Entry Door

[nutensteve]

I'm just wondering if anyone else has had problems opening their entry door. Our door has always been a little hard to open. I had the door adjusted when the coach was new to eliminate an annoying rattle. The door was adjusted tight against the frame. This past week it has become almost impossible to open it with the exterior handle but opens easily from the inside. It seems like the outside pull doesn't come out far enough to operate the mechanism. It looks like if I loosen the strikes and move them out a little it should help.

I told my wife Nita that I would just leave out the ladder and leave a window unlocked in case she gets to the coach before me....hmmmmm...she didn't seem to see the humor in that. It is a very stable ladder.

[nutensteve]

I'm just wondering if anyone else has had problems opening their entry door. Our door has always been a little hard to open. I had the door adjusted when the coach was new to eliminate an annoying rattle. The door was adjusted tight against the frame. This past week it has become almost impossible to open it with the exterior handle but opens easily from the inside. It seems like the outside pull doesn't come out far enough to operate the mechanism. It looks like if I loosen the strikes and move them out a little it should help.

I told my wife Nita that I would just leave out the ladder and leave a window unlocked in case she gets to the coach before me....hmmmmm...she didn't seem to see the humor in that. It is a very stable ladder.

[Drifter]

Nutensteve, We had somewhat the same problem this past summer, I adjusted it every other day for most of the summer. This is the kind of thing that drives me nuts. After after awhile, my DW said that I couldn't adjust it unless she was gone.
It seemed that the mushroom part of the striker was catching on the latch, so here's some pictures of what I did that helped, but didn't make it perfect.

[Diplomat Don]

Steve, have you tried lubing the heck out of it. Mine gets tough to open every so often and found that lubing it really helps.

You have to shoot silicon in the edges of the exterior handle and interior handle. You also need to look at the edge of the door when open and you'll see where the locking pins come out. Spray the heck out of them. Basically spray everything that moves when you operate the handles and be prepared to wipe up some dripping fluid.

I think you'll find the both handles will work much better.

[nutensteve]

Thanks for the tips Mike & Don. I had a mobile tech out yesterday to work on my non functional furnace...another long story. I had him look at the door and he did get it to work a "little" better. It seems that those locking pins actually float and move as the door is opened and closed. He also stressed the importance of lubing the moving parts. I had actually lubed some of the mechanism earlier. The tech has to come back on Monday to work on the furnace again and said he would work on the door some more. He said Monaco has a special class for techs soley for door adjustment.In the meantime all I have to do is push on the door while pulling on the handle and it works like a charm.

[nodine]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by nutensteve:
Thanks for the tips Mike & Don. I had a mobile tech out yesterday to work on my non functional furnace...another long story. I had him look at the door and he did get it to work a "little" better. It seems that those locking pins actually float and move as the door is opened and closed. He also stressed the importance of lubing the moving parts. I had actually lubed some of the mechanism earlier. The tech has to come back on Monday to work on the furnace again and said he would work on the door some more. He said Monaco has a special class for techs soley for door adjustment.In the meantime all I have to do is push on the door while pulling on the handle and it works like a charm. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

nutensteve,

Thanks for the tip on the fact that the locking pins are supposed to float. Both of mine were frozen so I soaked them up with spray lube and worked them up and down until they moved again. The door works better now.

Bob

[nutensteve]

Bob...Glad that you were able to get your door working better. The tech spent about an hour adjusting mine. He took off the inside panel where the interior handle is to access the inner mechanisms. The doorworks great now, better than when new. You can open it with very little effort now.

[itdave]

Last year when we were in Mexico our external door handle failed completely and we had to get back into the coach through a window. Since there was no RV service centers around I had to fix this myself. What we found is that there is a linkage inside the door that connect the outside handle to the inside handle. To get to things we had to remove the inside door liner. This is done by removing the screw that holds the black edging to the door. Once we got the linkage exposed we found a turnbuckle like adjustment that let us lengthen or shorten the rods going from the outside handle to the inside handle. After a lot of cussing and chewed up hands we got it adjusted so the handle worked.
Not sure why the adjustment changed (maybe rough roads) but it looks like it is doing it again. So if I take it apart again I will take pictures and post them so other can see the process.