#1

Stiff door

in Improving your pride and joy and how to fix things Fri Aug 06, 2021 7:39 am
by AJW | 34 Posts

The door on my 2007 Triton 430 has gone stiff. It no longer swings freely. Any ideas why and how to fix?


Scroll up

#2

RE: Stiff door

in Improving your pride and joy and how to fix things Fri Aug 06, 2021 9:03 am
by eribaMotters | 5.485 Posts

It has probably twisted a little or dropped. If you stand well back you will more often that not see the waist line on the door is slightly out of skew with that on the caravan body. Initially do not try and manipulate the door back into place. I have lifted my door off and dropped a couple of red fibre washers [I could not find my white nylon ones] onto the pins before putting the door back with a squirt of ptfe spray on these pins. I did this a couple of summers ago and the door has continued to move more freely. Some resistance is a good thing though as the door will be more likely to stay open at 90 degrees when the awning is up.

Colin


aka Oscar - Audi A3 1.5 petrol _ ex 430, 552, camplet trailer tent, 310, now a nice white 2017 430.
eribanaut likes this post!
Scroll up

#3

RE: Stiff door

in Improving your pride and joy and how to fix things Fri Aug 06, 2021 9:15 am
by AJW | 34 Posts

Thanks👍I will have a closer look😀


Scroll up

#4

RE: Stiff door

in Improving your pride and joy and how to fix things Fri Aug 06, 2021 10:11 am
by AJW | 34 Posts

Does the door simply lift off the hinges?


Scroll up

#5

RE: Stiff door

in Improving your pride and joy and how to fix things Fri Aug 06, 2021 10:16 am
by Pepé Le Pew | 2.741 Posts

Quote: AJW wrote in post #4
Does the door simply lift off the hinges?
Yep.

.


Scroll up

#6

RE: Stiff door

in Improving your pride and joy and how to fix things Fri Aug 06, 2021 2:33 pm
by JefL | 95 Posts

But it does not "simply" drop back on, bit of a bu66ger lining up the hinge pins and holes.


Jef
Freelander 2 and Big Ben, the 410
Scroll up

#7

RE: Stiff door

in Improving your pride and joy and how to fix things Fri Aug 06, 2021 3:02 pm
by eribaMotters | 5.485 Posts

I know.

Colin


aka Oscar - Audi A3 1.5 petrol _ ex 430, 552, camplet trailer tent, 310, now a nice white 2017 430.
Scroll up

#8

RE: Stiff door

in Improving your pride and joy and how to fix things Sun Aug 08, 2021 1:55 pm
by AJW | 34 Posts

Had a closer look and feel…no strange noises in the hinge….catch meets striking plate centrally….slight drop on the mid-height stripe, but no big deal…stiffer door doesn’t blow around in the wind….think I might just “leave as is”….🤔


Scroll up

#9

RE: Stiff door

in Improving your pride and joy and how to fix things Thu Sep 08, 2022 5:43 pm
by AJW | 34 Posts

Picking up on this thread…..how is the best way to lift the door off the hinges? The alloy hinges look easily cracked if stressed in the wrong direction! Do you simply lift (manually) or is it best with two people, or maybe some wedges or pullers to lift the door in a straight line upwards?


Scroll up

#10

RE: Stiff door

in Improving your pride and joy and how to fix things Fri Sep 09, 2022 10:13 am
by Randa france | 13.135 Posts

That's one of the things I have nightmares about. The Eriba door hinges DO look very vunlnerable to me as well. However, as far as I've been able to ascertain, the door does just lift up and off although I've never tried it. Probably best with two people even if to give you moral support.

Before you do so though, are you able to check to see if one of the hinges had moved slightly on it's fixing bolts? This might be the reason for the stiffness. Does it feel that the hinges are most likely the problem? I have heard of folk who take the door off and bend it slightly to alter the angle of the shape before refitting it.

Randa


ERIBAFOLK POP UP EVERYWHERE 1999 Eriba Troll 530 pushing a VW Touran 2L TDi Match . FORUM ADMINISTRATOR


Last edited Fri Sep 09, 2022 10:15 am | Scroll up

#11

RE: Stiff door

in Improving your pride and joy and how to fix things Fri Sep 09, 2022 10:15 pm
by Julie Grafo | 3.514 Posts

The door comes of incredibly easily, coincidentally our door wouldn’t shut yesterday. Neil tried to lift it slightly to clear the bottom where it appeared to be catching and it came off in his hand. With a stunned look he was standing there holding the door. It was more of a problem getting it lined up to drop it back on. The reason it wouldn’t close turned out to be a large bit of stone from the hard standing that were on, doh 🤦‍♀️


Julie & Neil. 2008 530GT pushing Honda CR-V 1.6 iDTEC SE+
Randa france likes this post!
Scroll up

#12

RE: Stiff door

in Improving your pride and joy and how to fix things Sat Sep 10, 2022 7:50 am
by AJW | 34 Posts

Thanks Julie and Randa. Much encouragement. Re your point Randa, it is hard to tell whether it is stiff hinges, or a door that has either gone out of shape. I don’t think it is the Allen-bolted fixing of hinges to the door frame, as there is no evidence of movement (e.g relatively clean bits of frame where now exposed by a slipped hinge bracket). I am not sure how the other half of the hinge is fixed to the door. Presume I need to remove the door lining to see, and am not sure how to do this. It would be nice to think there was generally some tolerance in the hinge fixing bolts to get the hinge pins parallel so the two hinges are not fighting each other. All of this leads back to improving the lubrication as the first and easiest thing to try! Thoughts?


Scroll up

#13

RE: Stiff door

in Improving your pride and joy and how to fix things Mon Sep 12, 2022 8:20 pm
by eribanaut | 1.228 Posts

when and if you get it off don't lose the plastic washers they sit on.
Dave


Skoda Kodiaq 2.0 150 Tdi DSG Troll 552 - 2005
Don't worry about the destination, enjoy the journey.
Scroll up

#14

RE: Stiff door

in Improving your pride and joy and how to fix things Mon Sep 12, 2022 8:37 pm
by Julie Grafo | 3.514 Posts

Plastic washers? We didn’t have any of those! Are they essential, has a previous owner lost them? Now I’m worried, I wasn’t worried before 🤔😲


Julie & Neil. 2008 530GT pushing Honda CR-V 1.6 iDTEC SE+
Scroll up

#15

RE: Stiff door

in Improving your pride and joy and how to fix things Tue Sep 13, 2022 9:42 am
by Randa france | 13.135 Posts

Quote: Julie Grafo wrote in post #14
Plastic washers? We didn’t have any of those! Are they essential, has a previous owner lost them? Now I’m worried, I wasn’t worried before 🤔😲

Not the previous owner Julie. The last person who took the door off

I didn't know there were plastic washers either.

Randa


ERIBAFOLK POP UP EVERYWHERE 1999 Eriba Troll 530 pushing a VW Touran 2L TDi Match . FORUM ADMINISTRATOR
Scroll up


Visitors
0 Members and 24 Guests are online.

Board Statistics
The forum has 12764 topics and 107221 posts.



disconnected Forum-Chat Members online 0