Re: "Bay Doors" begun by Roland last summer. http://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=15500.msg94831#msg94831 (http://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=15500.msg94831#msg94831) I was going to reply there but a notice suggested a new thread. You may want to do a Search, reference Bay Doors in Discussions, to see that detail on door warping and the role of the struts.
The hinge on the top of one of the short bay doors was "tearing" loose, about six inches long along the narrow edge of the door where the hinge attaches. I had two bids to replace the door and hinge, about $850. I got with Rance and Greg at Xtreme who both explained the warping of these doors, and James said I was lucky that it was not on the longer bay doors, the most common place.
Rance said he had seen this hinge problem, and Greg explained problems with replacement hinges that I will not review herein. Rance's solution was to rebuild the lip of the bay door on both sides, where the hinge attaches, with about three layers of fiberglass, reattach the hinge. See photo. . This rebuilt that narrow lip of the door and then he attached the hinge with a different metal. I have shown only on end of the door but he did both ends. Mike
Looks like he did a nice job. Our doors are not the most substantial so an occasional inspection can catch a problem before it gets serious. This would be an easy DIY project with a little aluminum and Fiberglas cloth (NOT mat). Would think three layers would do it along with polyester resin or epoxy resin. A google search will show how to prepare the surface and apply the cloth/resin. Good photo.
Pierce
One of the reasons I went to Camp Foretravel was because my large driver's side bay door hinge was messed up, it was coming apart from severe warping of the door itself. I was told that the wood that the hinge was screwed into was probably dry rotted and the quick fix was to angle the hinge screws so that they bit into metal. Your fix looks to be a whole lot better than mine. I was told that they have never seen a bay door warped as badly as mine was and the only way to permanently fix it was to have a new bay door fabricated and installed. After the "quick fix" I can only latch one side of that bay door. Looking closely, all my bay doors have some warp. Don't know if it is a design or sun exposure issue, but they are all warped to a more or less degree which makes me lean to a design/fabrication issue. Guess I shoulda gone to Extreme for that repair.
Roland
The bay door that encloses our water heater and other "wet" appliances broke along the edge where the strut attaches. The fiberglass is narrow in the area because of the metal insert in front of the water heater.
Rance and crew rebuilt the edge. I have chose to leave the strut off that side of the door. I use an extendible window washer as a crutch to hold the door open when I need to work in the area.
The original installation lasted 14 years. The repair will probably last longer, even with a proper strut in place. The hinges appear to be in good shape.
It seems that new replacement bay door air-struts will put increased stress on hinge and mounting hardware.
As long as a worn strut will keep a top-hinged bay door open, it is probably a good idea to not replace it yet.
I think most of you know this that responded, but if not....Rance explained that flat fiberglass is very hard to keep from warping. That is why you see curves and such put in wherever possible, such as some new coaches have design in the fiberglass....not that they like it so much but to avoid it being flat.
I asked Rance about leaving off the struts. He thought, just his opinion so do as you think best, that it not necessary for me to disconnect the struts to relieve the pressure. I will think about that a bit, seems a reasonable preventative without undue discomfort for working in some bays. Mike
I repaired all my cargo doors after the fuel/propane door just pulled off the hinge and slide under the coach. This was at the Quartzsite Lemon Rally 1.5 years ago. I used 3/16 hardwood dowl to increase the width of the lip where the hinge attaches to the door. There is lots of room for a wider hinge mount. This dowl was fiberglassed over on upper and lower sides of the door lip. This meant that the cloth had to be folded over the dowl and held in place while resin became hard, tricky but final result is very strong.
I also removed all rivets and replaced them with 1/4 inch stainless bolts/washers/nuts. Many hours of work but cost was low at $150 for bolts and $50 for resin/clothe.
When I purchased the coach, some of the rivets were aluminum, some were stainless, some were long, some were short, and some were pop type while others were spread type. I concluded that many rivets had been replaced by previous owners. I also noticed that many rivets were loose allowing a lot of movement between the door and the hinge. Replacing rivets with bolts resulted in a tight squeeze between the hinge and door with friction eliminating movement. It also allows a door to be removed for repairing damage cause by driving too close to a curb. I have pictures, big hole in 1 second, which I also repaired myself.
I calculated the forces applied to the door (and the hinge attachments) by the pressure struts as the door is opening and concluded that the only long term solution was bolts.
I have also considered replacing the struts with latching arms, however, this would mean that a person would have to lift half the weight of the door when opening it and hope that both latching arms click at the same time.
You can buy new ones with what ever force in lbs you want. But you need to know what lbs force you need.
McMaster-Carr (http://www.mcmaster.com/#gas-springs/=jzopsg)