Door hard to close ..help

[ViperOne]

2022 Tiburon FB. Our house door is extremely hard to get to latch tightly. I think it has some sort of two part latching system. I can close the door and the first part seems fine but doesn’t latch the door tightly. If I slam it it locks in tightly. I don’t think I should have to slam the door to get it to lock in place. Anyone else have this issue ? How did you fix yours? I don’t see any Alignment issue? No abnormal wearing on hinges. I can take my finger and operate the latch mechanism into both locking positions easily. Any advice would be helpful.

[Geterdun]

Originally Posted by ViperOne

2022 Tiburon FB. Our house door is extremely hard to get to latch tightly. I think it has some sort of two part latching system. I can close the door and the first part seems fine but doesn’t latch the door tightly. If I slam it it locks in tightly. I don’t think I should have to slam the door to get it to lock in place. Anyone else have this issue ? How did you fix yours? I don’t see any Alignment issue? No abnormal wearing on hinges. I can take my finger and operate the latch mechanism into both locking positions easily. Any advice would be helpful.

Looks like a standard RV door and latch.
Instead of slamming the door, when it's on the "outer latch" can you just lean in and push hard on the door to fully latch it?

Maybe it's just stiff weatherstripping?

[GTM41261]

Try spraying the latch with some graphite or lithium grease. I do this with ours when it gets to having to slam it. It works well for a few weeks then will need another shot.

[MikeCh]

If you have a single post coming out of the door jamb, that is adjustable. You can loosen and move that post up-down, in and out. It took me multiple tries but I finally got the door to close and lock easily on level ground.

[chunker21]

With a typical RV for latch, slamming is an almost guaranteed way to break it. The use of cheap pot metals don't last with slamming. Find a way to adjusting lube it.

[Gemini Cruiser]

Yes the latch on door jam just needs to be adjusted up/down or in/out.

When I picked mine up at dealer they were slamming as hard they could to get it to shut and told me that was normal.

After adjusting it it works perfect now.

But it does move over time and needs minor adjustments from time to time.

[Oilcop]

We have. '21 Delano with same problem. We've learned to deadlock the door anytime on the road

[chunker21]

Here's another "twist' to the door latch dilemma. Chassis and framing twisting. Your house, unless it on an earthquake fault line, sits on a stable surface. Your RV sits constantly on that fault line. RV chassis and framing is notoriously flimsy and bends, twists, tweaks while driving and setting up. Leveling: Unless the RV is consistently and accurately leveled, the RV chassis will twist and bend and with it all the open parts. Those open parts, door frame, slide openings, will easily get out of square where as the door itself stays in the same shape. Latches bind up and don't work smoothly.

Makes no difference it the RV is a DP on a Freightliner chassis, or a budget travel trailer on a Lippert frame, it twists and must be leveled accurately and properly supported in order for the attached pieces to function properly.

RV door latching systems are still typically made with weak and cheap materials, but trying to force the cheap latches to conform to twisted opening makes things balky and break.

[LarryD]

the striker isn't aligned properly.

this part:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Loosen it and then move it until the door lock no longer closes then back it out/away slightly.

I also wrap mine with a couple layers of black electrical tape. Keeps it tight and rattle free until it wears away.

[Mexican]

I have the same problem with the Door latch ever since we bought it new. Already went through one latch from pulling it from inside and broke handle off. Dealer replaced it with same latch and it has same problem--the service techs call it the Slamma Latch. There is no amount of adjusting that works--I've adjusted it and the dealer techs have as well. Sometimes it will work, but most of the time it doesn't until you really slam from outside, then you can lock from inside, but even then the dead bolt hardly ever works. This is poor excuse for a door latch and Thor should come up with a solution. Handle will break off on the inside from pull slamming it to get it to latch. Guaranteed to happen!!

[rtaggio]

I've aligned the striker on mine to where it works great, only to have it be out at the next campsite. FWIW ours is a non-leveler model.

Being hard headed I adjusted that striker easily 50-60 times before I caved, now I just give it a little "shoulder" to latch it before we drive and just use the single latch the rest of the time.

[EA37TS]

As Chunker21 stated leveling is the key. If my rig is level the door operates just fine. If it is out of level such as when it’s in the driveway being loaded or unloaded the door doesn’t operate as smoothly as when level.

Nature of the beast with RVs.

[Kemp_H]

When I picked up our new 2022 Chateau “C” it sounded like the door was not latched. I checked, and it was closed, but loose. It roared like an open door all the way home (100-miles). The next day I started investigating. The door would close, but the two latches would not both latch unless I put my shoulder against the door while turning the latch key. The Chateau has a single-pin latch mounted on the door frame which restricts the movement of the door as it closes. It can be loosened with a large Allen wrench. This pin turned out to be the culprit. It was installed too close to the outer edge of the door frame. I loosened it and adjusted the location ten or twelve times before finally getting the door to close easily, latch properly and maintain the weather seal. Several of my friends have had the same problem, and we have resolved their door-closing issues using the same strategy. It is my experience that once the pin is in the correct position everything else works as it is supposed to work.