Camper door opens while in tow.

[My name is Pat]

So after more than a decade of just sitting I towed the camper to a trailer place to get the brakes checked and axle bearings checked. I did have to get new wheel bearings but surprisingly the electric brakes checked out fine there was no need to repair any part of them.

Anyway while towing the Hilo the 9km to the trailer place the camper door opened twice. The next day for the trip back I locked the camper door and it still opened once on the trip back home.

When I close the door if I try just pulling on it the door won't open. So how can I attempt to repair something when it appears to be working fine when it is sitting in the driveway? Anyone have any ideas?

 

[ltblueblzr]

My first guess would be that the frame work is flexing a lot, or the door frame work is week and flexing. You could possible mimic the cause by using a jack to lift a little in each corner to see how much flex and might see a week spot in the frame, but be careful not to bend or warp the frame. Need to ensure the door knob latch is working properly first.

 

[JackandJanet]

My first guess would be that the frame work is flexing a lot, or the door frame work is week and flexing. You could possible mimic the cause by using a jack to lift a little in each corner to see how much flex and might see a week spot in the frame, but be careful not to bend or warp the frame. Need to ensure the door knob latch is working properly first.

That's my guess too. Are you locking the door with the "deadbolt"? You SHOULD, if you're pulling the trailer. The deadbolt has more "bite" than the regular latch.

- Jack

 

[My name is Pat]

My first guess would be that the frame work is flexing a lot, or the door frame work is week and flexing. You could possible mimic the cause by using a jack to lift a little in each corner to see how much flex and might see a week spot in the frame, but be careful not to bend or warp the frame. Need to ensure the door knob latch is working properly first.

That's my guess too. Are you locking the door with the "deadbolt"? You SHOULD, if you're pulling the trailer. The deadbolt has more "bite" than the regular latch.

- Jack

Thanks for the replies guys. Quick service. First I just checked and on my Hilo the deadbolt can only be accessed from inside as the outer door window does not open and there is no way to reach in. There is some wear on the bottom of the metal piece that surrounds the opening the latch enters. Maybe things have shifted a smidge and the latch is not extending all the way in. I may try filing the bottom opening a little.

 

[campthewestcoast]

Our 1997 21 Towlite had significant water damage in the front right side upper wall near the door. It would flex when we were traveling and the door would open.

Our fix was to mount a metal loop on the door jam next to the latch. When we were underway, we attached a bungee chord from the loop across the door to the metal step housing.

 

[sam-HILO]

Door coming unlatched.

We also had this happen on our 1990 25ft. Classic. DH has to push up on the door as it slips down slightly(old age). I'm sure he has taken the lock/door latch apart and lubed everything well. Our striker plate holes had enlarged. He was able to have a CNC program made up at work and a batch of new striker plates made up. I will be over at my trailer later this week and will take a picture. If this is what you need I will mail one to you. We gave some of these out at a HiLo rally to vintage owners. I still have a few in the junk drawer in the HiLo. Since our repairs it hasn't been an issue.

 

[JackandJanet]

Thanks for the replies guys. Quick service. First I just checked and on my Hilo the deadbolt can only be accessed from inside as the outer door window does not open and there is no way to reach in. There is some wear on the bottom of the metal piece that surrounds the opening the latch enters. Maybe things have shifted a smidge and the latch is not extending all the way in. I may try filing the bottom opening a little.

Pat, for what it's worth, I've seen replacement door locks with exterior "keyed" deadbolts and regular latches for sale in emails, probably from Camping World. But, I'm sure you could find them cheaper elsewhere online. I think they are direct replacement items and they are not too expensive (maybe in the $20 US range?).

- Jack

 

[My name is Pat]

We also had this happen on our 1990 25ft. Classic. DH has to push up on the door as it slips down slightly(old age). I'm sure he has taken the lock/door latch apart and lubed everything well. Our striker plate holes had enlarged. He was able to have a CNC program made up at work and a batch of new striker plates made up. I will be over at my trailer later this week and will take a picture. If this is what you need I will mail one to you. We gave some of these out at a HiLo rally to vintage owners. I still have a few in the junk drawer in the HiLo. Since our repairs it hasn't been an issue.

