As you may know we full time in a 20+ year old Bounder RV and door hinges seem to be an issue with this model. Apparently the manufacturer door hinges were made of aluminum, and after time the aluminum “rolls” causing the door to be misaligned and thus causing issues with opening the door (dragging at the bottom) as well as closing the door (getting a good seal to keep the heat/cool inside and actually getting the door to shut completely means having to slam the door several times which will probably annoy your neighbors).
Over the winter we did a temporary fix by adding some washers to lift the door back into the correct position to account for the aluminum “rolling” and causing space on the hinge which in turn causes the misalignment.
As you can see in the photo at the bottom of this hinge joint the aluminum has rolled and we added the washers to try and compensate for the gap created. This worked well enough to get us thru the winter as a temporary fix. But all three hinges need replaced due to the wear and it is not an inexpensive DIY! It’s not a hard DIY repair, but cost is OH MY GOODNESS! Also you need a cool day because you will be working with the door open, so spring is a good time for this repair! Below are some other photos of the repair (before and after) but basically replacing these three hinges as a DIY project costs about $500! I can’t imagine what a repair shop would cost because that $500 is just the price for 3 hinges including shipping! Who knew hinges would be so expensive!?!?! But the new ones are steel so we shouldn’t have to replace them again, that’s the good news!
As you can tell by looking at the new hinge after it was installed and comparing it with the old hinge… there should be no gap! It should be a snug but easily movable space, but totally not a 1/4 “ gap! Adding the washers helped for a while but the gap kept getting worse… so replacement of the hinge was necessary.
So if you find your door dragging, catching, not closing properly, catching when opening etc… check those hinges! I have no idea if it affects other models and brands of campers and RV coaches but it did take us quite a while to figure out the issue (online forums for your brand/model of RV will help figure out recurrent problems and that’s where we started thus finding information on the temporary fix using washers and the permanent fix of replacing the hinges being required). While we are working on the door hinges, we will be doing some other DIY changes (not repairs per sey) but those will be separate blogs. So stay tuned!
As a side note this is a two person job! One to fix the door and the other to ensure Conestoga Chuck, his sister Lil Bit, and the ever sneaky Miss Kitty don’t escape the RV while hubby replaces the hinges lol… momma’s job is to sit and guard the door from potentially escaping critters! (And occasionally handing hubby tools, screws etc)… so don’t forget about ensuring the household Kings and Queens are safe while the butler, cook, footman, and maid makes the needed repairs to the door. Did I say it was a two person job? That’s 4 people… hmmmm 🤪 I think the staff might be pulling double duty! Might be time to ask for a raise!
Conestoga Chuck 