit with the stabilizers a bit to see what helps. Not a big deal, not always necessary, but good to remember.

That said, I am pretty much 100% confident you need to get that door (and maybe the frame itself) professionally adjusted, under warranty, until it closes nice and tight.

I recommend North Dallas RV. They were a selling dealer for years, but due to interstate highway displacement they are only an Airstream Authorized Repair facility, no sales. They do excellent work including warranty.

North Dallas RV (NDRV)/ Steve (owner) & Randy

2630 N I35, Carrolton, TX, 75007

972 242 0404

guskmg

Thanks to all. Airstream confirmed that 1) this is not normal and 2) it will be covered under warranty. Appreciate it! Noted regarding North Dallas RV.

Well, first, under federal law (Magnuson-Moss Act), any authorized dealer must provide warranty work regardless of where the unit (car, RV or --) was purchased when requested - though some dealers claim to not know that. And, they have to do the work in the order it comes in - not take their customers first.

Second, this would seem to indicate a failure of the factory quality-control process. How did this trailer get out of the factory in the first place? Most RV makers make lots of noise about their quality control and inspection processes, but some percent of units get out of the shop without any. And what about the dealer's pre-delivery inspection (PDI)? Guess, not so much.

Third, is the shell and frame on an Airstream really that flexible? So much for monocoque construction. If commercial airplanes (that actually are monocoques), the doors and windows would be popping out.