7,000 Mile Trip - Door
Trail Manors are a marvel of engineering. They also have some problem areas. One of these areas is the door. It is a system with lots of moving parts and lots of room for misalignment.
Like many others, my door was poorly adjusted when I bought the camper. It worked OK but the sash lock holding the two parts of the door together was kind of stressed through parts of its 180 degree swing. I searched this forum for answers and was happy to find the thread on aligning the shells. That stuff is right up my alley. I have levels of all sizes and lasers and jacks and all that good stuff. I went through the whole process very carefully and couldn't wait to try my door. Unfortunately there was very little change.
I came to realize that if the LOWER part of the door wouldn't close properly ( mine would bang the door jamb) NOTHING you did to the LEVEL of the upper shell was going remedy the problem. The stress was so great on the door connector ( sash lock) that it started to pull the upper half of the door apart.
Here's what I figured out. The catch in the upper shell locates the pin at the hinge in the lower door. If that is too far aft ( towards the back) the door won't close properly. Unfortunately, the LEVEL of the front shell doesn't move that catch more than a small fraction of an inch. There is no real way to adjust the fore and aft position of the upper shell. That is controlled by the hollow aluminum tubes that latch the upper shell in place. Looking at mine, the aluminum tubes were angled back slightly. I grabbed one and realized that it took very little effort to flex it back and forth. All that holds it it a nut welded to the TM front corner. Too much leverage for that application!
I unscrewed the bolt and slipped the washer that was on the FRONT side of the tube to the BACK side of the tube, thus moving the locking tube further forward by the thickness of the washer. Do both sides.
Voila! The shell moved just far enough forward that the door has proper clearance.
With that adjusted I moved on to the upper / lower door latch that had pulled the upper door partially apart. I removed the aluminum fitting at the bottom of the upper door and found rotted wood. The original rig had just had the aluminum layers glued to the wood. As the wood rotted, the door lost its strength. I cleaned out all of the rotted wood and scraped off all the adhesive. I measured the opening and found that a rectangle of wood 1-1/8" by 1-1/4" would fit ito the door void. Some of the wood in the upright part of the rear (when closed) was rooted as well. I removed as much as possible and replaced the rotted wood with my new treated pine pieces. I didn't want to trust only glue, so I screwed through the aluminum skin and fastened the wood with screws. I the replaced the aluminum molding at the bottom of the upper door. It is held in place by three screws from the factory. I replaced the factory screws with stainless steel and drilled an extra hole to add one at the highest stress point.
With the door beefed up, I got a new sash lock and replaced the original broken one. It still has some stain on it since the lower door jambs have a fair bit of flex, but the door is now able to handle the light load.
My door closes like it was meant to. No more banging sound when you close it.
As part of this fix, I will be replacing the TM bolts that hold the aluminum shell locating tubes . I may even consider welding on the next size nut and increasing the bolt size or come up with another way to strengthen that connection. By the way, the Velcro flaps actually do a fair bit to stabilize the upper shell. Don't push 'em down hard until the shell is lined up correctly. The front flap controls the side to side flex quite a bit.
Worked for me!
Paul
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2010 2720SL
Green Cove Springs, Florida
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