Door problem with Burro

[James Bar.]

Greetings all,
A few years back we purchased an 83, Burro 13 which is generally in fairly good condition. (our first experience with a trailer). The door has the original hinges, handle and lock. The striker plate had been changed. There appeared to be no support for the door which means that all road vibrations are transmitted to the hinges. The hinges were secured to the door and body by only moderate sized phyllips head wood screws that screwed into wood encapsulated in the fiberglass. Clearly this arrangment was not adiquit and the screws were pulling out of the body. My first fix was to through-bolt the hinges to thick aluminum plates inside. Next, I've cobbled up a door suport that prevents up and down movement of the door when closed. (I noticed that the door changes position slightly depending on temperature and attitude of the trailer, so I allow almost a half inch of movment.) So far this has solved the problem. If the wood screws securing the hinges to the door begin to pull out I may try to also through-bolt them. Though the door is quite light in weight it seems the original securing wasn't adequit. I'd be interested hearing whether others have had this problem and how they solved. Here in Fairbanks, Alaska there are no other owners around.
Also, The dry hitch weight, over 200 pounds, seemed excessive. So, I moved the battery to the back bumper dropping it down to about 160 which still seems a little high.
Thanks for any comments, James

[Gina D.]

Hi James,

I had the same problem with mine. The door actually fell off both it's hinges. Luckily, the striker held it on!

A friend helped me. He cut the fiberglass with a dremel tool from the outside, at the hingemounts. Inside wood was dust. Literally.. the wood had rotten into nothing.

He cut out decent wood, encapsulated it and then sealed the holes up using the cut out fiberglass pieces and glassed over that. Sanded.. done.

[CindyL]

If I understand you correctly, I might add that our Burro door is through-bolted and works that way. It was a bit off-center when we got the Burro, but Kevin fixed that.

CindyL