Door hard to operate

[Crayfishrock]

We have the same problem.

[jadams]

My door is a bit snug and I thought it's because the weather strip needs to be compressed a little when closing the door. I looked at the striker plate a couple times this past summer and thought it was positioned well and the door handle hardware is all snug.

The two 3 year old vinyl replacement doors with nice seals at my house are the same, but not as noticeable as my 17 B.

I close my door by holding the door handle in the open position and push on the door, or pull on the handle, just a little bit and then seat the latch in the striker plate. This has worked well for us, but now I'm interested in seeing if my door is bowed just a bit.

Kinda hoping my door is bowed so I may set-up an alignment gig like Arniesea. Superb! Thanks for the pic.

[Perry Butler]

On ours the door was not bowed. The frame was installed with a slight bow. Just put a 2 x 4 on the top and another 2 x 4 on the bottom of the door, then press the middle in until the door bows enough to match the frame bow.

Once in Minnesota we felt Chilliwack was too far to take the door to be reinstalled. Reese said the fix in my first paragraph worked for others.

Enjoy,

Perry

[mbison]

Originally Posted by arniesea

My door was also slightly bowed on my new 5.0. It did not impact latching with the stock latch, but when I replaced it with the RV keyless latch, the clearance was tighter and we had to slam the door to get it to latch. When i put a straight edge along the door, it was obvious that the top and bottom were tighter int he frame then middle where the latch is located. I ended up making a jig out of a 2 x 6 and with clamps was able to straighten the door. It works fine now. see picture.

This is one of the most satisfying repairs I've made of anything. Asked how the door shuts now, my wife's response... "LIKE BUTTA!!" Thank you very much for the photo!

I tightened the clamps first a little bit and removed to test the fit then re-clamped and tightened slightly more and now it's perfect.

*** I did check both my door and the frame with a straight edge, and it was definitely the door that was bowed in my case.. the middle was bowed "out" away from the trailer creating the bind on the face of the latch bolt that I was previously trying to resolve by adjusting the striker plate... but there's only so much you can adjust.

[Perry Butler]

Originally Posted by arniesea

My door was also slightly bowed on my new 5.0. It did not impact latching with the stock latch, but when I replaced it with the RV keyless latch, the clearance was tighter and we had to slam the door to get it to latch. When i put a straight edge along the door, it was obvious that the top and bottom were tighter int he frame then middle where the latch is located. I ended up making a jig out of a 2 x 6 and with clamps was able to straighten the door. It works fine now. see picture.

Originally Posted by mimie

Interesting - my 2019 17B’s door has been harder to latch closed now that I’ve added the RV keyless latch. Have to slam it to get it to close, and generally don’t like to slam doors! Will have to see if alignment is off, as it was on your 5.0. Thanks!

Purchased the RV Keyless Lock last fall and installed it in January, just before we left for our winter in the southwest. I had straightened our door to work with the original handle, but immediately found after installing the RV Lock we had to slam the door to get it to close. Our door was still straight from my previous straightening. I beat the original strike plate in various positions to no avail. I would wake the dead every time I entered or exited. Terry was not happy!

I promised Terry I would install the old lock when we got back if the RV Lock couldn't be fixed. Upon arriving home to Lanesboro I removed the RV Lock and installed the original lock. The door closed easily! At that point I had nothing to lose, so I filed the RV Lock latch to a slightly greater angle, reinstalled the RV Lock and amazingly the RV Lock closed as easily and lightly as the original.

There are probably two reasons why the bevel on the latch needs to be filed, 1) it sticks out slightly too far. 2) the bevel needs to be increased to make it easier for the strike plate to push in the lock mechanism.

I did not file much off, but did increase the angle. Make sure you file the entire bevel, not just the end.

Hope this works for you.

Perry

[rmitch]

Amazingly, I have not seen this thread before.
I have had the same door issues as others here. I adjusted the strike plate and it was better but the problem always returned. I also installed the RV lock others have talked about. This made the problem worse. Today I investigated further. When I removed the strike plate I found it was attached with two different screws. The bottom screw was about 1” long and went through the aluminum door frame and securely into the trailer framing around the door. The top screw was ¼” long, only in the aluminum frame and the hole was worn. I replaced both screws with 1 ¼” long stainless steel screws and adjusted the strike plate all the way out.
This seems to have solved the problem: the door shuts and latches easily without slamming. Hopefully this will be a permanent fix. Leaving tomorrow for a three week trip up the California coast so we will give it a good test.
Check your strike plate screws. It could save you some headaches.

[Bobbie54]

Originally Posted by rmitch

Amazingly, I have not seen this thread before.
I have had the same door issues as others here. I adjusted the strike plate and it was better but the problem always returned. I also installed the RV lock others have talked about. This made the problem worse. Today I investigated further. When I removed the strike plate I found it was attached with two different screws. The bottom screw was about 1” long and went through the aluminum door frame and securely into the trailer framing around the door. The top screw was ¼” long, only in the aluminum frame and the hole was worn. I replaced both screws with 1 ¼” long stainless steel screws and adjusted the strike plate all the way out.
This seems to have solved the problem: the door shuts and latches easily without slamming. Hopefully this will be a permanent fix. Leaving tomorrow for a three week trip up the California coast so we will give it a good test.
Check your strike plate screws. It could save you some headaches.

I've adjusted the strike plate but it slips back. Maybe that longer screw will make the difference. Be careful as I actually had the door bounce open (luckily as I entered the campground and not on the highway).

[Bobbie54]

Perry, what did you use to file the latch?

[Hawkeye Ed]

Like Perry, the bolt on our RV Lock 4.0 sticks out too far from the body of the lock. As a result the bevel or slant on the bolt doesn't go all the way back to the body of the lock, exposing part of the bolt that's not beveled. Because the strike plate hits this non-beveled part of the bolt, the bolt doesn't get pushed back by the strike plate on the door frame.

I called RV Lock to see if there is a way to adjust the bolt so it doesn't come out so far that it exposes this non-beveled part of the bolt. There's not. The only solution offered is the 30-day return (which, of course, has already passed).

I'll try Perry's trick of filing the bolt so it's all beveled and hope that works. Otherwise, I guess I'll just have to take off the strike plate and let the bolt latch in the door frame (not what I want).

So be sure if you spend a lot of money on an RV Lock that you install it right away so you can return it if you need to.

[Bobbie54]

I have the same problem with the Escape-supplied keyless lock, though. Is it related to how the door works? I have not tried putting the original door lock back in.

[Perry Butler]

Originally Posted by Bobbie54

Perry, what did you use to file the latch?

I used a 60 year old 10" coarse bastard flat file. Any hardware store will have one for under $10. I took the lock apart so only the latch was in my hand. The lock comes apart and reassembles easily.

Enjoy,

Perry

[oldwave]

In my 2017 the rv lock worked flawlessly without any adjustments. Go figure.