First sorry for the late reply guys and gals, I usually get a notification when something new gets written but I haven't this past week for some reason.

Thanks for the offer Sam but that won't be necessary, very nice of you though thanks again.

I think the trailer must be flexing because when it's just sitting there everything appears to be working fine. I can't see any water damage anywhere so I don't really know what could be causing the flexing. Crawled under and pounded away at the floor, all is solid.

I'm going to keep a look out for a new bolt type lock I can access from the outside. In the meantime I may just do the bungee cord thing.

On a side note I opened the canopy for the 1st time in 11 years, it's in perfect condition. Capri made on heck of a good product.

 

[marininn]

Fixed?

Im wondering, a year later, if you had resolved or figured out for sure the cause, or the fix?

I am renovating mine, and noticing issues at the door.
My trailer has the door near the front, about 5-6 feet from the front. Also, concerning the lift cables, the rear cable is about 7 feet from the door. The lift cable is the only thing supporting the wall.
I am noticing sag from the rear corner up to the door, then on the other side of the door there is less sag. Sag defined by the upper clamshell being measured from the railing of the lower half. There should be about ½ inch drop at the seam, and at the door issue there is over an inch, maybe near 2 inches.
My theory is that the wall is bending down. All there is vertically here is what wood material is above the door, where the rest of the walls have the full height to give support, the door leaves a big gap/ weak spot. Also, there was [maybe - maybe not] some water damage on the roof that could have weakened the wall wood.
So, I seem to think I know the issue, the question is who has fixed this?

I am thinking to bolt in some steel to reinforce the wood above the door (after repositioning the wall of course) to get rid of the sag.
Pics would be great, otherwise I will add mine when I do this.

After reading the OP here I was concerned mine might get worse. As it is, my dead bolt will not work because of the sag making the striker plate higher than the dead bolt. I have to lift the door for it to lock, though the door lock still woks, but it only keep the handle from moving.

 

[My name is Pat]

There is a person named Sam on this site that helped me out. My Hilo was missing the striker plate for the door. In a great coincidence her husband was a steel fabricator and had made a few extras. She sent me one and it fit perfectly, solving my problem while the camper was in tow.

However I do have to lift up on the door to lock it with the deadbolt as it too sags a little on one side. I'd guess half an inch. This isn't a big deal to me as the door does lock with the key without having to lift up on it. I'm thinking my sagging door is caused by loose screws in one of the door hinges. They probably have stripped out of their holes.

There are some very knowledgeable people here, or if you search through the forums you will find the answer to your cable questions. Sorry I'm not very mechanically inclined.

I have parked my Hilo for the past two years at a wonderful trailer park and have decided to just keep it there until it has some major damage rendering it unusable.
So far everything other than the furnace is still working and there are no leaks.

Extremely surprised that a 1985 gas/electric/dc fridge is still working not to mention things like the inline water pump and original propane hot water tank.

Have fun will travel.

 

[sam-HILO]

Door lock problems

I am the Sam that has the new striker plates. The bad news is that DH just put the HiLo cover on for the winter. This striker plate is for a classic only. Not familiar with the towlite. Our Classic is a rear door and the metal frame inside rusted out. DH tore the wall apart for the second time and reinforced with a new steel pipe and bolts. I didn't take pictures as he was in a time crunch to get it done for a weekend of camping. I agree some HiLos have a lack of supporting frame in the wall especialy when the door breaks up the wall. I have seen this on 28ft. models. I can't get you a new striker plate until spring as they are in the HiLo. I'm sure when you tear into repairs you will see what can be made stronger. If you need this piece remind me in the spring time. The striker plate is for our 1990 25ft. HiLo Classic.

