Forum Discussion

tkoden's avatar
tkoden
Explorer
Mar 31, 2015

Adjusting entry door

My rear entry door hasn't been properly aligned since we bought the trailer. When I took it in for the warranty work a few months ago they said that adjustments were only good for 3 months. Now, I am on my own to adjust it. The rear door has about a 1/4"-3/8" gap between the door and weather stripping. How do I get the door to seal?


  • Gjac's avatar
    Gjac
    Explorer III
    I would put a block of wood in the bottom part of the door between the door and door frame and push the top part in to see if you can get the door to be parallel to the jam. Once the door is parallel to the jam in the freestate I would adjust the striker plate so that the door closes. The door should then seal you when it is closed to to the striker plate. Make sure the TT is level when you do this.
  • On my RVs i've seen two problems.
    On the old rigs the door internal frames came apart. The cure for that was to disassemble the door and epoxy it back together.

    The other problem was the hinge would get bent and door would rub on the frame. Solution was to bend it back. On some a good push would fix it. Others, I would stick a 1x4 plank in the open door and bend it back.

    The hinge would get bent by getting something caught in the hinge.

    Norm
  • mine was like that on one of my TT's. found out my TT wasn't level where it was parked.
  • The adjustment should not move once it's properly set but travel trailers OFTEN have frames that are not completely rigid and in these cases if you adjust the stab jacks differently you may get a different result which shows itself in how the door fits. Most commonly if stab jacks are jacked too high (removing too much weight from the frame, the door may hang up and not close properly. It's very important that stabilizer jacks NEVER be used to level the trailer in any way or damage MAY occur to the frame.
    Good luck / Skip
  • You have to adjust the striker plate but sometimes, like in my case, the adjustment just keeps slipping back to where it was.
    Someday I'll have to come up with a better plan.
  • Is it the latch striker plate? Possibly the two screws holding the plate to the frame may have loosened letting the door close in that position, if so push the striker plate in that 1/4 to 3/8" and tighten the screws.

    Ken
  • I could be wrong, but I don't see a whole lot of adjustment on our door. Pretty much a piano hinge the whole way up. If yours is like that, it's not going to be easy. It seems to me to be a "get it right the first time" situation. Hope I'm wrong.