Mike(?)
Had that problem on my 39c. I called four winds a couple of years ago. Basically what you are hearing is correct. What I did was install longer self taping screws that were thicker as well. I was trying to get thru both sides of the steel. I ran the screws through some jb weld then in. Trim peels off with a screw driver inserted down the middle. It will never be right again and you will need new trim.
My best guess as why this happens is the door is too far forward on passenger side. There's maybe a foot or so to the right before the f750 cab. The heavy cabover bunk bounces around as you drive and torques the passenger side wall as it buckles and moves with the road. Later models have gone to a mid door design further back so I guess four winds figured something out. They were not copping to it when I phoned. Btw I used flat hex head bolts to rest against the fiberglass. You don't want to crack that. Drill that first b4 your bolts to the frame. Been some time but I remember using an impact wrench and they went in like a hot knife into butter. Used lowest setting then tightened by hand to where I sensed was about to strip.
I just spoke to someone that works at an RV repair shop that I've been using for nearly a decade. He said the strip will be destroyed, but you just grab it an peel it away. He said he uses Channel Lock pliers, because he ends up moving them around so much. I told him I was worried that doing this would damage the part left on the RV and make it hard to install the replacement trim piece. He said it's never done that yet.
So, I'll be ripping the trim off soon.
Thanks for all the feedback, everyone! and especially cbigham, since you have the same rig and already went through this problem! Oh, and the guy at the shop said that this isn't that uncommon. He said they usually put a silicon caulk in between the pieces before re-attaching, just to keep water out. I'm going to use some sort of adhesive though, since it will both keep the water out as well as help the screws.
Mike
2004 Four Winds Fun Mover 39C (39' including 14' toy hauler garage)
Cat 3126E 300hp Allison MD3066P Pics of the FunMover
You can see the joint in the piano hinge, and that the trim extends past it, so I cut the trim with a dremel so I could remove the entire piano hinge. Don't cut the trim right above the seam in the piano hinge, move it down at least a little.
Turns out the fender isn't attached the same way, so I couldn't remove the piano hinge from it, and had to leave the piano hinge attached
It swung down enough to get to the screw heads
Small metal spacers in the rail keep the doors from rubbing on each other
Pulled one of the screws out. #14x2 1/4" plymetal head TEK 3 self drilling sheet metal screw with combo Phillips/square drive
The whole side needs new screws
Nice gap where the wall (top) separated from the floor (bottom)
It turns out that finding equivalent screws is very difficult. They are available in lengths up to 1 1/2", but that means the threads won't reach through the aluminum wall rail. I tried an RV dealer and an RV repair place, and they had no suggestions other than calling Four Winds.
So, I tried calling Thor Motorcoach (Four Winds merged with Daemon to become Thor Motorcoach). The parts department lady was really not interested in helping. When I kept asking, she finally said she works in parts, she's not a tech. I finally asked who they buy screws from, and she gave me the phone number for Global Link. I called them up, and I think it took about 10 minutes for the whole thing, including trading the credit card info! Awesome!
Here's a pic of the invoice, as well as a new screw and what it's replacing:
Hope I do not need to do this project. Did you find replacement cover yet?
I was in Elkhart last spring. Stopped at several RV surplus parts stores. Bought a 5 lbs bag of those screws.
Ok, finished with the hard parts. Jacking the wall up and pushing it to the floor ended up being quite easy.
I found out the hard way, that if you drive a screw in, it threads itself into the wall rail, and then into the floor's steel rail. If the two rails aren't up against each other, this is bad...it hold the wall out away from the floor.
To get around this, since I had no way to clamp the wall to the floor rail, I pre-drilled through the wall rail (9/32 drill bit) and then let the screw drill into the floor rail like it was supposed to. I also counter-sunk the screw heads, since I didn't want them sticking out past the gel-coat and causing issues with the piano hinge. For that, I used a 9/16 bit.
At the front, I put in four screws where there had only been two:
After getting them all tightened up, I added the sealant to the piano hinge and re-attached it:
I'll clean up the excess after it cures. The stuff I used has a "3-hour before rain" window, and I was lucky enough to get done about 5 hours before the rain started.
After re-mounting the door, it's all buttoned up and is now back just about back to normal:
I'll get the trim next week, or maybe just have the shop install it and clean up the sealing job.
All in all, this was a whole lot more stressful than it was hard. If I would have had the screws available, this could have been a long one-day job; would have been easy as a 2-day task.
I hope nobody else has to go through this, but if you do, it's really not that hard.
Yeah, I think the hardest part was solving the issue. And of course, you've done that... and don't a great job documenting your solution. Hopefully the appropriate keywords are in here so the next guy can find the thread easily.
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