# Hab door diificult to close (soemtimes).



## deefordog (Dec 31, 2013)

2008 Kontiki with one of those lovely Hartal hab doors lol.

When we're at home, the MH sits on flat ground side to side but has to be parked nose down the drive slightly. Hab door closes as best it can given it's a Hartal, importantly the door lock pins go into the receivers on the frame without catching on each other.

Every time we're away and have to use levelling blocks or boards under both front wheels, the door pins always end up catching or rubbing on the receivers, it's as if the chassis or body has twisted ever so slightly. Have to stress that this only ever happens when the front's up in the air on blocks. Pointing up hill without blocks, the hab door shuts OK as it does at home nose down and nothing catches on each other.

Is this something we should just accept or is there a more inherent underlying problem that needs to be investigated?


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

Probably just the body twisting if not parked on flat ground. Annoying but not much you can do about it.


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## listerdiesel (Aug 3, 2012)

We have a 120mm X 80mm box section chassis frame under the trailer, but due to a slight unevenness at the road end of the front garden, we have to pack up the offside front wheel by 2", otherwise after a few weeks we find that the body and chassis have slowly twisted enough to cause the door to start to jam at the lock.

Sounds like a similar problem you have, just quicker in coming to light.

Peter


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## RichardD (Sep 14, 2009)

Are your door pins like this? 

If so then I took about 2 days fiddling with different adjustments until I got something that worked reasonably well and allowed the central locking to work.

I had to file the profile of the striking plate in a couple of areas to allow the pins to slide up to the closed position.

It took ages and when I originally started I made it a lot worse until I understood the action of the lock.

Richard


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## Zebedee (Oct 3, 2007)

> deefordog said:- Have to stress that this only ever happens when the front's up in the air on blocks. Pointing up hill without blocks, the hab door shuts OK


This is a bit puzzling. Assuming the blocks are placed so they don't cause the chassis to twist, I can't see what difference they make. The van is simply pointing uphill either way?? 8O

That aside, the secret with ours is knowing where to shove it closed. With a hand at or near the door lock it needs a mighty slam to close properly. Raise the hand to about two thirds up the door, and it closes much easier. Still not good, especially at night when you don't want to wake all the inhabitants of a small village, but better! 8O

As for the catches "catching", Richard is not the only one who had to firtle for ages with a file! As doors go, if it had legs it *might *make a half decent picnic table!!!

Dave :roll:


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## deefordog (Dec 31, 2013)

Thanks guys, especially to RichardD.  

At least we know now that i) others have the same issue and ii) the door catches can be tweaked to accommodate. I've already spent a few hours fiddling with the door hinges, door locks and frame retainers to get the hab door to be something near what it should be. It's annoying that when I get it roughly right (not rightly wrong) at home, it all goes out the window with the front end on blocks :? 

Yes, our Hartal locks are the same as Richard's ones on his Rapido. I'm going to try more drastic action as per Richard's photos and see how much things improve. Of the two "pins", does anyone know what purpose the straight one serves (not the one that swivels to lock the door)? Is it just a guide for the door pin into the frame receiver?


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

Yes you can tweak to accommodate but you may have to do it every time you park on uneven ground.


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## RichardD (Sep 14, 2009)

The fixed pin is purely for alignment. In the end I had to remove the centre fixing of the three fixings on the door plate to allow it to move enough to get a good fit. You can see this easily on the attached picture. Sorry for the pic being rotated, but I don't know how to stop this happening.

I also took the door trim off to see how it worked and could then easily see what alignment was necessary. The moveable pin must slide right up around the slope of the locking plate to allow the central locking to work. I smoothed mine out with a few wipes with a file. Also took the opportunity to grease all the various pivots, springs and pins in the lock to ensure everything moved easily.

Richard


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## deefordog (Dec 31, 2013)

Many thanks Richard, brilliant photos and will certainly help me out.

Can you also explain how the central locking works in relation to the door locking mechanism? I'm intrigued now  .


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## deefordog (Dec 31, 2013)

Sorry Richard, another favour...................

Have you got a photo showing your door hinges, both on the hab door side and the frame side?

Many thanks.

Paul


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## RichardD (Sep 14, 2009)

Hi Paul, difficult to explain the central locking mechanism. The pics show a solenoid which when activated prevents the door handle from being opened and at the same time rods go out to the top and bottom locking plates and prevent the hinged pins from rotating back to their unlocked position.

I don't have any pics of the hinges but will take some later today.

Richard


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## RichardD (Sep 14, 2009)

Hi Paul, pics of door hinges.


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## deefordog (Dec 31, 2013)

Thanks Richard. This is where ours starts to differ from yours. Yes, the doors and their mechanisms are the same but not the hinges as ours are 3 sets of 5 leaf type. 

Reason for asking about the hinges is that I believe ours have seen better days and have possibly been subject to undue stress or tension when the door had its original gas strut closer/hold open on it.

It would appear that our door doesn't close flat against the frame all the way round. It's much tighter on the rubber frame seal on the vertical hinge face of the door when compared to the lock side of the door. I do also believe our door may be slightly warped/delaminated and this, together with worn hinge pins, could be a contributory factor in our door not closing or sitting flush as it should.

I may well start with three new hinges from Johns Cross at £18 each and tweaking the lock retainers as you've described - at least it's cheaper than a new door at this stage.

Once again, many thanks for all the photos.

ps. I wonder why MH doors are more like aircraft type doors when compared to caravan doors? The door on our previous caravan always closed properly with a light push/pull and was air tight and water tight. So why the need for such a massive MH hab door?


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## RichardD (Sep 14, 2009)

One of the reasons I started to adjust my door was that the lock side of the door wasn't as flush as the hinge side. But whatever I did I could not get it to close any tighter. I think the rubber door seals need to be a tad softer as the door does not have enough weight and rigidity to compress the seal enough. You would end up having to slam the door so hard to get it to close.

Those gas struts can exert quite a bit of pressure on the door and in my view will probably distort the door over time. I think the later Swifts had a sliding retainer rather than this gas strut.


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## deefordog (Dec 31, 2013)

Our door gas strut was, we are told, removed a while ago but any damage to the door and hinges may have already been done and it's something we've inherited.

It's now a case of making the best of a bad job with minimal expense.


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