Help--stepper door broken on Coleman Utah!

[labontefan]

I have a 2002 Coleman Utah. For those of you familiar with the Coleman/Fleetwood stepper door, you know that there are two metal strips (brackets?) hinged together with a rivet on either side of the door. These unfold when you open the stepper door and support it when it is being used as a step.

On the last camping trip, as I was stepping out of the camper onto the step, the rivet on the right side sheared off allowing that side of the step to drop. Fortunately, we were on a slight hill and the door was on the upper end so the step was only 2-3 inches off the ground. I blocked up that side of the step with a couple of long pieces of wood and it worked fine the rest of the trip.

I figured the repair would consist of simply getting the rivet replaced, BUT....

Apparently, when the one side of the door dropped down originally, it warped the door slightly. I didn't realize it until we were packing up to leave. When I closed the stepper door, I discovered the latch would not turn. One of the tongues of metal that come out to hold the door in place when you turn the latch was protruding slightly from the side that broke and was obviously bent. I didn't want to try and force the latch and possibly damage it further, so I used about half a roll of duct tape to hold the door closed until we could get home. (What would we do without duct tape?? :rolleyes: )

My question--is this something that can be repaired or do you think it will be necessary to replace the whole door? I'm thinking my best bet is to take it to the dealer. Not sure I want to tackle this myself.

Any and all advice gratefully appreciated!

[tlhdoc]

You can repair it yourself.  The bars in the door can be replaced.  You will need to drill all of the rivets out of the door to take it apart.  The rivet that broke (I have to replace mine each year) is a tub rivet.  I have only found them in a small hardware store and haven't found steel rivets that are big enough.  I make do with the smaller rivet and replace it when it breaks.  Good luck on fixing the door.