I have a 183 Shamrock Hybrid... it came with a 16" baggage door on the left rear, which allowed some storage space on that side in the rear of the trailer. I typically keep the electrical cords and water hose back there... it seemed that if I had long enough arms I could have used the right side of this storage space also. Lacking the ability to grow longer arms, I instead decided to try my hand at installing another baggage door on the right side.
I ordered an identical 16" baggage door from RV Parts Nation... link below
RV Baggage Doors
After some time, I received my baggage door, but put it aside until the weather cooled. This weekend I tackled the project. I should have taken pictures, but I didn't. However I will describe what I did if any have interest in doing this mod.
1. I measured the position of the baggage door on the left in reference to where it was from the left side and the bottom of the rear section.
2. I used masking tape and masked off a larger area on the right side, to mirror image the left.
3. I then held up the new baggage door to the masked area, and drew an outline of the door on the tape. I used more masking tape to hold the door in position while I did this, although a helper could have worked better.
4. I remeasured just to make sure I was at the right spot. I also looked thru the existing door into the area on the right to make sure there were no wires or water lines running where I was about to cut.
5. I drilled a 5/16" hole as a starting point for a jig saw. I then jig sawed on the outside of the outline I drew with a Sharpie pen. The wall thickness is nearly two inches so I used a 4" narrow jig saw blade, about 12 tooth per inch on the saw blade... I did not want to splinter the fiberglass and this did a great job cutting.
6. The Sharpie line on the masking tape was easy to follow and the masking tape on the surface of the fiberglass prevented any marring of the fiberglass from the base of the saw.
7. The cutout section fell away and I was left with a nice smooth hole to mount the new baggage door. I used a 2x4 block and some 80 grit sandpaper to smooth the edge where the cut line met with the drilled hole.
8. After a test fit, I used some caulk around the new door frame and inserted it into the cutout hole. I used a couple of C-clamps in the door opening to put some pressure on the door while the caulk setup.
9. I then went to the hardware store to purchase some white screws to screw in the frame just as they did at the factory. I needed qty 6, inch long coarse thread screws screwed into pre-drilled holes into the frame (just sightly larger than the screw diameter), stopping just short of penetrating the exterior wall. I lightly screwed the screws into the wall, then backed them out and dabbed some caulk in the hole and re-screwed them in. You can not be too aggressive screwing these in as you are only going into fiberglass backed by 1/4" luan plywood then Styrofoam.
A catalog picture of the door I purchased is below.
This was a fairly easy job taking less than an hour to accomplish. The hardest part was measuring for accuracy. If you cut your new door opening just outside of the Sharpie line you draw using the new baggage door as a template, you can obtain a nice tight fit for the new door frame in the hole you just cut.
On the inside of the new storage area, I zip tied tied up some electrical wires and connections to the back wall, and encased the plastic water pipes running on the floor in that rear area with foam pipe insulation you buy in 6 foot sections at the hardware store, just to give the pipes some small protection from anything rubbing on them while in transit.
One thing I quickly noticed, is that with both doors open there is much more available light in there to see where things are.
If anyone needs further description or details that I can help with, feel free to PM me.
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