Walt's Corner

TLDR? This is your paragraph. Drill out the old rivets. Fill in holes with some type of sealant – I used regular old kitchen/bathroom silicone caulking. Mark your new pilot holes, drill and enlarge holes to fit your well nuts. Secure latch to the RV. You may want to bend the arm of the latch so that it is not resting on your RV wall when not being used. The bumper stopper that prevents the door from slamming open into your wall may need to be shortened to reduce stress on your wall when catch is being used. Links to parts are listed at the end.

The latch that holds the RV door open finally finished disintegrating. That cheap, white plastic that just crumbles after a couple years of being exposed to the elements. It did last longer than I thought it would. 9 years. I’m not complaining.

I chose a more sturdy catch for the replacement. Amazon link to it at the bottom.

Original catch was riveted to the door and wall. Thought I might get away with simply drilling out the old ones and putting in new rivets. Nope. Admittedly I am no rivet expert. Matter of fact, I have only used rivets once before and that was for the metal slide rails under the slide-out. Turns out the rivets I had were too small.

A trip to Lowe’s gave me much larger aluminum rivets. Those worked but not really. Any heavy load and they began pulling out. Last ditch effort was to use some well nuts. I knew they would work. I used them to secure the solar panels to the roof and I had a fresh stock pile on hand to install the 4th and final solar panel. If I ever need any nuts or bolts that I can’t source locally, Bolt Depot is my go-to website. These worked perfectly.

You may want to unscrew the rubber bumper that prevents the door from slamming open into your wall and make it a bit shorter. The shorter length of the new catch means the door will sit closer to your wall putting some pressure on that bumper. What’s really going on is that bumper is pushing the door open even harder, causing unnecessary stress on your RV wall and door.

One more note – these well nuts provide a great seal, no need to seal more around IMO especially since they are on the side. If using them on my roof I’d throw some self-leveling sealant over them as a general precaution. If you feel better throwing a line of sealing around the edges, by all means seal that baby up.

Parts list:
Stainless steel, spring loaded self closing
Well nuts, EPDM rubber with brass insert, #10-32
Flange bolts, Full thread, Serrated, Zinc plated grade 5 steel, #10-32