Quote:
Originally Posted by Butchy
After the 3rd time mine failed I redesigned the top bolt slide. The problem with the Montana design is that the entire weight of the door in held by the threads in the bold and slide mechanism. Not bad until you consider that every time you open/close the door the bolt thread have to turn 1/4 turn. After a few hundred of these door closings the threads fail.
I drilled out the threads in the slide, installed a low clearance bolt through the slide from the top down and installed a nylon lock nut to hold it to the bracket on top of the door. There are a few complications with this mod: the locking nut needed extra clearance so I had to drill a relief hole in the top of the door and add spacers (washers) to the bracket on top of the door. I will follow up with pics if I can find them...
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I had a similar issue with my 3731FL. Bolt at the top kept coming loose and the door would slip down and bind on the lower pivot. Finally pulled the door out planning to install regular hinges and after inspecting the mechanism discovered the T-nut at the top had partially stripped threads. I got a thin locking nut and reinstalled the door tightening all the looseness of the mechanism. All seems to be solid and working good now. We'll see if it lasts. If not standard swing hinges will replace the pivot. We do like the way the pivot gives us more room to maneuver in the hall and we can use the bathroom on the road with all the slides closed. The idea is great, just the hardware came up a bit short on quality. Not what I would expect from a "Luxury" class RV. I should note it's possible the hardware is fine and it was just a poor installation since there have been several other parts of the hardware that I've had to tighten in the past.