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Old 01-08-2019, 07:16 PM   #1
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Anyone using an entry door prop?

So Amazon populated my 'phone with an ad for an entry door prop #127647-02-01A. See picture





Interesting (and scary). We have pored over all our drawings and diagrams looking for a door brace. Seems like one would have been provided for, but have not previously seen such. Really needed when leaving the entry door open for ventilation during gusty breezes.

Anyone using this or anything like it? Have a picture of it in use? At first blush, looks kinda jerry-rigged and flimsy. But if it works......

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Old 01-08-2019, 07:24 PM   #2
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If it's made of steel it's the exact same one that came from the factory on our View with storage hooks on the inside of the screen door.

We just sold another brand motorhome which was factory-equipped with a gas shock mounted to the top of the door and it just wasn't as reliable.
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Old 01-09-2019, 06:37 AM   #3
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That rod is what mine came with.
There are small U-shaped brackets on the outside of the door and on the wall of the motorhome, it just drops into those brackets.
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Old 01-09-2019, 07:33 AM   #4
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We have one similar to this one, but with a longer standoff. The advantage is that it is always there and you can't misplace it. The prop is press fit into the bracket (on the left) and does not bang around when not in use.
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Old 01-09-2019, 09:19 AM   #5
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My previous RV had one just like TeamFoxy shows, it worked well.
That short style standoff won't work on my current one due to where the awning support arm is. The door must be held out to about 90 degrees to miss the awning arm.
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Old 01-09-2019, 06:54 PM   #6
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Thanks all! Good to see a picture of the device in use. Not sure I can make it work on our DP. Door location.

But I see that these rods come in a variety of lengths 12in to 19.5in. Have to look into this further.

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Old 01-12-2019, 09:32 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Oldchinahand View Post
Thanks all! Good to see a picture of the device in use. Not sure I can make it work on our DP. Door location.

But I see that these rods come in a variety of lengths 12in to 19.5in. Have to look into this further.

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Terry,
Since no one's told you, you already have a door-stay. It's built in to the strut that's in the middle of your door hinge. Well, let's put it this way. It's Winnebagos idea of a door stay anyways. That is, unless your Winne DP door design on your '07 is totally different than the one on our '04 Itasca Horizon DP. It's a poorly designed mechanism at best. When the door is opening, you should feel the detent at almost 90 degrees, fully opened. At that point, the detent is SUPPOSED to be strong enough to keep the door from moving around, at least in very mild breeze conditions. If and when the WIND actually picks up, that mechanism is useless.

It's the actual door stop, for keeping the door from traveling too far when opening. I've had mine apart several times to try and figure out a way to improve it. Nothing yet. I have been seriously thinking about installing a gas strut, above the top of the door and attaching it the same way many have done on Country coaches. Now that, is a real good stabilizer. But, Iv'e been advised by a gent who owns one of our RV service companies here in Lake Havasu, that that spot where I'm thinking of attaching it to the top of the door, is the weakest part of the door, since it's above the glass. Hmmm.

Still thinking about it.
Scott
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Old 01-12-2019, 10:04 PM   #8
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Our Minnie Winnie 27Q has a gas strut on the bottom of the entry door. Seems to work pretty well.
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Old 01-13-2019, 01:24 PM   #9
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Scott, we noticed the detent not long after we purchased our rig. Originally thought it to be mis-aligned door hinges. Rounded up a couple of other old front porch sitters and tried to adjust. That door is heavy. That's when we found a device midway between the lower and middle hinges which "pops" when door is about 90 degrees open. I think is the device you describe. And it is worthless. I have taken it out, apart, looked for wear, etc. The only thing I haven't done is dress it up and take to a movin' picture show.

Without removing the screen door, I can't see how a gas strut, or the brace that started this thread can be fit in - top, bottom or otherwise. And having a screen door is the whole point of this exercise. If you figure it out, please share.

Whoa! That's two negative paragraphs! Out of character!

