Friction Hinge on Isata 3 - Too Much Friction?

[jneum525]

The friction hinge on our 2017 24FW Entry door seems to be getting harder and harder to open and close in the last several months. This morning it was around 50° and the door was really screeching and banging when I opened the door all the way.

Curious if others have had a similar problem and if there’s any place that I should be lubing up the hinge, although that seems counterproductive to the whole point of having a friction hinge in the first place?

Thanks

[Bill Davis]

Originally Posted by jneum525

The friction hinge on our 2017 24FW Entry door seems to be getting harder and harder to open and close in the last several months. This morning it was around 50° and the door was really screeching and banging when I opened the door all the way.

Curious if others have had a similar problem and if there’s any place that I should be lubing up the hinge, although that seems counterproductive to the whole point of having a friction hinge in the first place?

Thanks

Lube it. It will still have friction fit. I like dry lube for outside applications.

[jneum525]

Originally Posted by Bill Davis

Lube it. It will still have friction fit. I like dry lube for outside applications.

Thanks. Any particular brand you recommend?

[Bill Davis]

Originally Posted by jneum525

Thanks. Any particular brand you recommend?

Any brand, mine is 3 in 1 dry lock lube.

[jneum525]

Originally Posted by jneum525

The friction hinge on our 2017 24FW Entry door seems to be getting harder and harder to open and close in the last several months. This morning it was around 50° and the door was really screeching and banging when I opened the door all the way.

Curious if others have had a similar problem and if there’s any place that I should be lubing up the hinge, although that seems counterproductive to the whole point of having a friction hinge in the first place?

Thanks

As mentioned, the entry door had been getting harder and harder to open and attempts to lube the hinge had No success. Very difficult to spray the hinges where it can really penetrate into the shaft.

Had the MH out last week and went to open the door more than 90 degrees. As soon as I did, I heard a loud bang and all 3 screws that hold one of the hinge brackets to the door ripped out. Hard to tell in the pic, but the metal bracket in question actually bent quite a bit when the hinge seiged.

I guess the good news is, I found out which hinge (lower) was defective...

Called Lippert upon my return home to order a new hinge. On my '17 FW, the 2 middle hinges have the same configuration as do the 2 outer hinges. The only problem was that when my new lower hinge arrived, it was the same configuration as the 2 middle hinges.

Called Lippert and this is what I found:
1) The 2 middle hinges don't have any friction. Just the upper and lower hinges do.

2) Sometime after our door was manufactured by Lippert, they changed the design of the Friction hinges to match the same configuration as the middle hinges. Pic attached.

Just got done installing the new (lower) hinge. The holes for the top 3 brackets lined up, but I had to drill new holes for the lower brackets, due to the changed configuration. Also had to drill 2 holes in each of the three door jam brackets. Each door jam bracket only had one hole drilled in it from Lippert.

I had planned on using 3/16" steel pop rivets to match the original installation as much as possible, but couldn't find any at the local HD, so I just used screws. I plan to plug the old holes on the screen door, door jam and door that are no longer used due to the modified configuration of the new hinge. Will just use small pop rivets on those tomorrow when I have daylight again.

Pic 1) Pic from the Lippert website showing Original vs New design
Pic 2) My original lower hinge vs the replacement hinge (side by side)
Pic 3) Pic of middle (non-friction) hinge which has same configuration as the new friction hinge.
Pic 4) Pic of the old hinge with bent bracket
Pic 5) New hinge installed at bottom of the door.

Perhaps this will help others that may have the same problem with their friction hinges.

[pcsdpo]

We have a 2020 19.5 NoBo. Since it was new, the door has always been a problem closing. I'd had enough lately with no help from FR or Lippert so I took my own steps to "fix" the problem.
I documented the steps in:
https://www.forestriverforums.com/fo...me-240831.html
Post #8

I hope that helps. Note: my "fix" removes the "friction" in the hinges without removing them from the unit or having to replace them with "non-friction" hinges. Having too much friction any longer was a blessing and I'll live with the consequences of dealing with the PITA friction hinges.