hydralic arm on bay door

[dandt]

Just had one of our hydraulic arms that hold up the bay door sieze. Has anyone had this happen. Dave opened it and when he went to close it would not close and tore all the screws out of the brace that holds it to the door. Arm is in full wide open mode.

[richfaa]

Have not heard that one. Ours tore out just with normal opening and closing.

[Joe in Texas]

The bracket on the door came off on ours....
service department reinforced it
and 2 years later it is coming off again.....
To do project list.....
going to cement all the holes and start with new holes,

[rohrmann]

Did this to ours over a year ago, and they haven't budged, and we full time. Also, no glue, just what you see.

[WaltBennett]

Bob - Haven't seen anything quite like that since taking a tour of a WW1 battleship!

[woodtic]

That was funny.

Hope I never have to resort to that but I'm watching them for signs of failure.

[jcurtis934]

The real question here is the strut really seized? Trying to manually push an eighty pound strut closed is not easy. As others have said, it is more likely that you have just experienced what a lot of owners have already experienced...departure of the bracket from the door due to no internal structure in the door for the bracket. Use of 3M5200 behind the brackets, letting it set up, new larger screws will solve the issue. I am at the one year point since doing all of mine and I can see no change in the bracket. 3M5200 is a marine adhesive meant for mounting things that you don't want to move. John

[rohrmann]

I figured out why the brackets keep coming loose. First, the screws used were too small in diameter than the holes in the brackets. Second, the struts are pushing the bracket toward the hinge when the door is closed, and then away from the hinge when open, so this constant shift from open to closed is what tends to loosen the brackets. When I mounted the brackets to the long piece of aluminum and mounted it with properly sized sheet metal screws to the door, there is no movement, so no chance to get loose. Like I said, it is working.

[okierver]

nice job ill have to keep that in mind, nothing like a little .050 aluminum sheet metal would take care of nicely

[rohrmann]

Actually, .125" X 2" X 36" bar from Lowes. Cut 4 - 8" pieces. Used machine screws through strut brackets into threaded holes, and sheet metal screws into the door.

[Joe in Texas]

This was my "to do to fix" idea. But the keystone tech said at Goshen - since both brackets have come off and the holes are so big from the rivets - the door will be replaced"
Once my authorized service department see it and order it - I plan to go ahead and fix it in this manner. Knowing that it will be 3 to 6 months before keystone gets the part to the service department. Thanks

quote:Originally posted by rohrmann

Did this to ours over a year ago, and they haven't budged, and we full time. Also, no glue, just what you see.

[twindman]

I had a strut freeze up on the bed. Wouldn't budge. Once I replaced it, everything was fine. So they do freeze open sometimes.

[Joe in Texas]

Looking at your picture - the strut and bracket are reversed to what mine was originally installed. The strut mount ball point is pointed to the outside on all four of my struts.

quote:Originally posted by Joe in Texas

This was my "to do to fix" idea. But the keystone tech said at Goshen - since both brackets have come off and the holes are so big from the rivets - the door will be replaced"
Once my authorized service department see it and order it - I plan to go ahead and fix it in this manner. Knowing that it will be 3 to 6 months before keystone gets the part to the service department. Thanks

[rohrmann]

I would think having the ball facing out might cause the strut to contact the door frame, unless it was located in from the edge. The brackets are located exactly in the same location and how they were positioned prior to my making the plates and reinstalling the brackets with the plates. Although, the existing screw holes were not totally ripped out, none of the old holes were used to reattach the brackets. I used 1/4" X #10 round head machine screws into threaded holes in the aluminum plate, so the screws holding the brackets to the plates do not penetrate the surface of the door, and I used 1/2" X #10 sheet metal screws to attach the plate to the door. If they had used #10 screws to attach the brackets to the door originally, it is possible that the brackets would not have moved up and down as the door was opened and closed, which is why I think the screws were constantly being loosened.

[Joe in Texas]

Bob, Thanks for the details on the size of screws you used.
I plan to do the same.
Since the authorized dealer and Keystone indicates it may be 4 to 6 months to get a replacement door.