Door Lock Problems

[Ron and Phyllis]

Door Lock problems

From the time I took delivery of my 2022 Elite #1209, the door has been difficult to latch.  It required too much force, especially for my wife.  I always lock it when we travel.  On two trips the door popped open.  On inspection the latch bolt barely engaged the strike plate.  I adjusted the strike plate sideways but could still jerk the door open.  To resolve the problem I had to grind out the opening in the aluminum door frame further and the horizontal screw hole openings in the strike plate allowing me to slide the strike plate further.  This solved the problem with the latch bolt. It never occurred to me to check the deadbolt as I just assumed it was engaging.  One evening I just locked the deadbolt and then easily pushed the door open.  When home, I placed a small amount of white paint on the end of the dead bolt latch and locked it.  As I expected, the dead bolt latch did not engage the strike place opening.   In fact, dead bolt was hitting the metal on the strike plate and not functioning at all. I could not reposition the strike plate because of the position of the opening in the doorframe.  I cut a square opening in the bottom of the opening in the strike plate and used the paint a time or two to insure that the dead bolt fully engaged the opening and no longer hit the strike plate. I could immediately tell that the deadbolt latch was in the opening and the door firmly locked. It was obvious that either the wrong strike plate was used at the factory or that they positioned it too high so both the latch bolt and deadbolt could not both go into the same opening. 

The photos show the paint marker on the end of the deadbolt latch, where it struck the strike plate, the square opening I had to cut into the strike plate to get the deadbolt to work properly.  I advise, especially new owners, to take a close look at the position of the door strike plate and insure that both bolts are engaging.

Happy travels,

Ron Williams

[Steph and Dud B]

Sloppy work at the factory. Our striker plate is also slightly misaligned, requiring a little extra push to fully engage. Elongating the screw slots is on my to-do list. Our electric lock was also improperly centered in the door opening, resulting in a water leak, damaged lock, and me adding a bead of sealant. 

[Rivernerd]

51 minutes ago, Ron and Phyllis said:

I advise, especially new owners, to take a close look at the position of the door strike plate and insure that both bolts are engaging.

Before we took delivery of Hull #1291 last November, I compiled a list of nearly 100 potential manufacturing defects reported by previous Oliver owners.  Strike plate misalignment was not one of them.  Fortunately for us, our door and latches were installed correctly.

Sorry you are the victim of poor door and strike plate installation.  Even though your DIY remedy was effective, I recommend you submit a service ticket, so the Oliver Service Department is advised of yet another sorry failure by the folks in the manufacturing department.  Kinda sucks when you pay so much for an Oliver, doesn't it?

Lest you feel unlucky, I have spent most of the last several days troubleshooting inverter issues, and sealing the external screw heads on the Truma air conditioner (after leakage)  in our 6-month-old Elite II (at Truma's recommendation).  Jason Essary has provided indispensable help with the electrical troubleshooting, and even initiated the Xantrex warranty case for me.  Our 3000 watt Xantrex inverter won't invert more than 1100 watts for more than a few minutes without shutting down, even when the batteries are at 100% State of Charge.  Although it is frustrating to experience such issues with a nearly new, and very expensive, trailer, Oliver's Service Department has provided invaluable service helping me isolate the source of the problem, and pursue warranty relief.

It appears to me that quality control in Oliver's production facility remains unacceptable for such a premium product.  But, Oliver's Service Department, and particularly Jason Essary, continue to effectively counterbalance those oversights with exemplary customer service after you take delivery.

[MAX Burner]

1 hour ago, Rivernerd said:

and particularly Jason Essary, continue to effectively counterbalance those oversights with exemplary customer service after you take delivery.

That is good to know!  Jason always seems to be on top of the issue...  Thanks for sharing.  Informative.

[Steph and Dud B]

7 hours ago, Rivernerd said:

It appears to me that quality control in Oliver's production facility remains unacceptable for such a premium product.

I agree. We have had a larger number of defects in our trailer than I expected at this price point. More, in fact, than our previous trailers. 

7 hours ago, Rivernerd said:

Oliver's Service Department, and particularly Jason Essary, continue to effectively counterbalance those oversights with exemplary customer service

Also agree, mostly. Service has been excellent at sending me parts that I needed to perform repairs, and at coordinating service with appropriate national/local vendors as needed.  However, our trip to Hohenwald for warranty service last month did not go as well as expected. I fear both the manufacturing facility and service department are still having trouble maintaining the higher product output. 

[Tom and Doreen]

11 hours ago, Rivernerd said:

Our 3000 watt Xantrex inverter won't invert more than 1100 watts for more than a few minutes without shutting down, even when the batteries are at 100% State of Charge. 

I won't hijack this post but I just wanted to mention that we have the same issue. The issue being that there is a significant voltage drop across the supply line from the battery to the inverter which includes the Optifuse  circuit breaker, the Optifuse being the largest contributor.  The Optifuse seems to have a significant 'on' resistance which becomes increasingly significant as the load increases.  This causes the voltage that's seen at the inverter input terminals to be less than what's actually measured at the battery terminals by a significant amount. On my system  with a 1600W load the voltage seen at my battery terminals is 12.78V whereas the voltage seen at the input to the Xantrex inverter is 12.2, that's a .58V drop!   With the Xantrex LBCO setting set to 12.1V any increase in load will cause a LBCO shutdown when in fact the voltage at the battery is well within specification.  Curiously Optifuse does not publish an 'on' resistance specification for their part.  It could be that the circuit breaker is 'bad' or it could be that the 'on' resistance specification that they manufacture to is too wide, it's hard to know since they don't publish that specification.  In contrast the circuit breaker that Lithionics specifies does publish an 'on' resistance specification and it's very good at .000125 ohms; with a 1600w / 126A load that's a drop of only .015V. 

[JEssary]

Hey Ron,

Another Oliver owner reached out to me about your issue and provided this post. I apologize that you had this issue.

Looking at the pictures it looks like the striker plate is on upside down which was stopping the deadbolt from engaging at all. Do you know if the deadbolt has ever worked since you picked up the camper from delivery day? Looking at the white piece inside the door, it looks like the striker plate has been flipped at some point as the white piece is installed as a background so you don't see the inside of the door frame.

 

.

[Rivernerd]

1 hour ago, Tom and Doreen said:

In contrast the circuit breaker that Lithionics specifies does publish an 'on' resistance specification and it's very good at .000125 ohms; with a 1600w / 126A load that's a drop of only .015V.

What circuit breaker does Lithionics specify for use with a 3000 watt inverter?  I have searched, but not yet found a reference.  I may replace the Optifuse and see if that resolves the issue.  And, I will start a new post on the Xantrex inverter issue, as this is a thread drift, yet others may benefit from the information posted.