Outside Door appears out of square

[luggage]

I am new to forum. I have a 2002 Mountaineer 289rls and love it. I just noticed that the door is not closing snug at the bottom left. I guess the "out of square" appearance begins along the lower part of the outer edge in the lower quadrant (maybe 12"). It is not enough to where I can see daylight but it clearly is not seating snug as it is at the outside top of the door frame. I talked to my guy that works on my unit and he said some of the doors have a slot at the bottom of the door to "true" to door. I see the hole/slot but could not see up inside it. Anyone have any experience with this. I will try later with a flashlight to see if there is an adjustment screw. Thanks

[JRTJH]

Luggage,

to the forum. Here's hoping you find lots of information to help you maintain your Montana. Here's "also hoping" that you leave some of your experiences with maintenance on your rig to benefit others who might be facing challenges similar to the ones you've managed to "outsmart"

We look forward to hearing from you often

Now, as for your door. Yes there is a 3/8 or 5/16 nut inside that little hole. If you remember back to Grandma's screen door, the one with the diagonal wire with the turnbuckle in the middle, the one that was used to square the door, well there's something like that inside the door on your RV. Chances are, that after 10+ years, the nut is rusted onto the threaded section and you'll break the threads if you're not careful. A little squirt of thread lubricant or a similar penetrating oil a day ahead of when you plan to work on it might help, but be careful with twisting too hard or you may wind up damaging the door. As for being out of square, that adjustment doesn't just "happen to fail" this far out from installation of the door, so my guess would be that you've got a tension rod that's either rusted in half or has broken at the top or bottom attachment. This would allow your door to droop out of square.

You might try adjusting the door, but if it won't adjust, you may, when the weather gets warmer, take it off the hinges, disassemble it by removing the multiple screws around the perimeter, pulling the inside panel and taking a look at what's broken or rusted that's allowing your door to sag. I had a similar problem on a pop-up truck camper and had to completely rebuild the door. It wasn't difficult, just time consuming.

Good luck.

[FullTimer]

You might check for frozen condensation in that corner,forcing the door out of square. The condensation gathers from the door sweating downwards and when it hits the super cooled aluminium frame, it freezes. Leave one of the roof vents open very slightly, to help carry super saturated heated air out, to keep the windows and doors from sweating so badly. Good luck, I heard it's pretty bad up there.

[luggage]

Thanks for the input. I will certainly look into the points made. Great to know that there are folks willing to help other folks.

[luggage]

I looked at the bottom of the door and see the two rectangular holes on the inside and outside of the door, however just inside the holes, recessed in there appears to be a plate or a flat spring (can't really tell) but can not see nut or screw or anything to adjust. Also checked bottom of door for ice formation or blockage and none there. I sprayed wd40 in holes but am at a loss what to do next short of taking it to the dealer which I like to avoid. I could try to open up the door by removing the screws that hold the inner panel but I afraid of making situation worse.

[JRTJH]

Before you "take" it to the dealer, call and talk with the service manager. Many shops will not even try to adjust a door on an older RV. They simply say it's not repairable and order a replacement. If that's the situation, then you might as well take it apart, see if you can fix it (it's really not that hard to disassemble it) and, if you can't you can always buy the door online or through your dealer. If you reinstall the door you'll save significant "bucks" over what the dealer will charge you to install it. Plus, he'll want to bill you for taking it out, "troubleshooting it" and then installing the replacement....

Dealerships, ain't they grand ???

Talk to the service manager, see if they will even attempt a repair. Chances are, that conversation will decide what you do from here.

Good Luck.