 

[marininn]

So, the striker plate was a remedy for what seemed to be a sagging door, not the real issue of the sagging wall?
My plan is to go after the root cause.
I have some heavy gauge steep plating I can cut to fit over/around the top of the door, on both sides of the wall. Jack the wall back to position and bolt in using a lot of bolts or few bolts and lots of glue. Or maybe strengthen the roof at that side to have the same effect. Either way, it should bring the door back to correct alignment I am hoping.

 

[JackandJanet]

I like your idea for repairing the sag on the door side, marininn. Having no beam running the length of the trailer box on the lower side certainly makes it easy for that side to flex downward.

I wonder, if you're going to go to the trouble of opening up the area above the door, is there enough room to put a truss member in there that would stop the sag? Either that, or a metal box beam that would resist bending? Or, are you planning to "plate" the inside and outside walls of the top with metal, and not open the wall?

- Jack

 

[marininn]

I have a huge piece of steel plate, maybe 1/8 inch thick, that I can cut out of. I don't know if I want to go to that much trouble, lot of work cutting and I might have to pull cabinet out to get enough bite on wall - if thats what you mean by "open up". I only have an electric saw with metal bit, not a plasma cutter. Lots of cutting.
A box tube might do the same as the plating, and I could put that on the outside since the awning would mask it from looking cosmetically strange. The concern is attaching it so the bond is strong enough and no stress on the attachment bolts which could tear through the wood wall vertically. But, plating will not bend for sure, it would only warp if anything, and I dont think the wall will ever warp. I could get away with a plate just on one side actually.

 

[r67northern]

So the classic 24’ that I’m working over definitely sags there where yours does. Like Jack mentioned, the lack of a through-beam on the bottom I’m sure is what leads to this.

When I had things torn apart I decided to let it go but after seeing all of the interior metal bracing and such, the best bet might be to pull the cabinet(s) on either side of the door and think about putting a strong L-girder along some length of the upper metal beam. You’d have to be into the ceiling and part of the wall too. My concern might be that working only above the door would’t give you the length needed to really add good stiffness and make up for the missing lower through-beam.

There are a lot of pictures I’ve put over on Flickr that might be of some use to you, here’s a direct one that shows the metal frame in the door area:
https://flic.kr/p/RrYsLT

And of course you’d want to jack up the center sag first before you bolted that l-girder in along it too. It’s a big project for sure but it would address what seems to be a design flaw (or compromise) that is common with these things.

I know it wont fix the sag,but have you thought about unbolting the latch side of the door frame and repositioning it? You could move it closer to the door, for example, drill some new holes into the metal frame for it, and then get it all put back together and sealed,probably working well. My apologies if that’s already been thought about.

-Leland

 

[JackandJanet]

Marininn - I was thinking you were going to work on the inside of the wall above the door, removing either the outside cladding or the inside wall paneling.

My thought of a "truss" was a diagonal brace, that would inhibit bending.

But, I totally agree, the 1/8" plate is not going to sag at all if applied vertically as a "cladding" to the wall on the inside or outside. As you say though, you'd need to make sure you bolted it/them into the vertical frames on either side. If you used two, you could run the mounting bolts through both and really screw them down tight. You'd almost have a box beam structure that way, and, it would not warp.

- Jack

 

[marininn]

r67northern, thanks, the pics help. My next question was going to be - what is inside the walls of the upper, but I see from your pics that there is nothing inside them. So, my sheet metal fix is not really going to work. Looks like there are small square metal tubes framing it all in, and that the metal tube above the door, or along the side wall is what is bent somewhere. Without tearing into the wall to look at the steel frame I cannot know. My sheet metal would have to screw only into the metal tubing also, and that requires knowing where the tubing is in the wall. Maybe I can get lucky with a strong magnet finding the metal, but back to the drawing board for time being.

Your 2000 looks very similar to my '97, so I bookedmarked your photostream, please leave them up many years… Pics help a lot when wondering what is wrong inside where I cant see.