Eagle, if the snow is not too deep up there, share a pic. I believe that there is not any piece of equipment out there so complicated it can't be jerry-rigged, or a some would say, "improved".

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Old 01-13-2019, 04:00 PM   #10
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I haven't mastered the photo sharing thing yet, but there is about a one inch gap between the step and the bottom of the door. A ball for the gas strut is mounted on the step within a few inches of the hinge side vertical door frame and the other ball end is on the bottom of the door several inches from the latch side. So far it has worked well!
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Old 01-14-2019, 04:07 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Oldchinahand View Post
Scott, we noticed the detent not long after we purchased our rig. Originally thought it to be mis-aligned door hinges. Rounded up a couple of other old front porch sitters and tried to adjust. That door is heavy. That's when we found a device midway between the lower and middle hinges which "pops" when door is about 90 degrees open. I think is the device you describe. And it is worthless. I have taken it out, apart, looked for wear, etc. The only thing I haven't done is dress it up and take to a movin' picture show.

Without removing the screen door, I can't see how a gas strut, or the brace that started this thread can be fit in - top, bottom or otherwise. And having a screen door is the whole point of this exercise. If you figure it out, please share.

Whoa! That's two negative paragraphs! Out of character!

Eagle, if the snow is not too deep up there, share a pic. I believe that there is not any piece of equipment out there so complicated it can't be jerry-rigged, or a some would say, "improved".

Fair Winds and Following Seas
Oldchinahand,
Yep, you found it. It's Winnes idea of a "door stay". As you know, it's a double ramped, double spring loaded "clamp" that rides up a ramp and down the other side. Many, many of them POP, including mine. I've lubed it a zillion times and it still pops. I've even come on here and other forums, RV, Jeep and Motorcycle, to find out the worlds best and toughest grease that I can use on those ramps to keep it from popping.

I created a sort of remedy for the over extension part. It doesn't help with the closing from wind but, it will help immensly in protection from over extension of the factory hinges. All it is is straps. I sewed three of them to act as limit straps. Since they are a webbing type strap, they are concealed inside the plastic door panel and only the ends are seen in the door jamb. I had just one on it and while it worked, as we all know, those doors ARE HEAVY! So, being that heavy, if the wind caught that door, it would stretch that single strap.

So, I took it all apart again and made THREE OF THEM. Now, I can park DOWN HILL and that door will only open to just-short of 90 degrees which, is just what I like.
Scott
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Old 01-14-2019, 11:50 PM   #12
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Had to visit Winnie today to change out a dead chassis battery, and while I was there I took a closer look at the entry door gas strut. Its pretty much as I previously described it with the following refinements: The ball mount on the step is 1 3/4" from the hinge side door frame. The ball mount at the bottom of the door is 9" from the far end of the door and on an "L" bracket screwed to the inside vertical surface of the door and the ball is 3/4" from the door surface. The gas strut is 20" long. I suspect this might be able to be retrofitted to other doors, but the biggest catch might be the necessity of having that 1" gap between the step and door bottom.
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Old 01-15-2019, 01:43 PM   #13
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Scott, really like the strap work around. Found some 2" strapping in my box-o-stuff. Soon as this drizzle stops, I intend to install three or so on our rig.

Eagle, drizzle didn't stop a trip across town to La Mesa to check out gas strut mounting. Any excuse to steal ideas I guess. On our rig, the screen door prevents that mounting solution. Might be able to outside mount two, top and bottom. Not sure if SWMBO will approve the esthetics.

A solution will present itself.

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Old 01-16-2019, 11:11 PM   #14
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Terry,
A gas strut is the answer. But, just EXACTLY where to install it, on a coach like ours, is the $64,000 dollar question. Personally, at this point, I cannot see trying to add one at the bottom of our doors. Because of the way it would need to be installed, all I see is us tripping over it. But, if we could possibly figure out a way to install it ON TOP of the door, that would be considerably better. However, it would have to go on the OUTSIDE of the coach, because, as you've already noted, there's a thing called a SCREEN DOOR in the way for anything like that to be installed inside.

