I have a 1993 U280 Special Edition that apparently was not well taken care of by some of the former owners. We like the coach but there are some "issues" that we need to deal with. One of the issues that I intend to address myself is the bay doors on the coach. Most of the bay doors are warped but one is warped so that it does not close properly. If we latch it on both sides there is a lot of pressure on the top hinge. I just don't have the funds to replace the bay doors. I have a tentative solution but before I start fiddling with it I thought I'd check and see if anyone on the forum had experienced this problem. I have taken a couple of photos to give you an idea of the issue. My plan is to rough up the inside surface of the door then epoxy a 70 inch length of square aluminum tubing to the bottom and the top of the door. I have taken out the warp with an oak board and two C clamps. Not sure the square tubing is going to work yet. Anyone have any better ideas?
The only help I might suggest is to lean your leg against the door very near the lock. I have put some pressure on my doors as I twist the lock handle, locking or unlocking.
I would say that that bit of "warp" is very common on a lot of coaches and as Dve said just use your knee to have it lock onto the pin. When I was at Xtreme in March Rance called it the "Foretravel Shuffle". I have fiddled with a few of mine trying to "fix" it but gave up and press with my knee. That issue IMHO is a very minor one.
John h
I can't help with the warp, but I can tell you I removed the bottom connection of the left strut on both the pass and driver sides of the big bay. There is an enormous amount of pressure applied to the top hinge by both struts. When I want the door to stay upright, I just push the strut on the mount on the bottom. When closed, the struts just hang loose. I left the right struts alone.
1994 U280.
We have mostly "bus style" doors on the bays. The bay with water heater has a hinge and two struts. The door broke where the forward strut attaches. That is where a lot of pressure is concentrated, and the strength there is low because of the metal insert covering the water heater. We had the door fixed at Xtreme and left the forward strut off. I use one off the extendible windows washing wands to hold the door open.
Billy Jack at FOT called the shin assist the "Foretravel bump". :))
see ya
ken
Roland, I'm not sure if you door is like a 93, U300 I saw at Camp Foretravel with warped doors so this may not apply, but if your door is the same, the doors outer skin was warped but the inner skin was not. That being the case, I would suggest gluing the square tube brace to the inside skin may not help long term. You may need to cut out the inner skin and attach the brace to the outer skin from the inside.
At least give it some thought.
I would think if you have "de-warped" it with an oak board then your idea may just work. It might help to see if theres a way to install a few mechanical fasteners as well.
The photo does not depict how much that door door is warped. I cannot latch both sides doing the Foretravel bump. The only way I could make the latches work properly would be to shim the latch on the door. I have already done that on one of my bay doors. I apologize for the bad photo, my excuse is that it was pouring rain while I took the shot. Most of the other doors have some warp to them but I can still latch both sides. I thought that if the fix works on this door and I did the same on all the other doors it would prevent further warping and release the pressure on the hinges. I had thought of using fasteners, but I don't want anything showing on the outside of the door if I can help it, however that is still an option if the epoxy does not hold. When I implement the "fix" I will take before and after photos with a straight edge on the bay door.
Roland,
As Kent mentioned, what you bond to the inside surface of the door might just cause the foam to delaminate from the outer skin on the ends. I would look at cutting out a section (along the bottom but away from the sealing surface) of the inner skin and bonding in a stiffener directly to the inner surface of the outer fiberglass. I would contact a local plastics supplier to see what they might have to use as a stiffener. I know they make fiberglass structural shapes and excellent structural adhesives made specifically for them. I've used something like this on a boat and it was amazingly strong, light and the adhesive was like a epoxy but smelled different and was extremely strong. Someone else had given me the materials so I don't have the source.
I did a quick websearch and this is what I think I've used before: GLASTIC - GLASGUARD 1130 - Order Online (http://www.professionalplastics.com/GLASGUARD1130)
If you can talk to a plastics supplier they would know exactly what you might want to use.
Guess I am going to rethink my "stiffener" application. Bonding to the inside of the outer fiberglass sounds like a better approach. That's what this forum is all about, getting ideas from lots of folks with knowledge and experience.
It really shouldn't be much more difficult but it should be much more effective long term. Remember, cuts in the door liner need to be made inside of the contact point for the rubber gasket.
Kent
My plan is to crawl in the compartment and mark the gasket contact points.....now as long as my better half doesn't close the door on the opposite side........