Entry door seam

[RomanyLife]

If I hitch up my trailer to the truck and get the jacks off the ground and the door works... and I think it's going to, because it usually does when the trailer is being towed, now that I think about it... WHAT THEN? That would absolutely be frame flex, and would explain the noise the trailer makes when the jacks take the weight of it - not a "happy" sound in my opinion. :-(

[hoosierguy]

Originally Posted by GCAKIA

That is my understanding of what the guy did.

I'm not condoning this or suggesting it as a long term solution. I'm just sharing the solution one other Redwood owner says has fixed his door jam problem; along with 4 additional Redwood owners.

If this is in fact true, then what is occurring is that the undercarriage is being flexed in such a manner as to cause the side wall to flex and make the door opening become more squared up relative to the door. This may relieve the dragging pressures on the door, but, it can't be a good condition for the trailer structure. Redwood's engineers need to re-think how their assembly process is being done in a manner that is causing door structure/opening to become out of square relative to the door.

[atom ant]

Originally Posted by RomanyLife

If I hitch up my trailer to the truck and get the jacks off the ground and the door works... and I think it's going to, because it usually does when the trailer is being towed, now that I think about it... WHAT THEN? That would absolutely be frame flex, and would explain the noise the trailer makes when the jacks take the weight of it - not a "happy" sound in my opinion. :-(

No no- be careful with the term "frame flex". That is a nasty term in RV space and can ruin a reputation if used liberally. All frames flex. A frame flex issue is something that can be very destructive. Montana had a frame flex issue with the early 2003 frames that broke welds, pin boxes collapsed, wall crushed, closet doors compressed as the floor pushed up into the bedroom - awful stuff.

[Blue Dogs]

I sincerely think this is getting blown wayyyyy out of proportion because one guy "said" he had fixed 4 others this way .... I need proof. Also if they level it with a 2" block then once it's gone the frame would flex back and the door would no longer work. On top of that if you had 2" of flex you would see cabinets breaking free, welds broken, screws popping out ... Once again, I'm not drinking the cool aid. These trailers need to flex or they would litteraly fall apart. Look at the gap between your bed on your pickup and cab as you drive, it's constantly moving and flexing .... My door used to hang up on my Tiffin MH, guess it was caused from frame flex ... NOT, it was not installed correctly.

[RomanyLife]

Originally Posted by Blue Dogs

I sincerely think this is getting blown wayyyyy out of proportion because one guy "said" he had fixed 4 others this way .... I need proof. Also if they level it with a 2" block then once it's gone the frame would flex back and the door would no longer work. On top of that if you had 2" of flex you would see cabinets breaking free, welds broken, screws popping out ... Once again, I'm not drinking the cool aid. These trailers need to flex or they would litteraly fall apart. Look at the gap between your bed on your pickup and cab as you drive, it's constantly moving and flexing .... My door used to hang up on my Tiffin MH, guess it was caused from frame flex ... NOT, it was not installed correctly.

That makes sense Yale. I guess they just need to design a door that can tolerate some normal flex...and ask that it be installed correctly. Mine is not.

[atom ant]

agreed Yale.

Talk about flexing the frame - Our local state park has concrete pads with a severe grade for runoff, the Maryott always has 2 wheels dangling in the air when its level (requires pads under the jacks on the downhill side or they overstroke).

When I'm ready to go home - I raise the rear jacks and the trailer lunges to the downhill side, while the front jacks never move - they are aligned to where they started when I disconnected. That is a tremendous flex on the frame, yet never any sign of trouble including slides or the door. There is something wrong with the new doors.

PS - dangling your wheels also rips apart your spring straps - at least on the 8K spring packs.

[RomanyLife]

OMG that would have hospitalized me!! I still think it might be possible that the doors were being installed before the trailer was level. Maybe they just changed the order in which they did things or something. If the door was installed when the trailer was not level and then the trailer was made level after the installation of the door that might cause it to become out of square. I'm still going to see what I can find out by using my Jacks.

[Shane Wood]

Yale
You are correct. This is a door issue where the manufactor has a problem with the laminate from the gel coat to the door frame or in some cases the door may have not been installed properly. As stated earlier your doors would not open when you stop at a rest stop or anywhere else without the jacks down to level. All trailer frames are designed to flex or they would all be breaking where they are welded together. Of you have a problem with the door have redwood look at it. This has been a problem since I purchased mine a year ago. Mine has been pulled 140 miles and parked for a year. It has not been hauled 10000 where if there were frame problems they would show up.
I have had the same issue being stationary. Remember the sky is not always falling let's not blow this out of proportion with a lack of knowledge

[Char & Steve]

