Topic: Sunshine/heat warping? cabin door frame/door (Read 2906 times) previous topic - next topic

I am parked with direct sunlight hitting the entire galley door on the right side of the Unity, mind this is in northern NH.  After opening the door it wouldn't close and the bolts appeared to be off by ~1./4 inch with the door below the frame latch.  The door and side of the Unity was too hot to touch comfortably.  I put up the awning and shaded 1/2 the door and within minutes the door would close again.  A neighboring Unity owner in the same sunlight and orientation has not experienced this, but his RV is a light cream while mine is grey.  I am curious if anyone has found that sunlight/heat can temporally warp the door or frame, happily with cooling it returned to normal.

Same problem with my Wonder entry door.  2019, beige & black.

I am still waiting for my Wonder so I am not familiar with the jacks but my question is were your jacks deployed.  I find that with my current SuperC it is easy to twist the frame if the jacks are not deployed correctly and this will cause the entry door to bind.  If this is the case adjust the leg pressure to fix the problem.  I find sometimes having my wife check the entry door while I am tweaking the jacks makes this task easier.

Are you referring to levelers or jacks? OP didn't state year or model, but I don't think newer LTVs are fitted with jacks. And levelers shouldn't have this issue if the "auto" function is used.
I've found that my door latch needed tweaking but it was more a seasonal thing that started when it got warmer in the summer. I just got a screw-driver and loosened the lock some. That allowed me to slightly re-position the door lock. Then retightened the screws.  I think there was also a way to adjust the jam at the door frame. It was a couple years ago and I haven't had a problem since.

The temporary misfit caused by presumably heat warping seems unrelated to jacks (I only have stabilizers and they position remained unchanged).  It resolved when the temperature of the door and frame changed it appears.  I wonder if it is a phenomena more common in darker models not just in Tempe AZ but even in northern NE.

We have a 2023 unity and had the same problem but when we were in temperatures that were in the low 40s. The door was very difficult to close when it was that cold. We had to hold the latch open and then gently push it in. Once it warmed up later in the day, the door opened and closed ok. It was really annoying. We also had that the whole door's bow would get more pronounced in warmer temperatures making the latch hard to open. Our exterior is silver and grey.

I did notice that the metal pin that holds the door latch can slip down and not be secure (sticking out the bottom of the latch).  That may be a contributing factor???  I pushed it back so it was visible from the top of the latch and the door seems much happier.  Will have to wait till summer to find out.

We have a silver 2023 Unity and we have the same problem when it is cold or the sun is shining on the door and it is hot. It has never gotten to the point where we can not get the door open or closed but it has been really close to not being willing to do either multiple times.

I have a 2019 Wonder, same problem if door is facing the hot sun.
Sounds like a defective engineering.

I noticed that once it happened again by opening the door so the sun wasn't shining directly on the exterior it would "warp" back and close.  However, I had already changed 2 hinges to friction hinges to keep the galley door from slamming open and often breaking the gas strut spring.  Otherwise the strut might need to be uncoupled to open the door wide enough.

I talked to the techs at Triple E about this problem and the person I spoke to suggested that I adjust the plate on the coach door jamb a small amount. With the adjustment of the door jamb, we have not had the problem any more. To add more clarity, we have the grey/silver exterior and a 2023 model Unity TB. What I did was to loosen the screws on the plate on the fixed opening of the door that the door latch and bolt mate with. I then made adjustments vertically and horizontally to make the plate match up better with the door latch and bolt. Then I tightened things up. It took me two rounds of adjusting it to get what I wanted but it works great now and has not hung up so far. Over the next couple months, we will be in higher heat areas so, fingers crossed.

Try giving the door side latch a couple hits with a hammer to bend it back a little so the door latch does not hit it with the flat parts of the latch as compared to the angle on it. This seemed to fix mine.

Curious to see this thread's lifespan.  I have the initial question and indeed adjusted the door plate because it was obviously not aligned, but still find the "warping" when the door is in direct sunlight and difficulty closing the door (albeit better than before the adjustment).  That is when I found getting the door out of direct sun for a short while (either opening the door wide enough to let the sun hit the interior or using the awning to shade the door) usually resolves the issue.  I suppose turning the whole RV around would work, but haven't had to get to that level yet.