Rockwood 8280 Door Gas Strut Breaks

[robsshots]

Boy, we love our Rockwood 8280S. 2015 model, with a one-step upgrade. Everything has worked great until this week. Seems the door gas strut will not stay screwed into the door. What engineering genius figured that claptrap del-tapping screw-in design would hold…well he should come out here and fix our door. Two screws now holding it together, third one has lost all traction. Now what?

Anyone got a good permanent fix? I'm about to go down to Ace and get a slightly larger screw as a temp fix, but those screws need to come through the door frame and have a nut and washer on it to hold that thing together.

This has to be a design flaw…anyone else out there dealing with this?

[OldCoot]

A picture might help. Is it loose on the door or the side wall?

I moved both my anchor points 2-1/2" closer to the door hinge, used 3/16" pop rivets on the door anchor and thru bolted the side wall anchor and it has held for 3 years and the nice part is that with the anchor points moved, the door swings open over 90° and when the door is within about 6"-8" the strut helps close the door. It misses the awning strut by about 1-1/2"-2" also.

[Fivealive]

I also used 3/16 pop rivets. Three seasons later they are still holding tight. I have yet to find anything that is permanent!

[steve819]

My dealer has fixed dozens of these. Mine came apart about five months after we bought it. The problem is at the factory they use an air gun to drive the screws in to the door, and they over tighten them thus stripping the threads in the soft aluminum door skin. My dealer makes a small steel plate that he rivets onto the door, and than mounts the gas strut end onto it. It is all painted black, and looks and works great.

[Stormrider151]

Mine did that on my hybrid. I just removed it before it did any real damage. Never missed it.