So, this is primarily why I came up with the straps. Again, my remedy does not do anything for keeping the door stabilized in a single spot. All my remedy does is, primarily keep the door from OVER EXTENDING in both opening it and, in mildly gusty conditions, if we were away from the door and some gusts came out of nowhere.

Now, as for the construction/sewing of the strap(s), here's what I did. I knew how I wanted to make them. Primarily, a simple loop is sewn on each end. The length, from the tip of each loop, is determined by where the jamb side will be attached, to a point on the inside of the door, and no interference will take place.

A small, flat piece of metal, just long enough to slip through the loop, with a hole on each end, is what will secure each loop/end of each strap. The screws I used are called "Tech" screws. They are only about 3/8"-1/2" long and are self drilling with a Phillips head on them. Once the straps are all sewn up, AS CLOSE TO THE EXACT SAME LENGTH for all three, (if you use three), then I place the middle one, loop in hand, and flat piece of metal, in the door jamb where, it will not interfere with any closing of either door, the screen or the regular door.

I hold the loop and flat metal in place and with a screw gun, zap in one screw. Then, the other. Now, the one end is secured. This is where it becomes just a tad iffy. That door, as you've found out, IS HEAVY. And being that heavy, the leverage it can apply to that strap, is tremendous. So, you have to place that door in the 90 degree open position. Then, see where the other end of the strap sits. If you were to mark where it sits, in a relaxed state, guess what's gonna happen when the weight of the door, really hits that strap? It's gonna stretch that strap way beyond the 90 degree angle.

So, again, find 90 degrees open, then, pull it back towards closed, by a few degrees. It helps to have a helper for this step. The helper holds the door at less than 90 degrees while YOU, stretch that strap to as tight as you can by hand, all the while, holding the flat mounting metal in the loop against the mounting surface where it's to be mounted on. Mark that spot! Now, have your helper close the door a few more degrees which, will relax the strap as you screw the screws in to secure that end of that strap. You now have one strap mounted, at both ends.

You can test it to see how it turns into a guitar string with not too much effort as the door enters the 90 degree angle.

Now, time for either the upper, or lower strap. It is mounted exactly like the first one. The difference in procedure for this next strap is, you have to calculate where this next strap, will be tightening up, to match the existing one. In other words, you want the two to being to tighten up, at the same time so one is not doing more work than the other one. OK, that strap is mounted. Now, time for the third one. The procedure, the same. But again, do try and make sure that all three straps will tighten as close to the same time as possible so that all three, are taking the load of the door, equally.

But, once they're all installed, it's amazing how much less stress is put on the original junk door stay. And, by the way those straps are mounted/attached, they don't put any stress on the screen door or the plastic door panel at all. To me, it's a pretty simply but darned effective half-a$$ remedy for a poorly designed door retention system.

Another potential smart system that Winne should have thought of is an "Elbow" system. You know, two flat pieces of metal, attached with a pivot point in the middle. They could be attached at the top and, as the door would open, the elbow would open up to basically straight. And the door couldn't go any farther than 90 degrees, period. But, as you would attempt to start closing the door, the elbow would kink, and, it would fold together as the door is closed. The total thickness might be not more than say, about 3/16" or so. These types of restraints have been around for decades. Winne could have easily adapted this kind of restraint. Wonder why?
Scott

P.S. On edit: If you take a close look at the three straps sitting on my sewing table, you see the top one, is a hair longer than the other two. That was a SCREW UP! I ended up, cutting all the thread that sewed one end and resewed it so it ended up the same length as the other two.
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Old 01-18-2019, 07:06 PM   #15
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Impressive detail Fireup.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Flattery in progress.

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Old 01-20-2019, 06:36 PM   #16
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Hey Terry,
Thanks a great deal for the nice comments, glad to help. Mine is not, as state, the best remedy in this situation but, it at least helps in terms of protecting against over extension of the factory hinge/stay. Good luck.
Scott
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