Entry door strike moves

[Joel Ashley]

I've been fighting this minor annoyance all during our current 2 month sorte', and figure it's about time to track down a permanent fix.

We've learned to shut our door gently, but if a visitor or service tech shuts our entry door with much flourish, the bottom strike pin (one of two on the door frame) displaces a tad, but it's just enough that the door handle requires much more finger strength to unlatch next time.  Lee's various maladies have left her muscle power not what it used to be, and she lets me know when the door is "stuck".  I would more suspect the latch, except that moving the lower strike pin back into alignment with a hex wrench that fits in the pin's head seems to alleviate the problem... at least until the next time.

The pin seems to be on a cam of some sort rather than a direct bolt shaft, or perhaps on an offset bolt.  The hex adjustment swings the plate the pin is on in an arc.  Aligning the oblong plate square with the door frame does the trick.  If the door gets slammed shut, that plate ends up noticeably not up-and-down with the frame again.

What I have yet to sort out is how the pin/plate is mounted behind the frame.  I'm hoping there is a way to access some hidden aspect of the cam setup and tighten things up so its not so easily displaced.  I have yet to explore fully the area behind the brush skirt in front of the passenger tire.  The issue became so frequent that a few weeks ago I bought a 5/16" Allen wrench specifically to put beside the passenger seat where it's handy when the doggone pin requires readjustment.

Anyone familiar with how to make the pin/plate more solid?

Joel

[David T. Richelderfer]

We have a door problem that is similar in that the door can become hard to open, but is manageable if the door is not closed too hard.  It appears our door has three "catch points."  If I gently push it closed to its first catch point, then a child could pull the latch and open the door.  Also, in this first catch point the door appears to be in a slightly open position, say, 1/4 inch from flush with the side wall of the coach.  If I push the door closed to the second catch point, then the door is closed flush with the side wall and the latch is significantly more difficult to pull to open the door... but still manageable enough for Leslie to open the door.  If the door is closed "with much flourish," as you aptly described it, to its third catch point, then Leslie is not able to open the door.  I can open the door only by pushing hard on the door with one hand and pulling the latch with the other hand.

One good thing is that when we are inside the coach and close the door firmly to that third catch point, then the door does not whistle much when driving down the highway.  And yet even if closed firmly, then the door seems to open okay from the interior latch.  I am guessing this could be because pulling on the interior latch also pulls the door towards a closed position taking some strain off the door catches.

Our "fix" is for me to constantly remind Leslie to not slam the door closed.  lol

[Stan Simpson]

Joel and David,

Our coach exhibited the same symptoms you both mention regarding opening and closing with the strike in-line. We have learned to close the door gently (it really doesn't need to be slammed) yet it still gets out of alignment from time to time.

My experience trying to line up the strike and keep the oblong piece in line with the frame has been to tap the oblong piece in to a straight up and down configuration until its straight, and then to hold it in place with vice grips, while I use a wrench to turn the striker head. It works to some degree, not perfect, so we have no problems until someone slams the door a few times again. As Joel mentioned, it might be a visitor such as a service tech.

[Fred Brooks]

    Hi Guys,
   Here is some insight to the original engineering of the "floating strikers" used with doors with an upper and lower door latch.
When the jacks are used, the entry door jamb becomes a parallelogram and would not allow the door to align with the jamb. Using a floating or "arcing" striker would allow the door to realign the striker for what ever new position the door was in. The issue is getting both strikers in a neutral zone with the jacks up and down. The other issue is to get the upper latch to release just a whisker ahead of the lower one. This can be done by removing the door panel and making the adjustments at the clevis going to the lower latch.
    Hope this helps, Fred

[Stan Simpson]

Fred,
We don't have jacks. Is the solution the same? Could you post pictures..no idea what a clevis is or what it does.

Thanks,

Stan

[Fred Brooks]

        Hi Stan,
  Air leveling can still cause the same issue. When you level a coach, you change the natural dynamics of the body in relationship to the chassis. A clevis is a forked bracket that a rod attaches to and is threaded with a coupler and lock nuts on each side of the coupler. Dependent on the lock manufacturer, you may have a rod with a right angle bend and a retainer clip holding it to the lock lever and or latch. either way it will have a threaded coupler to shorten the overall length of the rod. The shorter the rod the sooner it will actuate the latch.
      Regards, Fred