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Hold the door!

With our vintage of unit, the entry door limit linkage is not designed to keep the door stable in a wind gust so several have come up with some good solutions.  One of them was a strap at the top and while I thought that was a workable solution, I was never motivated to implement that on our coach.

While at the Winnebago Grand National Rally and looking over the 2015 RVs, I noticed Winnebago designers came up with a simple, workable and inexpensive solution for immobilizing doors on the smaller units and trailers - it's a simple aluminum rod bent down on both ends that fits into a padeye on the door and on the sidewall.  The ends are covered in black heat shrink tubing to protect the contact surfaces.

My Winnebago buddy came up with some part numbers for their aluminum door props and I bought the smallest version.  Sure, you could use steel rod (I have bunches of it in my shop) but it would have to be primed and painted not to mention my rod was 1,500 miles away  8).

Here's the Winnebago part numbers for three different lengths.  I needed the shortest length (12.7") but use the longest length possible to minimize stresses.


The marine padeye has an opening for 3/8" rope (sailors call that line) and the aluminum rod is 0.317" in diameter.  I wrapped several layers of electrical tape around the rod ends until I had a snug fit in the padeyes - I didn't want the rod working around in the padeye and the tape acts as a sort of shock absorber.

Be sure and use stainless steel fasteners and a stainless steel padeye.  Notice I installed the rod down low on the door, this way the screws are in the door frame, the other padeye is on fiberglass and it should be plenty strong.  I would have used a backer plate but I didn't bring a saw with me to cut a small piece of wood.

Pictures

Door prop

 

Door prop

 

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