My opinion on the door issue is it's a 50/50 split between the manufacturer and installer. I talked with many at the Rally and the majority have door issues. I did talk with Andy at my rig looking at the doors and agreed they would replace them. I wanted him to tell me, and he did, that if I worked on them that it wouldn't void warranty. He said it would not.
After looking them over when I got back very well they just are not built well and there is no possible way that clearances between door and frame are correct when the installer gets them. Installer has no way to adjust this except by bending parts that are not meant to be bent. You can adjust a bit with a better screw on hinge side but only a 1/16" max. This is why most of the deadbolts don't work until we enlarge the hole. This brings us to the wall itself. Installer gets the door ready for pre-cut wall and slaps the door in since they are on limited time and actually the door cut out needs to be larger for more door adjustment but this never gets corrected. I don't think leveling unless you are extremely out of level will change much on these doors.
My doors top frame/gutter piece were bent up on both the sides to hopefully correct the binding since they actually rub a lot. Rear door even had two bent edges were it must have been hit on the two bottom edges. All this was before it went to paint since it was painted right over so QC didn't do the job well before paint.
I really didn't want to go through the hassle of door replacement and painting so I reshaped them with a body grinder. Buffed the edge smooth and touched up the paint. Enlarged the deadbolt holes and two new Bauer touch pads and work very good but not great. I can see this door issue may become a very large issue for RW in the future. A perfect door close is a sign of quality and RW is lacking here.
We still love our RW!!!!

Steve

[GTXRAS]

Our door acts different each time I level but always hangs. Sometimes worse than others. Also works ok when hooked up. I am not going to level and then jack a corner up. I think I would then be posting in the cracked body thread. I did work on the upper left corner and got it better. But now the door frame has a couple wrinkles in it.

The RW techs at the rally said the door frame was installed wrong in ours. And agreed that they both need to be replaced. I would think that is the cause of most door issues.

Rick

[Dave&Ginny]

I personally don't think its the frame because my 36RL didn't have any issues and the frames haven't changed. I believe it was at the "13" rally that they started talking about different doors and they showed a new Redwood with a door that had a built in spring so the door wouldn't hit the side of the trailer. I told them at the time that a simple rubber pad glued to the side was a whole lot easier to prevent damage.

I think somewhere along the line in their attempt to fix one problem they caused a bigger one.

[Ford truck guy]

My door works perfectly EXCEPT when the screen door clear plastic cover is in the closed position , then the door seems to bind a bit.. I had to adjust the little plastic clip that holds the screen door to the regular door as it was NOT releasing the handle enough to open and giving me the feeling of binding..
As of now , ALL works good with no binding ( IF the screen door cover is open )


And as far as the FLEXING goes... I agree with Yale , being in the steel industry , there is some frame flex that will happen , if not it would all fall apart from running down the road stiff as a board ( or steel beam ) .. BUT frame flex is nothing more than FLEX.. that's it... not a 2" block under the frame..

[atom ant]

Redwood should go back to the old door vendor. Ours is a nice door, nothing close to the problems owners are experiencing now.

[RomanyLife]

Char & Steve, EXCELLENT description and makes sense.
I am going to have them check my door too. It always grinds and is a source of great frustration for us. We hate DOOR SLAMMING and that can't be good for long-term use... So we really pull HARD on the latch to get it closed, and that can't be good for that latch either over time. Thanks again for the description.

[ChristianM]

Hey Guys!

Know that this one is a current "hot topic" on our end....and we're getting it figured out. No new word yet, but know that the GM and production guys are aware that it is a fairly common issue, and that we need to figure out how to solve it. When I know something new, you will be the first ones to know!

[Elliott & Vicky]

ChristianM, I hope that they will help those who have had their 2 year warranty run out.

[RWJSIM2003]

Well today I had the dreaded door separation appear on our RW. I can see where the Door has come apart and the seam is now broken. Contacted the dealer and sent the pictures so we can get the ball rolling on a replacement door. What a PITA seems like they could have made a better design. For now we will have to be careful with the door until it can be fixed

[atom ant]

Originally Posted by RWJSIM2003

Well today I had the dreaded door separation appear on our RW. I can see where the Door has come apart and the seam is now broken. Contacted the dealer and sent the pictures so we can get the ball rolling on a replacement door. What a PITA seems like they could have made a better design. For now we will have to be careful with the door until it can be fixed

Oh man, you didn't need that on top of everything else

[RWJSIM2003]

Sent the pictures and video to the dealer yesterday. I know that they have had this on other RW's but dealer acted like it was a surprise. I could not help but Laugh at the Service Manager.

[ChristianM]

Yikes!! Sorry to hear that, for sure!

It sounds like your dealer is getting the ball rolling on your repairs, but if y'all run into any issues, let me know! I always respond to private messages and am happy to check into anything I can on our end