water heater cover door blew off

[432bartman]

I double checked all my exterior doors, compartments, and also the water heater cover before hitting the road. Arrived in San Diego 2 hours later only to find my water heater door missing. Another guy with a 5th wheel had the same thing happen too. I already ordered another one and it should be in tomorrow at Giant RV in Montclair. What have others done to secure that better? Should I put a lock through it?

[FloridaFiver]

I don’t know what the common solution may be, but I am going to put some clear shipping tape on mine while it’s going down the road


Thanks for this post

[Texan]

Put you a cotter pin through the latch and this will keep the door on. After you twist the latch up against the door use a small cotter pin and slip it sideways through the latch . The pin will be up against the door where the latch is. I lost one of these years ago myself.

[432bartman]

Originally Posted by Texan

Put you a cotter pin through the latch and this will keep the door on. After you twist the latch up against the door use a small cotter pin and slip it sideways through the latch . The pin will be up against the door where the latch is. I lost one of these years ago myself.

Thank you so much......that is exactly what i will do

[Texan]

Thank you very much for your service to your country and your community.

[rohrmann]

We have well over 65,000 miles on our rig, and have never given the loss of the water heater door a thought. It is still the original door, even though the water heater was replaced. I don’t think these doors come off by themselves very often, or we would be seeing them scattered along the road everywhere.

[Charlie 3931fb]

Originally Posted by 432bartman

I double checked all my exterior doors, compartments, and also the water heater cover before hitting the road. Arrived in San Diego 2 hours later only to find my water heater door missing. Another guy with a 5th wheel had the same thing happen too. I already ordered another one and it should be in tomorrow at Giant RV in Montclair. What have others done to secure that better? Should I put a lock through it?

Do you remember the gas station on interstate 40 in Ludlow Ca. He has a collection of water heater door's and anything else that fell off of a trailer or motor home.

[432bartman]

Originally Posted by rohrmann

We have well over 65,000 miles on our rig, and have never given the loss of the water heater door a thought. It is still the original door, even though the water heater was replaced. I don’t think these doors come off by themselves very often, or we would be seeing them scattered along the road everywhere.

Yeah, I was at a loss for words when I discovered it missing. I too have many years and miles with a former 5th. wheel we owned and never encountered this. Giant RV got me a replacement within 2 days. The new door actually comes with the entire exterior piece that it goes into. The cost was like $70.00.

[Edd]

Ed Patton here, On our 2nd outing we got to our destination and found our hot water also missing. We went to the local RV parts store and they had SEVERAL in stock and he it is more common than you would think.

[Dave W]

In possibly well over 100K miles with several RVs have never lost a HW door. But with that said, close with the current one as one side of the so-called hinge came apart, losing that metal hook. Luckily, I saw the door flopping in the breeze. Our HW heater is an Atwood and those hinges on the door are only held in place with a bent metal tab, which on ours wasn't. The new one is now and backed with a dab of silicone.

[TN road dog]

I’m a month behind, however, to help prevent loosing my HW door I installed a spring inside the compartment. One end of the spring connected to the door, the other connects to a stationary point inside the heater compartment. It’s tight enough and strong enough to keep the door in place in the event the latch fails. The spring stretches enough to allow you to reach inside to unhook the spring from the door to fully remove the door for service.