The lower walls on yours at least seem to be - outside sheeting, foam, thick plywood, inside sheeting.
So, the upper walls are outside sheeting, metal frame, inside sheeting (and foam in the empty spaces?)?

Complications on mine. The previous owner seemed to rip the slider out of the slide next to the bad side of the door. their fix was to mount the slider below the top on a bracket. I was hoping that they mounted it too far in one direction that allowed the roof to sag. I jacked it, made new bracket, mounted with top mating correctly to bottom inside edges, but alas, it did sag exactly the same again.
I will also have to lower the slider an inch as it can pop out when roof lowered, but easy to do that. ARE THE SLIDERS JUST SCREWED INTO THE WALL OR METAL FRAMES? such that I can just unscrew, lower and rescrew it in?

Jacking extra only lifted the trailer, so I could not unload in anticipation of some sag hoping it to sag level.
I am thinking maybe instead of jacking the section, maybe lower it onto blocks and hope something bends back into position. I don't know if bad things happen if I lower it onto one support and let the other sides dangle like that. I would go incrementally of course, so no knee jerk comments needed here. thanks.

1/8 metal, maybe a bit zealous, but what I have is thick. I found a smaller piece, 36x14, that if big enough will be less cutting if I can go that route now. After the above slider fix I now see I cannot just jack and bolt a plate in, I need to get it all straight first, that may be harder to do.
Im not so worried about the door right now, If I give up or never fix the sag then making the dead bolt fit the striker plate is childsplay at this point, compared to the sag.

 

[sam-HILO]

just to clarify

Our door sags and DH has to push it up to get the locks lined up. Our door doesn't come open when traveling. Just like people with old age sag!!

 

[r67northern]

Quick question on this - when you say slider on the door side, are you thinking the metal "rail" that the top part uses as a guide to slide up and down or the little plastic piece on the top part that uses that rail?

But you're right about the wall construction. It's the fiberglass outer, 3mm plywood sheet attached to that, 1" foam filler, then 5mm plywood on the inside. And like you were saying, that foam fills in all the gaps. I was shocked at how little frame is actually in the trailer walls. From the door all the way back to the rear is NOTHING. Fortunately the laminated wall is put together with a pile of glue and it seems to be pretty tuff untill it gets wet (which led to my own rebuild).

I bet you could get it straightened out though if you jacked gently on either side of the door with a couple of car jacks (either on cinder blocks or using wood to make up the height difference). But here's a thought I just had: if it has sagged then all of the foamboard in those spaces that is normally helping to keep it straight and level has probably given so that the sag is allowed. So if the frame is adjusted, that main structural element of the foam won't help it stay straight still.

But with that said, what about cutting triangular pieces of steel to fill all of the corners around the frame? That might give it a good shot - Still kind of major surgery though.

 

[marininn]

5th cable

r67n, your rebuild looks miserable, unless u enjoy it. I was sure to check the walls before buying so I didnt have water damaged walls that delaminate.

Yes, sliders, rails, tracks that the roof is guided up on. Im sure there is a technical name for it. Are they screwed into the plywood only, or the metal framing?

Good point about the glue, if I readjust it I could be breaking the glue bonds too which have migrated slowly over these past twenty years.

I think the best solution, and a permanent non-sag one is to install a 5th cable. This would be the least amount of work for me too because I do metal work on occasion.

The cable would also support the wall in down position too, where most of the sag over time occurs.
On that note, a good and easy thing to do is to put an "outrigger" under the wall at the door sag to support it for the 99% of the time it is down, or traveling. I see some models have outriggers at the corners at least, mine does not.

Can't route the cable through the wall, but a pipe will let it go inside the room along the wall and over a pulley that sits atop the railing. All can be covered.

Not sure if I need to balance this out with one on the other side, but if I did, then that would reduce some stress on the other 4, and if there was a breakage on the corner cables, the middle ones would prevent disaster.

Agreed - amazing how little structure campers in general have. It is the laminate that provides a lot of the structure. The older ones with the corrugated siding had reason as the corrugation had its own strength through all those folds.