Community Forums

crookedarrow · 11-13-2020, 09:04 AM

I have a 2003 Newmar Kountry Star that has two pocket doors in the hallway, both doors will not slide they barely move at all. It seems that the doors should have a locking mechanism that keeps the doors from sliding when on the road? If so I can't find one. Has anyone encountered this with their doors? I've had several carpenter friends look at the doors and they can't find the problem, any advice would be welcome.

JNSNWT · 11-13-2020, 09:21 AM

My ‘01 DSDP uses Velcro to keep the door closed.

And it takes a LOT OF PULLING on the latch to undo the Velcro. You can hear the Velcro “ripping “ when it starts to come loose

JNSNWT · 11-13-2020, 09:22 AM

My ‘01 DSDP uses Velcro to keep the door closed.

And it takes a LOT OF PULLING on the latch to undo the Velcro. You can hear the Velcro “ripping “ when it starts to come loose

Scooterfan · 11-13-2020, 09:27 AM

If the doors are difficult to pull out (not normal) they are most likely off the track. Open a door and get a flashlight and look up at the track system. It may be as simple as lifting the door back onto the track. Any strap system (mine are snaps) will keep the doors shut while traveling. Best of luck.

Skip426 · 11-13-2020, 09:31 AM

My Dutch Star has two pocket doors too .

Back edge of the door has a Velcro pad to hold it open and I believe a previous owner installed a clear plastic strap with snaps that we use when in motion .

The " not moving " part of the problem may be like one of two problems I had .
#1 The mount screws for the top rail worked loose over time and jammed the top hanging rollers of the door, there are screws visible with the door open in the hall way but two more hidden back in the pocket .
I had to remove the door , by taking down the panel piece that covers the top rail on the bathroom side to access the hangers to remove the door , then rig up a 90 degree driver to remove the loose screws and install larger ones with glue on the threads.
If you can look into the cavity between the top of the door and the rail and perhaps see a loose screw jamming the hanging rollers , I can take and post pictures of what I had to do for the repair.
#2 The pocket door is an aluminum frame with wall paneling bonded to it.
The bonding on one side let go and the panel bowed out enough to bind in the pocket , I removed the door ( getting pretty good at it by this time

) glue and screw the panel back to the aluminum frame, about 40 small brass screws 20 each side, I predrilled the aluminum.

EDIT : I see other members posted while I was typing ... boy I type slow.

FatChance · 11-13-2020, 11:05 AM

Our 2004 MADP also has two pocket doors. We had a problem opening one of them. The door was hanging from its track, but the track had pulled loose from the ceiling in the pocket so the bottom of the door was dragging on the floor. I re-secured the track with several screws and that worked.

There also is locking latch on the bottom edge of the door below the door pull. Be sure that that latch is not in the locking position.

Granite17 · 11-13-2020, 05:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FatChance

Our 2004 MADP also has two pocket doors. We had a problem opening one of them. The door was hanging from its track, but the track had pulled loose from the ceiling in the pocket so the bottom of the door was dragging on the floor. I re-secured the track with several screws and that worked.

There also is locking latch on the bottom edge of the door below the door pull. Be sure that that latch is not in the locking position.

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This is an easy fix to hold the doors from sliding while traveling.

crookedarrow · 11-14-2020, 06:41 AM

My first thought was that a screw in the top track had come loose but with both doors acting the same way I thought it was probably something else. I've used pliers to pull on the latch but neither one would move so I don't think it's velcro . I'm also pretty sure that the doors are not off their tracks as they are plumb with the jamb. It just doesn't seem like the screws would work themselves out in 34,000 miles but anything is possible, thanks for all the help.

Dav L · 11-14-2020, 07:04 AM

My 2002 pocket doors use velcro too. So strong that I broke the latch lever trying to dislodge it...and the pocket door can't be removed to access the velcro unless the angle cabinetry is removed.

Not the best usage of velcro. A simple lever lock would be so much easier and make the door useful. At some point I'll dig in and rid the velcro from the door.
It's a pain to remove the door in my floorplan so maybe I can close the door and reach the velcro and apply some loose velcro to disable the hooks from the matt side and put a simple lock lever in it's place.

Well, since the lever was broken, I replaced it with a more modern nickel color from the original shiny brass. Now the door pulls and lights to be replaced to match.

The pocket doors slide on rollers on the top. There is a nylon latch the holds a "pin" screwed to the top of the door into the roller carrier. You can use a wire hanger to flip the nylon latch open that allows the door to go up slightly and the carrier slid a bit to allow the pin to dislodge from the carrier. You can then unscrew the track from the ceiling to remove the carriers for cleaning and regreasing.

But if the door isn't sliding, my bet is the silly industrial strength velcro is holding it in. You can grab the door end and shimmy it up / down to loosen the velcro bite while pulling the door closed. Just don't break the latch like I did unless you need to modernize the color

crookedarrow · 11-14-2020, 08:05 AM

Thanks for the tip, I'll give it a try.

nbluesky · 11-14-2020, 08:35 AM

As a carpenter myself this problem does arise every so often. Most the pocket door hardware used is crap. I have replaced several tracks over the years. Most the time I just open up the wall to gain access but sometimes that is not an option. Here is a great solution written up on FineHomeBuilding.

POCKET DOOR TRACK REMOVER