Door Catches

[canesfan]

My coach came with struts to hold the doors open at a 90 degree angle, like class As. Nice idea, not. First of all, if the wind was blowing more than 5 mph, it would blow the door closed, or the door would bounce back and forth. Second of all, I preferred to have the doors open all the way. I talked to the dealer about it when I was there for some other stuff and this is what we came up with. For those of you who might want to do this, we learned one thing. Unlike the plastic catches which flip down into the holder, the metal ones with the spring need to flip up into the holder. Also, for those with toyhaulers, don't be tempted to measure the front door and go off of that for the back door. The back door is lower than the front and the latch will not be in exactly the same spot on the door. You really need two people to hold things together and figure where it needs to mount. They did a really nice job and I'm very happy with the outcome.

[JRTJH]

Be careful with the metal door latches. They are stronger than the plastic type, and for that reason, don't seem to break as easily. That's a "good thing" in "normal operation"... The problem comes when the latch is "stronger than the door mounting and someone pulls on the door enough to cause damage. With the plastic latches, the latch would either separate from the holder or break. With the metal latches, often the door mount will pull out of the door causing "irreparable damage"....

As long as you're careful and there are no "rambunctious kids" playing around the door, you'll be fine, but the first time someone pulls on the door in a thunderstorm while trying to get it closed without getting wet.... Well, you get the picture.....

[canesfan]

Thanks for the heads up. We talked about the metal latches versus plastic. I'd say 80% of the time it's just me and I know not to pull on anything too hard on these things. :) My two "kids", when they can find time to join me, know the same. No little ones to worry about. So I decided on the metal. The plastic ones looked cheap and after what I just had spent I didn't want cheap looking. I still have the struts if I find an occasion I might be worried about and they only take a moment to snap back on. But you make a very good point for others considering this.

[hankaye]

canesfan, Howdy;

Nice looking set-up. I have some of the metal ones on an enclosed cargo
trailer but they don't have the spring assist. so they hang down. From the
looks of yours they could be pointed either up or down or even side ways
if you wanted them to. I like seeing that they applied some Butyl tape under
them to keep moisture from migrating in.

hankaye

[canesfan]

Hankaye,

Thanks. We tried them pointing down, like you would think at first, and they wouldn't stay. Any little movement and they would spring out of the catch. Since the holes were now already there we had to come up with plan B. Flipping everything over worked just fine. Never had one pop out of the catch even with some good winds. Sideways would probably work too, you just need to make sure which sideways way to go. Although sideways with wind might pop them out of the catch.

This place does nice work. They did the butyl tape and I think silicon or something similar in the holes. Gave me extra butyl because at first I was thinking of painting them black, which would involve taking them off, but after looking at them decided they looked fine as is.